Welcome (back)! My discussion on education will take us today to Mandela’s thoughts on the subject…
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- Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)
As with Einstein, the life and works of this world leader of global peace and harmony are also surrounded by studies to such broad and comprehensive scope that I see no need to revisit those areas within the context of my essay. In fact, Mandela is known beyond any significant gaps of information that a collection of his statements on education will suffice to help us remember his intelligence and timeless vitality on global scale.
[Photo: Reuters]
With his assertion that twins with Plutarch’s, the following Mandela announcement needs no interpretation:
There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children (Valerie Strauss, “Nelson Mandela on the power of education” in: The Washington Post).
Centering his thought around the future of humanity – children yet once again, the human perfection declares his lesson. And it is impossible to disregard his uniting reference to children at large, not as members of any particular cultural group but rather all within one empowering embrace (“our children”):
The power of education extends beyond the development of skills we need for economic success. It can contribute to nation building and reconciliation. Our previous system emphasized the physical and other differences of South Africans with devastating effects. We are steadily but surely introducing education that enables our children to exploit their similarities and common goals, while appreciating the strength in their diversity (Strauss, “Nelson Mandela”).
As were he to be strolling down the Agora with philosophers of Ancient Greece – with the likes of Socrates or Plutarch, Mandela delivers his own lecture on poetry’s impact on character:
A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special (Strauss, “Nelson Mandela”).
Mandela leads us to realize that matters of humanity haven’t much changed since the period of Ancient Greece, since 19th or 20th century-Europe, or in the 21st century:
No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite (Strauss, “Nelson Mandela”).
‘Love for noble labor and the works of virtue,’ are lines from Plutarch I repeated in this essay twice before. With Mandela’s thought of “love” we are only nearer to a better understanding of the ancient teaching aim. This human perfection declares it as a life value to be taught.
The concept of education as I have outlined in this essay, assigns educators the responsibility of helping students lead a richer and fuller life and developing their mental and spiritual qualities to the ultimate. But in the face of such conclusion, we must bear in mind all along what the referent itself, “education,” does not entail. Or, how fluid the boundaries are in the role distribution between an “educator” and a “student.” Isn’t the entire dynamics, rather, all about who first attains the higher level of consciousness in order to begin to enable the other to recognize humans’ interdependency to one another?
One is urged at this point to consider what the future of education may hold for the future of humanity. Two possibilities emerge as objects for potential deliberations, none as subjects of first-time introduction: an educational theory embedded in the shores of non-revolutionary lands and another one housing on the marginal isles of meditative trainings. The discussion in this final stage of the paper will be – as inherent in its purpose – more speculative than open for scientific affirmation, especially when immediacy were to be of demand.
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I remain with the hope of your return visit next Sunday for the final section of my deliberations on the state of education: past, present and future. May the rest of your Sunday and your new week be wonderful in every aspect.
hülyaswritings 