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2. Its a miracle that curiosity survives formal education (Albert Einstein). Discuss.

Curiosity is a quality we are born with. It compels us to engage with the world around us; to ask questions, to search for answers, to communicate and to connect. This natural inquisitiveness imbues us with a constant appetite for knowledge, and it is with education that we can begin to satiate this desire.

In my opinion, it is no miracle that curiosity survives formal education today. In fact, I would argue that formal education promotes and propels curiosity, cultivating in students a rich awareness of the possibilities which come with knowledge. In my personal experience, I have found formal education stimulating and inspiring, acting like a catalyst for learning, and inciting me to seek answers. Education has nurtured my sense of curiosity, and inspired it to grow, rather than see the death of it.

In Professor Einsteins day, those finding themselves struggling in flawed systems of education were less fortunate. Amidst a backdrop of World War II, Nazism in Germany, the Depression in America, and general early twentieth century austerity, it is hardly surprising that Einstein saw education as the crippling of individuals. In a speech on Education and Socialism, given by Einstein in the 1930s, he claims that through formal education

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an exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career1. Einstein was vehemently against imposing authoritative discipline on students, and rather believed in the importance of teaching students how to think for themselves. He maintained that in the climate of the 1930s formal education system, students were taught how to answer questions rather than how to ask them. It seems clear to me that educating to such ends would rob even the most knowledge-hungry student of his or her curiosity. But luckily for us, times have changed, and education has evolved radically.

In Ireland today, education is based around the needs of people, rather than in adherence to a strict regime. It comes in a variety of guises, and formal education tends to mould itself into the requirements of individuals, rather than existing as one dictatorial unit. Contemporary formal education comes in the shape of Universities, Schools and Colleges, but also through a network of night classes, day courses, and even distance learning arrangements. Formal education is accessible and integral, and built around the needs of those who wish to engage with it. Formal education actively seeks to broaden horizons and develop opportunities for people. Through what is taught inside the classroom, and through the management of the organizational structures surrounding formal education, we are lucky to have a
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Albert Einstein, Speech on Education and Socialism, 1930

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system in place which succeeds in feeding curiosity, rather than quelling it.

There are many types of learning and knowledge. There is knowledge as objective fact, knowledge based in subjective experience, procedural knowledge, constructed knowledge, cognitive, spatial and creative knowledge, the list is endless. What is remarkable about the education system today is that each different level or mode of knowledge is recognized and acknowledged. The system seems open to investigating change, to new experimental ideas and innovative endeavors. Much has

changed since the 1930s, and advances in approaches to techniques of formal education have progressed beyond recognition.

Think of a bean sprout. This bean sprout can be explained to a curious child in a variety of ways. One approach may be to photograph the sprout, and sit the child in front of this image, instructing him or her to learn off the technical words for every part of that seed and plant. The child will undoubtedly grow bored and frustrated, and understand little of what he or she is rote learning. In an alternative method, (a method more akin to those widely used in todays more evolved system of education), the child may be given a seed, and taught to sow it. The child can then learn about the plant by actively watching it sprout and grow. This is an excellent way of imparting knowledge as the childs curiosity is fostered in a way that leads towards

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learning, and the childs knowledge is allowed to grow alongside the little sprout. This is one of the ways in which a good educational system can work: by finding means of imparting wisdom through inspiring our inquisitive nature, rather than providing us with second hand facts and figures, the course to which we have not understood.

Education today is as much about culture, understanding, awareness and questioning as it is about formal facts and figures. Despite flaws within the current structure of postprimary assessment (such as the notorious and often criticized points system), the wider scale of formal education in Ireland offers a very broad curriculum which caters for a growing number of demands among the population. New and innovative modes of teaching excel in stimulating and cultivating peoples curiosity, fuelling their imaginations, and encouraging learning on many levels.

It was W. B. Yeats who once said Education is not filling a bucket, but lighting a fire. If formal education is the flame, then curiosity is the fuel. For me, the two go hand in hand. I hope never to lose my sense of curiosity. It serves me like a compass, directing me down all sorts of routes. I admit that it is brave to disagree with Einstein, but in this case I feel I must. Indeed, if Einstein were alive today, he may even disagree with himself.