“Education is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance”

When a child is born, it is a pure soul, totally ignorant of the worldly social affairs. Child learns from his surroundings, to
grow, to survive and to make decisions. This may be called natural education. Later, systematic education is given in
schools, colleges and many other institutions made for the purpose of making the child competent to pursue various
occupations. With, passing time the children are able to differentiate between the right and wrong. Some, children even fear
their ‘shadow’ but when their ignorance is removed, then they appreciate the role of education, through which they came to
know that ‘ shadow’ is just a dark portion, which is formed due to impeding sun rays by their body.

‘Ignorance’ – How far is it true

What is ignorance? What is humankind ignorant of, which needs to be corrected through education? And, is the ignorance,
that a specific section shows is absolute and true in nature or is it just relative to other sections of humankind?

To answer these, the following examples may help. Many South Asian countries have populations that love to eat ‘Dog
meat’. But, in western countries ‘Dogs’ are not eaten, but domesticated and loved. So, according to many western people,
the people who eat ‘Dogs’ are barbaric, inhuman and uncivilized in nature. Similar, case could be taken of ‘cow meat’. Cow
is sacred for ‘Hindus’, but its meat is a delicacy in western countries. So, are western people ‘barbaric’ too!!

There are stories that countries have fought wars on the question of breaking egg from the ‘narrower base’ or ‘wider base’.
Now, when we think about this case, we are amazed that people could be so ignorant that they fight on such petty issues.

In 18th century France and its neighbouring countries had quite unique notion of beauty. Women had to wear special
costumes, which were so tight at neck that they suffocated in it. Their waist was tightened by belts to keep it narrow. Gowns
were heavy and huge, with a long cloth dragging on floor tied to it. Men also wore similar tight clothes. But, since this
tradition was notion of beauty, so people practiced it. Now, we know that how ignorant they were about their notion of beauty
which was affecting their health. How we know this and not them? Has education or study of history or medical science
played any role in it?

Let’s take another example of ignorance. In, Ancient Rome, ‘Gladiator’ fights were a big mode of entertainment, in which
people enjoyed the fights done in ‘Arena’. But, what was the speciality of such fights? Well, it was the participants, who were
slave ‘humans’ and crowd cheered on such fights, where human blood was flown and humans were killed. They had no
mercy for their own species. Today we condemn both slavery and bloodshed.

We can also take example of ‘Sati’ where widowed women were forced to burn, in their husband’s pyre. Women were
thought also be second to man, and were responsible for domestic works. Today, when we see women working and
succeeding in every field as man, then can we call the former generation as ignorant? Isn’t this was taught to them in
society.

Everyone knows about, World War-2 and the destruction and suffering it brought to the world. It was based on the Nazi
propaganda, which thought a specific race ‘Aryans’ as superior and other races ‘inferior’. This was systematically taught to
the people and through which Nazi party got a wide following. Holocaust of ‘Jews’ was done through this propaganda.

So, all the above examples do confuse me that; “What is absolute ignorance”? Many of the above societies were on high
educational levels; still they had some very wrong perceptions, through which such extreme positions were taken.

Then, after a little introspection, the answer becomes obvious. The answer lies in my education. What am I taught now, or
had been taught throughout my college, school, and kindergarten or through society, parents, peers and elders. It was they
who taught me what is right and what is wrong?

But, this makes me worried, because all things that are taught to you may not be absolutely right. Nazi education, Sati,
Caste system etc. are some of examples where education provided was detrimental to the society. Thus, ‘Ignorance’ can be
called our limited rationality. We need to look into various sources and knowledge available, and judge out what is the best
for humankind and society. Education is just a medium to help us take the right decision.

Progressive Discovery of Ignorance and Roll of Education:-

People living in Germany were ignorant about the bad aspects of ‘Nazi propaganda’ but, today all German people condemn
and hate Nazi rule and Hitler.

In India, ‘Sati’ was a common custom in some parts, but people like ‘Raja Ram Mohun Roy’ fought against it and were
successful in abolishing it. ‘Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’ fought for ‘girl education’ and ‘widow remarriage’. Our freedom
struggle is filled with examples, where people fought against social evil practices such as untouchability, casteism,
communalism, superstitions etc. These people are known as ‘reformers’.

But, how these ‘reformers’ were able to differentiate between right and wrong? Here, comes the role of education. These,
people came in contact with modern western ideas, which condemned slavery, exploitation and were critical to equality of
men and women. Then many great reformers looked back towards Indian society and were able to rationalise how the
spiritual religious texts were manipulated and resulted in backward Indian society. Thus, through education they were able to
reform the society.

We have examples of many great people, who changed the course of history, through their ‘independent’ and ‘pioneering’
ideas. We know ‘Karl Marx’ who gave the ‘communist’ and ‘socialist’ ideals to the world, which had a huge and profound
impact on many countries. It were these ideals which led to communist rule in a large part of the world.
Then, we know about many religious leaders such as ‘Gautama Buddha’, ‘Mahavira’, ‘Jesus’, and ‘Mohammad’ which gave
new direction and thought to the world. Culture, religion, freedom, piety, commerce, rationalism, philosophy, industrialization
are many fields that had some independent thinker who added and contributed to the growth of education and also removed
previous misconceptions thus effectively reducing ignorance from this world.

Thus, we see that humankind is evolving and many new dimensions keep on adding to the education system, and the level
of ignorance keeps on reducing. Humankind is ignorant in those areas, which it has no knowledge or false knowledge, but
further discovery through educational system helps him to become more rational.

Conclusion :-

Education has a deep impact on the life of humans. It is through education, that humans are able to think about the
righteousness and wrongness of their acts. Education empowers them to shed out their ‘wrong beliefs’ which were right due
to lack of education. Thus education also helps them in ‘self-discovery and introspection, through which new ideas are
generated. These ideas further refine the base of education. Education system preserves and passes the knowledge from
one generation to the other, and with each successive ‘discovery’ the ‘ignorance’ level drops and knowledge base of
humans increase. Thus, Will Durant has rightly said that “Education is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance”.