Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” His words never ceased to be meaningful throughout human evolution. We might have been tran-sitioned from hunting and gathering tribes to an ultra-modern artificial intelligence one. But the fundamentals of human education of educating the heart are paramount today. The world is becoming more competitive every day, nothing seems to be enough. This incessant race of achieving more without the least human intervention possible is leaving almost no room for human emotions. At the end of the day, it’s affecting people’s views or other human beings. Everyone seems to be worried about their gains, social media is flooded with shameful inci-dents taking place even during such arduous times. It’s tempting to ask “How do we fix it?”
The short answer is “It’s not that simple.” What we are looking at (People) are the products of the society in conjunction with circumstances of social & economic settings. If you see crispy leaves on the tree, you don’t water the leaves, you need to go to the root to water and nurture it. As a parent what values do you want your child to develop in their early childhood so the generation tomorrow is what you would desperately want to see today? We all would love to see humanity prevailing in character than the intellect. Modern-day education across most countries in the world seems focused on educating the mind for greater IQ and skill-focused character. But shouldn’t there be a foundation on which IQ & Skill should be built? Without the foundation of humanity & compassion, Intellect has no ethical value. Instead, it could be dangerous, because the intellect does not carry the wisdom of telling apart right from wrong.
What do we go back to?
The purpose of education must be to develop a compassionate human being than an intelligent skilled person. Humans evolved through a very challenging time, caring for each other & protecting each other. Thus building a compassionate character. Today we learn everything but compassion in schools, society. Compassion in education along with wisdom will result in compassionate & wise human being looking after each other, protecting the planet, and coexisting with other species which is the answer to the three daunting challenges (Violence & Crime, Global Warming, Extinction of other species must for the survival of human beings) we are facing today. We might train a child to be knowledgeable and skilled but that knowledge will be like a child aware of all the alphabets but doesn’t know how to construct meaningful words with them. It’s a collective responsibility, meaning not only the teachers, but the parents and the society are also equal stakeholders.
There has never been a more paramount need for compassion education for the children in the class, society & parenting. Mindfulness has the miraculous power to build compassion, mental wellbeing, and an emotionally aware character along with many other traits.
Author: Latika Sakhuja & Sitender Sehrawat
