I have already had something to say on this subject in former chapters
when writing of the Indian civilian, and the principles which underlie
good education are the same everywhere. A well-educated man is he in
whom his mental and physical powers have been so brought out that he
can face the ordinary vicissitudes of his life with confidence, that he
can understand them and combat them materially to the best of his
ability, and that when materially defeated he may still rise
spiritually above all defeat and discouragement. Education is
necessary to everyone--man or woman, peasant or prince, merchant or
artisan--and that man is best educated who can make the best of his
life whatever its station may be.
Thus it will be seen that education is mainly relative. A man who
would be well educated if in one station of life would be hopelessly
ignorant if in another. I doubt if Whewell would have been considered
educated had fate suddenly made him a soldier, a political officer on a
frontier, or a cultivator. A keen eye gained by experience for market
fluctuations is better for a merchant than all the learning of all the
libraries.
But this specialisation belongs properly to higher education. There
are certain foundation principles necessary to any success in life, to
being able to live it in whatever station with dignity and with
prosperity. What are those principles?
I think the Indian Education Department would say that these are
reading, writing, and arithmetic--that is to say, acquirements. I
should say they are qualities of character.
What are these qualities?
First and foremost is belief in his own people, not his caste or his
creed, but in the people who inhabit his Province, who will eventually
make up his nationality. If the man is to do good work for his people
the boy must desire to do good work--he must have a certainty in the
unlimited possibilities of his people, that though they may be young
now they will grow to a world stature. Therefore, that it is his duty
to help them. He must be sure that this world is good--to be made
better by him and his fellows and his descendants. He has inherited
much; he must hand on more. He has no right to live unless he does his
duty to life and in life--that is to say, he must have a purpose in
life, for without a purpose life cannot be lived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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