Our education system ought to teach us how to live, says
Osho. Here are a few suggestions from him.
Education that has prevailed in the past is very
insufficient, incomplete and superficial. It only creates people who can earn
their livelihood but it does not give any insight into living itself. It is not
only incomplete, it is harmful too, because it is based on competition. Any
type of competition is violent deep down, and creates people who are unloving.
Their whole effort is to be achievers — of name, of fame, of all kinds of
ambitions. Obviously, they have to struggle and be in conflict. That destroys
their joys and that destroys their friendliness. I divide education into five
dimensions.
The Five Dimensions
The first is informative, like
history, geography, and many other subjects which can be dealt with by
television and computers together. The second part should be sciences. They can
be imparted by television and computer too, but they are more complicated, and
human guides are more necessary.
In the first dimension also come
languages. Every person in the world should know at least two languages; one is
his mother tongue, and the other is English as an international vehicle for
communication. They can also be taught more accurately through television — the
accent, the grammar, everything can be taught more correctly than by human
beings.
We can create in the world an
atmosphere of brotherhood: language connects people and language disconnects
too. There is right now, no international language. This is due to our
prejudices. English is perfectly capable, because it is known by more people
around the world on a wider scale.
But it is absolutely necessary to
create two languages — first, the mother tongue, because there are feelings and
nuances which you can say only in the mother tongue. One international language
is absolutely necessary as a basis for one world, for one humanity. The second
is the enquiry of scientific subjects, which is tremendously important because
it is half of reality, the outside reality.
The third will be the art of living.
People have taken for granted that they know what love is. They don’t
know...and by the time they know, it is too late. Every child should be helped
to transform his anger, hatred and jealousy into love.
A sense of humour is important, too.
Our so-called education makes people sad and serious. And if one-third of your
life is wasted in a university in being sad and serious, it becomes ingrained;
you forget the language of laughter — and the one who forgets the language of
laughter has forgotten much of life.… A reverence for life should be the foundation
of the third dimension and the realisation that life is godliness and there is
no other god than life itself.
The fourth dimension should be that of art and creativity:
painting, music, craftsmanship, pottery, masonry — anything that is creative.
All areas of creativity should be allowed; students can choose. There should be
only a few things compulsory — for example, an international language should be
compulsory; a certain capacity to earn your livelihood should be compulsory; a
certain creative art should be compulsory. You can choose through the whole
rainbow of creative arts, because unless a man learns how to create, he never
becomes a part of existence, which is constantly creative. By being creative,
one becomes divine; creativity is the only prayer.
And the fifth dimension should be the art of dying. It will
include meditations, so that you can know there is no death and you can become
aware of an eternal life inside you. This should be absolutely essential,
because everybody has to die; nobody can avoid it. And under the big umbrella
of meditation, you can be introduced to Zen, to Tao, to yoga, to Hassidism, to
all kinds and all possibilities that have existed, but which education has not
taken any care of.
The Golden Future, courtesy Osho International, www.osho.com
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