KNOWLEDGE -
Go, Get it!
A book on
KNOWLEDGE
Explains why every education institution can be closed without any loss to the Individual or the society.
Instead, it benefits, everyone, as the same money can be put for other useful purposes.
This book is written after two years of study & research.
Available
In Tamil and English!
MOST SUCCESSFUL INVENTORS WENT TO SCHOOL!
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We have a misgiving that education system gives knowledge to students.
Truly speaking, that is the real goal, of the education system
over several thousands of years.m
Both Chinese and Tamil scholars, 2000 years ago
Explained all about education, that none of the educators are unaware of!
Our education system is based on
ROTE LEARNING.
ROTE LEARNING IS NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT FOR PRIMARY CLASSES WHERE LETTERS AND NUMBERS ARE TAUGHT.
After letter & numbers are taught, learning and thinking skills and practices follows,
Sadly, ROTE LEARNING continues all through education.
THE RESULT IS
READ - Write EXAMNS - forget all you read.
What is right education that benefit
Students, society, nation.
Knowledge.ngo, get it!
By
N. Natarajan
Any one can Download the book from at no cost
www.Pothi.com
www.free-ebooks.net
www.archieve.org
There are several forums of teachers and education professionals in Linkedin. Everywhere the topics of discussion could be different. But they have one common issue that is not explicitly told:
The Education does not deliver desired results.
At the end of each discussions, the participants are nowhere near the solution. They seek Info Tech tools. Better Students, Better teacher. What was not suggested, is Special Prayers to almighty, in every school of learning, to fill-in the blanks they have left.
What they speculate as problems are not problems at all!be
They problem is both teachers and students think within the same paradigms. The teachers were taught they way they teach their students.
Who can give solutions then?
Someone totally outside the normal paradigms.
I am one of those few. I can tell you with all confidence.
Every one those in Education space will agree with me. None would like to take a step forward.
Reason?
The Fear for Change!
I think slightly differently from anyone in the professional teaching community.
I found, during an year long search, only one person who grasped what I said / wrote / propagated. He is one of the great scientists in India, a researcher and a part of a university. He was serious in implementing them in his university. The academic tigers ensured that such a process would never enter their campus.
What did I propose? Why?
In a way, I was neither benefited or affected by Education system. That is because, I had formal class room (All conventional education from Primary to Highe Professional) education just for three years only. That is too short to time for any education system
I started my career as a Technician after a tenth grade pass, through a tough state level written examination where Engineering Diploma to Science graduates also took part besides school Final students.
Then I climbed become Scientist after I successfully cleared Engineering Examination of an Institution which was run by top scientists and think tanks in our part of the world. Those papers cannot be cleared by ROTE LEARNING.
Unless you have the concepts, ability to connect the concepts to real life problems and solve it successfully, you don't get to pass.
Thankfully, the then government had recognized the degree awarded by that institution and I became an Engineer.
I changed jobs where-ever and when-ever I sought to learn more and different technologies with great ease. I did not choose employment for better salary but, for Higher challenges in assignments.
I became Development Manager, General Manager, CEO and finally as a Consultant - (In India's leading research, PSU, Info Tech MNCs.... I am an author of several books too).
I brushed aside offers to make me a Doctorate Degree holder - a researcher - when I felt intuitively those who offered me (for what so ever reason) are not capable of "Making" anyone a great researcher, because they are mere paper-tigers themselves.
I could earn more money than several Engineers of my time - contemporaries from leading - Premier - Higher Education Institutions.
While I had some problem being in the midst of professionally qualified through Formal Eduucation, latter I found myself and sevel like me belong to a club of "Unique Elite Team". All of us were denied access to formal education because the Education system go by the Testing for abilities to "Remember information for a short Time".
There are those who are gifted by nature who cannot do that. We do not learn by "Remembering information that we recceived " (Rote Learning). Instead:
1. We identify sources where the information that are useful to us.
2. We learn (more importantly) to look away from those information that are irrelevant to us.
3. We Learn to convert the huge information into short sweet units of knowledge (extracting concepts from information) and store them (not storing the information itself) .
