The way I started school seems to me like a fairy tale as I wonder how I thought of all that I did. Back in the 90s, every morning I get up to see my two elder siblings wear their uniforms and always wondered where they were going until my parents answered that question by telling me it was a school. A school? Now, my parents felt I wasn’t old enough to start schooling so I was always at home. Well, it didn’t take long before I did the unimaginable. Through the help of my mum stories of my childhood, I remember quite clearly how one morning I wore my elder sister’s uniform which was obviously oversized, left home without mum’s knowledge and off I went to a school close-by. I didn’t care that I was not student of this school for all that was on my mind was that I must go to a school for the idea of staying at home for another day was a no no.
The story doesn’t end there, my mum also let me know that she finding out that I was not at home brought countless thoughts of how I may have gotten kidnapped or gone missing, little did she know that with me looking like an ancient Kung Fu master in my elder sister’s uniform, I was on my way to discovering what was done in this school that my elder siblings always go to.
With the major part of my life spent in one school or the other till date, I can say that the mission I started as a child has being accomplished as an adult. To know what was done in a school was all I desired and the answer to that I can say is that schooling is wonderful and one which I would always recommend for both stranger and friend but going to school does not guarantee education. The education meant here is not the degree gotten from an institution of learning but the ability to think and create.
Albert Einstein was absolutely right when he said “education is not the learning of facts but the training of the mind to think”. Education as has being said is the ability to think and create. Education is not in passing a examination but in exploring creativity little wonder American Humorist and lecturer Mark Twain boldly stated “don’t let interfere with your education”. Schools are only there to help us develop.
It is quite clear that every human has different aspects that make him or her that is to say humans are multi-dimensional made up of spiritual physical, emotional, intellectual and social aspects. To develop the intellectual aspect while neglecting the others would amount to nothing better than the making of a robot. No doubt, schooling helps develop communication and other skills, but it doesn’t equip us with all the essential life skills we need to thrive and survive in our modern world. School help us develop while education helps us create. Education is about thinking and creating not consuming and regurgitating. It is education that helps in originality and dexterity, schooling helps fire them up.
Therefore, rather than being just an academic First Class product, go higher to being a fire brand spiritually, be empathetic in relationships which aids you in becoming radical in orientation.
It should be well noted that schooling aids us in get educated but doesn’t give us maximum education. My view here does not intend to relegate to the background schooling, rather, it is to help us understand that even as we greatly desire to school, we must understand that getting truly educated should be our goal.
By JerryJohn Enoch
