Transcendentalism & Education
The process of education is the understanding the world around you, the cultivation of good reasoning and judgment, and the development of an identity. In today’s world, education is geared towards raising children who will be capable of advancing America and preserving its historic background.
Education has become a race, a competition, in which there is no time to stop and ponder- no time to think about what you’re doing. It’s just speeding through each day, each year never understanding the true meaning of the lessons being taught. It’s memorizing facts and spitting them on to a piece of paper on test day; it’s using mathematical shortcuts who derivation is a mystery; it’s reading Shakespeare on Sparknotes; it’s analyzing the minute details and missing out on the big picture. It is a waste of time and energy and has no purpose beyond the classroom. Real education is enriching the mind and soul with understanding of the world around you, and discovering and fulfilling your purpose in life.
Real education is giving each human being the power of being an individual. Real education is extinct in today’s “real” world. Today’s “real” world is all about materialism and corruption. Today’s “real” world is about fitting in and following the trends society fixes. We blindly walk into the trap being set by society, but we are never conscious of what we are doing.
We all have our own purpose in this world. We were all born to revolutionize some aspect of the world. We were born to be great. By listening to our inner-selves regularly and putting aside society’s beliefs and religion, we will all become aware of our potential. Instead we choose to side with society. Society has this rule: to be accepted, you have to fit a specific mold.
Any other extra pieces you have will be shaved off when you enter society. So the individual squeezes into the mold, and society removes the extras that don’t fit the mold. Once removed, the “extras”- the pieces of you society decided to get rid of- vanish. The “extras” are your potential, your individuality, and your inner-self. From now on, you will obey the laws of society.
You will do what is says to do without giving a second thought. From the moment we enter society, we loose ourselves- our individuality. How can we be identified if we lose our individuality? It can be likened to locating a house whose street is known, but its house number not. We are forced to conform- to act the same, to speak the same, to know the same, and to think the same. We are “educated” by instructors who simply give us facts, which we are in return responsible for memorizing. We do not go beyond the process of memorization; we take in the knowledge without challenging it and we memorize it without understanding its context in the real world.
Real education and the learning of the soul are matters that are out aside in today’s society. To be truly educated, we must take the initiative to explore the world, make observations, invest our efforts in a cause, and make a difference in the world. We should not be forced to learn, for it is useless if we have no desire to learn. We should learn material of practical use, which we can apply to life. We should be taught how to look at life in various perspectives- not tested on the memorization of others’ opinions.
There is no end to education, for there is always room to learn more, to teach more, and to experience more. There is no stopping until you have fulfilled your ultimate goal in life. We must work hard and persevere to accomplish what we have been assigned to do by the Lord Almighty. But the first step in achieving the goal is realizing what it is. One must be educated on the process of listening to the inner-self and training the sould to find the bigger picture. Those who we consider great have accomplished their purpose in life.
Only a small portion of people achieve greatness because they do not have the education necessary. The many who have conformed to society’s method of education have lost their chance to achieve greatness.