4. Integrate those pearls of Concepts into strings of knowledge. Easy to search, compare patterns.
5. Patterns that compared in concepts are made into another strings to quick search and locate.
Imagine multilevel Indexing.
6. Then we look for ways to use them
in real life in simulated or real life opportunities ( Like the Lab experiments, Practical sessions)
that help internalizing the concpts or knowledge.
7. Develop the art of using MIND'S EYE or otherwise known as Intuiting.
There is no need ever, to Memorize.
We do not specially prepare for Examinations.
We remember what we learnt all over our active career and even today.
I know many successful top professionals who were not produced by Conventional Education.
Thank God. Those we evaluated our Knowledge were not teacher who took-up the job because they could not get any better.
I discovered the right Education Process.
The two steps in Education.
Imparting the
(1) Learning & (2) Thinking Skills.
It is not any academic discussion
I trained some 600+ Graduate Engineers who were rejected by the Industry (a 3 months Program). They are Star Performers in Industry today.
The trick I did was. I did not teach them.
I helped them Learning. They did not know what the process they went through meant to them. But they knew, I can turn the iron of their Mind into Shining GOLD.
I took my simple ideas to universities. Various Forums on Education.
No one either understood not willing to discuss. But everyone see lacunae but wants to blame everything other than addressing it.
I finally wrote a book. published it as a free ebook. Typically 500 people downloaded. Don't know if any one understood. If they did, what they did with it.
With my past experience, all my efforts to communicate with Teaching community, political leaders and think-tanks in Government failed.
Yet, I continue my efforts. I hope some day, some one would see a value in my thoughts and the Education system would change so that Education System all over the world, produce a society of "Learning and Thinking" enabled Knowledgeable people and Stop producing Glorified Clerks who are both "Learning reluctant and thinking Resistant, paper-tigers.
Available as an ebook
in English and Tamil at
WWW.pothi.com
free download
1. No education system imparts Knowledge
2. People working in Education system merely
distribute information as knowledge, because no
one in education system understand as how to
one in education system understand as how to
impart knowledge.
3. Acquiring Knowledge and converting it to Wisdom has the following steps.
- Gathering information from reading, teaching, listening etc etc
- Filtering unwanted, irrelevant information that does not contribute to knowledge.
- Use several processing calling "Thinking" to extract Knowledge from information. There are several processes that are listed in the example.
- Organizing the knowledge in an orderly fashion, so that search time for solution is reduced..
- Experiencing knowledge enable internalizing (Moving knowledge to subconscious mind) so that it become Wisdom. Wisdom has near zero search time for deployment.
Knowledge (wisdom) that does not help one escape:
Slavery, Cheating, Poverty failures of all kind - are not knowledge;
Those who learn and earned degrees but enslaved, deceived, poor, face failures.
Some among the people excel in chosen fields, not because of education system, but, despite the education system.
Various people knew one or a few of the Thinking processes due to factors such as family back ground, living environment, observations and more importantly, DNA must be have a say.
Every one improved their Learning abilities by training in Thinking processes and lead a better life.
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1. CLICK THIS LINK FOR
a satire in Tamil,
Why Education institutes are temples (an institution of faith rather than institution of knowledge)?
??????????????
a satire in Tamil,
Why Education institutes are temples (an institution of faith rather than institution of knowledge)?
??????????????
2. Click the following link:
Attention : Students of Engineering college..
What all you can do, for a good project work?
3. Why Semester system should go!
Is it intentional or unintentional that some one introduced Semester system in education?
What good does it do to students?
Can some one who knows send your views?
4. What is wrong with the current education?
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ABOUT EDUCATION
h
I read an article written by Justice R.C. Lahoti, Ex CJI of Supreme court of India, in Times of India on our Education System, a few years ago.
(A) The essence of that article is that, Current Education System does not deliver knowledge to the Students.
