I like this quote: "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!" I think it sums up the essentiality of education.

But I also think the following quote captures the essence of the true purpose of education better than anything else I have ever seen or heard. "The true purpose of education is to cherish and unfold the seed of immortality already sown within us; to develop, to their fullest extent, the capacities of every kind with which the God who made us has endowed us."

I believe that this belief has to be central to the philosophy of education. Let me crystallize the four key messages of this quote as I see it.

1. Education has to be a tool in the process of revealing the true destiny for every person. It should aid in self-realization. Every being on this earth is born with a purpose. The work of the being on this earth is to decode that divine purpose and fulfill it. The true purpose of education is to provide the environment and the guidance needed on this road to self-discovery. It has to be a process of uncovering the inner calling and free up the path for the person to progress in accordance to his inner nature and latent potentials.
2. The goal of education has to serve the purpose of moving the individual along on the road to independence. Education is a progressive acquiring of independence so that the individual is fully equipped to go in search of his destiny. The purpose of education should be to help the individual be independent and self-reliant. Every human being is born with the capacity for exploring and learning. Education has to be a process of enabling this journey of discovery. When education sets the right conditions, a person's inner drive and curiosity will spontaneously propel the way forward in the journey of exploration and education.
3. Education has to lay emphasis on the overall development of the personality as against mere information gathering and skills building. The end result of education should be self-reliance, self-esteem and self-confidence. When the education system creates this in the individual, the individual can take care of everything else.
4. The purpose of education has to be to nourish the universal and innate imprints that every person is born with. Every person is born with some enduring, recurring and universal human tendencies of exploration, adaptation, orientation, reasoning, abstraction and analysis. These human tendencies have served humanity very well since the stone ages and have contributed enormously towards the advance of man in all aspects. If preserved and allowed to flourish, they will further serve mankind well by helping him leverage on what he has already learnt and break further ground for the universal good. One of the purposes of education should be to nurture these human tendencies and allow them to bloom so as to serve the destiny of the individual and through the individual, the world at large.

In essence, the purpose of education is to help an individual lead a life that is in perfect harmony with his destiny. If every person were able to live this way, the world would be a better place.

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