Education!!!!

Well a lot of us call ourselves educated. But have we ever wondered what exactly does this term educated means. Does having couple of degrees means educated or does being to just able to read and write means educated.

what I am trying to tell is, we call ourselves educated but yet educated people around us give and take dowry. ( If only you knew how much would an IAS or an IPS officer costs these days….. according to some news channels its somewhere around 1 crore; man..I would rather stay unmarried than pay that amount). Few educated people would spit on the road especially where it says don’t spit. I know highly educated people who would give the same Maa Ben gaalis as beggar or a drunkard on the street would. Then there are few who would still smoke knowing the hazards of smoking. A few educated individuals have filed PIL in the court to find out the sex of their baby as they want a boy after two girls and their defense is - what’s wrong in having a boy after two girls. How are the above mentioned educated individuals different from the uneducated people who give and take dowry, smoke beedis, kill female fetuses etc.

So according to me education today solves only one purpose and that is just to get us some kind of a job. As a society and as educated individuals we have a lot of growing up to do. We need to find a higher purpose for education. The one that not only gives jobs but also helps us in becoming better individuals and the one that will make us respect human beings as they are irrespective of age, race, religion, gender…

I have a maid who lives some where in Mankhurd and has two children who go to school. Even my kids will eventually go to school. Twenty years hence both set of kids will be supposedly educated. So what will be difference between them? The difference should be in upbringing. I am educated and my maid is not. I need to make my children better and responsible individuals.

Once at my previous work place we were having this discussion on some movie which highlighted the apathy of how the females fetuses are being killed. One of my colleagues who had growing up boys aged 15 and 13 said..oh this is something I need to talk to my children about. After further discussion I came to know that whenever she would come across such issues she would jot down points so that she can discuss it with her children. She was more of a friend to them than a mother. Now that is what we should be doing as educated individuals. We need to talk to and sensitize our children about various issues, be it cancer, HIV/AIDS, pollution etc. We need to make them civilized more than any thing else.

I am sure many of you think that education will solve most of the yesteryear problems. But friends think again we also need to change in our mentality towards humanity as a whole.