The Real Essence of Education

The number of un-useable and un-trainable graduates being churned out year after year from the ivory towers of our aging country is quite worrisome. And the inability to come up with ways to tackle the rot and build a virile, and truly independent young people, to say the least makes it very distressing and very much tending towards disheartening.

It then behoves us to ask the question ‘is the training we get meant to keep us as a compliant cog, someone who would mindlessly follow instructions as opposed to seeking out innovation and surprise?’

If I were to answer this question, my answer would only be biased, pessimistic and definitely rude to everyone involved in building an educational system that is ‘un’becoming of a great nation (albeit ‘wanna be’) like ours.

The function of public education (schooling) was (and is) to turn out compliant workers. Not educated voters, not passionate idea makers. So we spend all this tax payers’ money on schools to be sure that there will be enough people to do all the work that the factories once needed done. Exceptional teachers, the ones who make a difference, are not only rare, but they’re almost always in trouble for bending the rules and not optimizing for the standardized tests; I can sure testify to this

School used to exist to learn a trade. You apprenticed, and then you worked the rest of your life in the same job, in the same town, in the same factory, doing the same work.

In primary school, I couldn’t wait to get into secondary, when in secondary it seemed that the university day would never arrive.  Now I am done with university at least with the Bachelor of Science, and sometimes I look back and think of what use has been the schooling to me? Am I better off being schooled or am I worse off?  

Mark Twain said ‘I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.’ And I think that is where we have gotten it wrong; thinking that schooling rather than education will solve the problem. And even then does it? Except you apply those things, which to me a lot of times are usually of no relevance in the real world where you choose to ply your trade.

Well , you would be right to think that I was being extremely pessimistic or whatever but if Mark Twain said it and George Bernard Shaw said ‘My schooling not only failed to teach me what it professed to be teaching, but prevented me from being educated to an extent which infuriates me when I think of all I might have learned at home by myself’, I think I am justified to feel this way about what schooling has programmed me to be and what it keeps doing to the millions of young people that I see striving to find their purpose in a society that is headstrong on building a strong schooling system to the detriment of education.

I agree with Socrate’s ‘I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.’ This, I believe, is the way to go. 

Break a leg

“What does break a leg mean?” He asked just like that, from out of nowhere. Okay I guess from somewhere for him. And of course I jumped straight in and said it means wishing someone ill health or bad luck or something negative. And then he said not so and I said yes so. Then I turned to my source of quick answers, Google and voila, it means to wish someone, actors were the initial recipients of the phrase, good luck. Ouch! How break a leg can come to mean something nice is discussion for another day.

My main discuss, though I would love to use the word gist, is how we so often assume that what we have believed is the right.

We read books and come across words we don’t fully comprehend and rather than take the time out to go and find out the meanings, we presume that the words describe the meanings. Then we go from there, filled with terrible misinformation, into the much larger society and every time we come across the phrase the wrong idea or notion is the signal our brain transmits and that thus becomes the basis for our actions or inactions.

We meet people for the first time and we come out of that encounter with a whole lot more perceptions, than reality, which may or may not be true of who we think they are and what we think they are capable of doing or not doing.

I am amazed daily at the height of assumptions that pervades our society. Assumptions that have no basis in reality except for what they are; ideas based on perception of what the imagery brings to mind. And then when we eventually come in contact with the truth, we find it a difficult task to take back what we have said based on the assumption and we choose, instead, to be driven by the falsehood that we have laid a hold on.

It’s a hard journey to backtrack.  And I will not be absolving myself of the same acts.

It is so easy to just measure people up and box them within the frame where we can easily tag and label them in ways that suits our purposes. This person is this or that person behaves like that, because it helps our mind to accept and justify our own frailty and weakness in areas where we wish we are strong.

Well I am on my way, finding the path that leads to a place where I judge people not; not by the contents of their head, the look of their faces, nor even by their actions because you don’t know where people are coming from or what they have been through. Neither would I try working up excuses to cover for people’s actions or non-actions; I have mine to deal with.

I have one life to live and now I am trying to make the best out it. The way I choose to go is up...

I believe in love

Craving for some love

On a clear blue night

Alone and without one

Thinking, bugged down

Hopeful, yet without much hope

The thrills of life that end in pain

The never ending story 

That always ends some way

I am here, tripping

Dreaming of that someone

That I only hope I get to know

Drowning in the thoughts of uncontrolled emotion

Of what could be, what should be and what is

The trickling outpouring of love or not

Breaking through the barriers of a lonely heart

In this world of painful rejections, sad misconceptions

and the tragedy of never taking the time to know

The true intentions of the heart;

I belong!

In a place where there is hardly ever

Never ever a chance to play back the tune

Or ever turn back the hands of time;

I belong!

There I am struggling with deep emotions

Fighting the tears that swell my eyes and blur my vision

The catarrh the runs freely from my nose

Spit trickling down the side of my mouth

And yet I am not dead; only but!

To keep hoping for hope

Keep dreaming and praying for a chance to shine

To count my lucky stars and find them intact

And hope that one day,

Not so far off as seen as through the periscope

But one day

As near as the door in front of my nose

One day soon I hope and dream

To find that true love happening to me

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This was written exactly one year ago, and I had not met you then. Now I can say that I have found you, and beat my chest because I believed in it coming through. Thank you Pee. 

