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September 2003
Dearly beloved in the Lord, As our children and youth are at the threshold of another school year, let me briefly share with you some of my thoughts on education . The meaning of the word “to educate” is to draw out. It is from the Latin ‘educare’ which means to draw out the innate talents of students. In other words, education is not just pumping information into the heads and minds of the students but bringing out their hidden abilities, talents and skills. The ultimate goal of education should be fullness of life for all; not life for a few and penury and death for others. Christian education doesn’t necessarily mean education within the four walls of the Church or Sunday School education or catechism or education in Christian schools by Christian teachers. It really means education with a Christian perspective. We can see it as Christian presence in the field of education. Again this is not to be taken as some sort of a Christian communal presence but a transforming, healing and reconciling presence. The basic question here is whether are we bearers of life or death in our educational task? In the words of Paulo Frere, education is for liberation i.e.. liberation from individualism, injustice, superstitions, fanaticism, casteism etc.
While negating the ‘banking concept of education’,
as Paulo Frere and others point out we need to enable our students to
discover by raising the question and wonder ‘why’ ? Nevertheless, as we all
know, information is almost an industry now! It seems as if we don’t have to
collect information these days;
everything is stored in for us. Here we need to know only the techniques. Well,
the probing question here is what is the purpose of information? Does it enable
one to have informed actions and
right choices in life? The basic question is whether our actions are determined
by convictions or convenience?
Unlike the Western approach with its rational
objectivity, in the Indian
epistemology the knower is also transformed in the process of knowing. Does our
education give insight into the meaning and mystery of life? In the modern
scientific age, in an attempt to promote scientific temper, experiences of
reality are reduced into definable and marketable commodities? Gen. Omar Bradely
talks about this predicament of modern humanity in the following words:
We have too many men of science; too few men of God. We have grasped the
mystery of atom and rejected the sermon on the mount. The world has achieved
brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear
giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace;
more about killing than we do about
living .
Our knowledge becomes wisdom only when it is at the service of God and
human beings in the community. Here I am reminded of my own experience with a
group of committed teachers in Kuttapuzha Parish
who initiated a project in connection with the Golden Jubilee of the
Parish known as ‘Empowerment through Education’ for the less privileged in
the community. These classes are conducted regularly in the evening. The
question is whether we can make our
life a vocation. Let us constantly remind ourselves that all of us are
accountable people; we are accountable to God and to other human beings. The
task of Christian education is to enable our students to make right choices in
life by inculcating the values of
the Kingdom of God such as love,
justice, fellowship and compassion
as taught and lived by Christ. Our life is God’s gift to us; what we make of
it is our gift to God.
I wish all our students a meaningful and blessed academic year.
In His ministry,
Abraham Achen |
Rev. Dr. K. A. Abraham Achen
email
Achen
at |
Dr.
K.
A.
Abraham
Achen
is
from
Anicad
and
Annis
Kochamma
is
from
Pullad.
They
have
two
children,
daughter, Roshin,
who
is
20
and
currently
doing
her
BS
in
Psychology
at
Women’s
Christian
College
in
Madras.
Achen
and
Kochammas’
Son Christy
is
18,
and
is
currently
working
towards
an
Engineering
Degree
in
Kerala.