Education is something that almost everyone considers important. Here in the UK, Parents move home to get children into the ‘right school’ and students go into debt to the tune of thousands of pounds to fund it. But what exactly is it and how do we do it? What is the essence of education?

Education is a process of acquiring knowledge in order to live a successful life on earth and to achieve ones happiness and goals. more specifically it is a s self-generated process of acquiring the cognitive means to gain knowledge, and then of gaining specific knowledge of reality, with the purpose of living a life on earth.

According to Mark Neale – education consultant and personal coach – an educational system is basically one for transfering information from one person to another, or to a group. The real key is the philosophy behind the system. he points out that we believe in the value of education, but then so did Stalin and Hitler! The point being that the philosophical assumptions behind the system are crucial in determining the purpose of an education.

Education, education, education

So given that we agree on its importance, mark and I got stuck into examining some of the fundamental assumptions behind education. I hope you enjoy this interview which will be continued in part 2. However there is much food for thought in this first part.

Mark identified three purposes of education as fulfilling needs in the economy, culture and in individuals achieving a way of living in a fulfilled and whole way. This is obviously a subjective judgment. We offer complimentary viewpoints throughout the interview. This benefits the listener with a balanced and objective perspective.

Begining with the end in mind

There are many components to education and techniques involved in acquiring an education such as thinking and habitually questioning, exercising curiosity, mimicking and copying the actions and behaviour of others, observation combined with and trial and error practice, reading and research, etc,. However Mark points out that it is necessary to start by identifying where we wish to end up. Or more appropriately where we wish the student to end up. He concludes that the destination effectively determines the route to be taken.

The philosophical assumptions behind education determine the purpose and therefore the technique to use. The mainstream view is simply to go and ‘get’ an education, and don’t think too much about what it is you are ‘getting’ or why you need it, or whether you are getting an education that serves you. The implication is that attending a school and a university is all that you need to consider. Nothing could be further from the truth. sadly this implicit assumption fosters and encourages a fairly unconscious approach to equipping ourselves for a successful life.

Advantages of education in a home environment

There are many advantages of educating in the home. the ratio of guardian to student is more favourable and the parent or guardian is much more familiar with the abilities of the child and every other aspect of the child and his or her requirements. However, for many would be home educators it is simply impractical to consider this option at present. Many other factors and lifestyle choices would need to need to change first.

Mark suggests that as a community we need to step up the input and the interest in educating our children. he goes on to point out that often the problem is with the parents. This is true in the fact that parents need to first educatee themselves in order to be able to educate their children.

It is clear to me that demonstration is the key to education. And most importantly, to demonstrate not only the desire to know and understand, but also that we can know and we can understand. Many people implicitly hold the conviction that they cannot know,