The Meaningful Education Second Part

Friends,

Education is the best weapon to change the world, Nelson Mandela.

Human activity has also been seen as the expression of a universal

creativity immanent in everything that exists.

According to A.N. Whitehead, this creativity is rhythmic or cyclical.

This creativity, says Whitehead, is ceaselessly producing novelties.

These novelties are of two kinds:

In one sense, any existing thin must continually renew itself in order to

exist at all. If it is to maintain itself as it is, it must constantly replace

its own components. Each of these components is both similar to its

antecedent yet also unique because not identical to it.

Creativity, then, both maintain what already exists and also produces

new forms altogether. the process of education reflects the creativity of the

universe as a whole. Thus according to Whitehead, education so

rhythmic, moving in cycles, each of which passes through its own

stages of romance i.e. the first enthusiastic encounter with a subject,

precision in which order and system are introduced' generalisation

in which the students have mastered the structure of his subject,

can put it to a wider use. Just as everything in nature ceaselessly

creates itself so the learner is continuously realising his nature.

He has an innate craving for education precisely because of education

so necessary for the development of an organism as complicated

as a man. Education is not something foreign to the learner but

rather something that he inherently desires and the best type

of education is nothing if it does not inspire independent,

original and hence creative thinking. Education is the response

to the challenge of the cosmic creative force. A response must an

equal challenge, otherwise, the individual and hence the society must face

stagnation, decay and disintegration. Independent, original thinking and

creativity manifest themselves in many ways in education.

The child has an inborn passion for discovery, which education

should nourish. Instead of simply receiving knowledge

passively form his teacher and the textbooks, he should

recombine what he learns in ways of his own. If knowledge

is accepted as given, it remains inert and at the same time

deadens natural imagination.

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