This is dedicated to all those who believe in love.

About the comments

I love the way I get comments posted, to my blog, in my mail box. Especially when I see ' (name of person) has left a new comment on your post'. The feeling is 'delicious'. If you want to start feeling 'over spiritual' because I love the fact that my hand work is being appreciated, and call me proud, please have it your way.

When I started writing here, it was because I wanted to write and have the pleasure of knowing that there were people who would read whatever I had to write and have them share their opinion(s) with me. I had only started writing about 12 years earlier, most of the writings are now lost, and I had stopped along the way because I didn't believe whatever I was writing would ever be read. But then I rediscovered blogging.

O yes I had tried blogging as a means to earning a few cents, and I was unable to sustain it. Why you may want to ask? The answer is simple... I had no passion for the topics I had to research and write about. So after a few dry spells at blogging I just gave up. Phew!

But one day in the office a friend and colleague opened his old blog which he had commenced writing about four years previously and he had done just about two entries. And then it came on me like a 'rushing mighty wind'; why don't I go back to blogging myself, but this time write only about things that really touch my heart?

And that is what I do now. So a little encouragement via comments, not like I don't get plenty from my darling coz @Yewwy (her twitter handle), helps keep the wheels oiled.

And you do know I appreciate your reading this and the others, and coming back again and again to hear my mind speak? Thank you always for your time.

This is me...

A while back I came across the note below and I immediately yanked it offline. For those of us who are unperturbed by others 'PHD' syndrome but choose to be ourselves, here is a thought that expresses our hearts. At least it does mine. 

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This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me... or leave me. Accept me-or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don't fit your idea of who I should be and don't try to change me to fit your mould. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision.

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. I plan not to break any just thinking of how it feels to be heartbroken, is enough motivation. You'll fight with your best friend. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back. The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.

For every promise, there is price to pay.

I'm not looking for someone to waste my time & I'm not that kind of guy to read between the lines. Wouldn't life be "PERFECT" if Monday mornings were fun, junk food wasn't fattening, gals didn't cause so much drama, nothing was regrettable, you didn't lose people u love, friendships didn't fade, and goodbyes only meant till tomorrow.

Behind every chap there's a lady who made him that way. Keep your head high good-looking, there are always people who would kill to see you fall... I am who I am ... 

New Year's Treat

Some parties are just not worth the time I have to sit there; just longing for a chance to escape. But the birthday party I attended on the first Sunday of the year was not a bad one, though it almost seemed it was going to be.

First it was the music... not the usual loud sickening music, for the sake of argument, but more of noise really, booming from faulty speakers and some funny looking singer, praise singing like his life depended on it. Not this one. The singer was pretty and 'yallow', okay fair complexioned, and her sonorous voice gave off soothing music from the 70’s and 80’s. Ha!

Second on the list was the food... first was a Chinese dish for me comprising of rice, shredded beef, chicken soup, egg and sparkling (just to crown the ‘efizi’ ) water. After a while I was getting bored and I ordered Vegetable salad with a piece of chicken. As if that wasn’t enough I went for dessert which was bread and butter pudding. And then small chops (Mosa, Spring rolls, Samosa, Puff Puff) came at the most appropriate time. Having just discovered how to make tonic, I was savouring whilst nursing a glass. Ha!

Thirdly, my bb... I had my reservations about dumping the Nokia for the blackberry and still do, but the bb has really proved a point; there really cannot be a dull moment. I tweeted, bb messaged, facebooked and googled so hard my battery, one point I still have issues with the bb, went flat. The bb battery never really dies, it just lulls off.

A beautiful way to start a new year it is, even if I say so myself.  Beats sitting by myself at home wishing there was someone to keep company with.

Okay so I have done nothing but made you jealous right? Well my apologies. I hope you have a most gracious year.

Cheers!

*Efizi –  hype

A lasting bequest...

My days are filled with a lot of interactions with young people. My work in the media brings me in contact with many from different background, culture and language. And I have learnt that being stuck up or cocooned in your own world is the greatest anathema that you could ever bring on yourself. With their varied range of interests, there is a lot to lose, when you choose to ignore them.

Just a few days back, the 26th of December, far away from my home base (Lagos) in Kaduna state, in Kafanchan, a Local Council Area in the state, I met a group of young people who are into dance. They had been invited to perform at the programme that I was attending. In the course of my interactions with them, one who appeared to be the leader in the group said something that I am still trying to frame my mind to digest.

He said ‘We dance because we love to dance. But dance is the last thing that we do’

That entire statement initially made little sense to me. But he went on to explain that their passion was best expressed through dancing, but before the outward expression of dance, there were a whole lot of other issues that they upheld amongst themselves before going out there to dance.

It was amazing and refreshing to hear someone young being able to put in proper perspective what a lot of our young and even older people fail to ever see throughout their life time.

He said ‘we pray together, see to the needs of each other and when all is done we dance’

It can’t get deeper than that. And it was obvious that was what they did. They looked so together. Asides the fact that they were in the same school, which obviously made it easy to rehearse, they were as different as they come.

My parting shoot as we step in to this year 2011 is to set your mind on that which brings the greater good. Not just on what benefits you alone but that which will indelibly be a bequest to generations not yet born.

Happy New Year....