(B) His writing suggested that British could have deliberately handed down an education system which is defective. May be they wanted to produce clerks for meeting their needs and nothing more.
(B) His writing suggested that British could have deliberately handed down an education system which is defective. May be they wanted to produce clerks for meeting their needs and nothing more.
That was enough trigger for me to seek to understand the education processes in our country and elsewhere.
(3) Ex CJI seem to entertain the same notion that I held for long and many others also must be holding that:.
education system is expected to deliver
knowledge to the students in the system.
1. What do education system deliver, to day?
A false hope that education would bring prosperity through employment, especially White collar jobs.
2. Delivered Degree holders most of whom possess no relevant knowledge and without capability to learn.
Why the education system does not deliver knowledge?
1. British delivered an education system for Primary education, more than a century ago. The same system is adopted for every level of higher education without necessary structural modifications.
2. (Teaching) The methodologies used in teaching in Primary education is the first level of knowledge which is relevant to Learning Language and number system,
3. (Guided learning) After the primary classes, in higher classes, the students are expected to use the Language skills and numbers that they learnt, to learn the remaining lessons (for higher classes) with Guidance from teachers.
There is no components in the education system today that encourage students to learn. The semester system is a further disaster that permits the students to forget whatever was taught.
What ails the education system:
(1) Aimless: Unlike Primary education, which has a goal of making the students to be literates and number friendly, there is no goal for higher classes and higher education.
The institutions churn out graduates like products in assembly line.
(2) Ineffective system: The problem can be traced to adoptation of a system meant for primary education to Higher classes and Higher Education, without setting a goal / objective and fine tuning the system.
(3) Any system starts degenerating the moment it is put to use. unless examined periodically for its objectives and achievements it is not possible for course - correction. We have several government run institutions which do not deliver, for this reason.
I wish to share through these pages, the problems in our Education system and what aspects need urgent changes. The changes suggested are simple and not difficult by itself.
The difficulty stems from the
(a) mental blocks of people in education system,
(b) fear for unknown!
(c) Resistance to change,
What is urgently required is the change and Change management.
People in any system would resist changes. If we could over come that then we will be one of the nations with most knowledgeable people in the world.
What is the change that I suggest?
- After the language skills and number skills are imparted, shift the mode of education from Classroom based teaching to Guided learning by students..
- Educational institutions should change from information delivery to Knowledge generation and knowledge resources / management centers.
- The ritual of Teaching should Go after primary education.
- The semester system should be scrapped for good. This is the biggest stumbling block in learning because it encourages swallow-vomit processes.
- Examination system should be replaced by continuous evaluation.
- For all these, current state of art technology can be put to best use but they are not substitutes for GUIDED LEARNING..
I wish, anyone who appreciate these simple truths can talk to their relatives and friends in developed countries inquire and write your understanding about education system prevailing there. My observation is that, they are a shade better and not ideal ones.
Typically one can collect information on:
- What do people in those countries understand by education?
- At what age the middle class equivalent in those countries go for higher education?
- What faculty members do in universities?
- What are the deliverable by faculty memebers besides education to students?
- What do the students, in higher education, do from year one to end?
The answers to these questions will reveal where our education system has derailed and how much away from the established purposes.
The points to note are:
(a) Education is not seen as an poverty alleviation method.
(b) Universities US, West and Canada engage themselves in research development of technologies and thus has have competent faculty membersholding patents
(c) The sad thing to note is that, barring a few exceptions, those rejected by Industry take refuge in education system as faculty members.
This revelation will hurt such persons but, some day we should prepared to accept the reality so that changes are made to our system and move forward,
(a) Education is not seen as an poverty alleviation method.
(b) Universities US, West and Canada engage themselves in research development of technologies and thus has have competent faculty membersholding patents
(c) The sad thing to note is that, barring a few exceptions, those rejected by Industry take refuge in education system as faculty members.
This revelation will hurt such persons but, some day we should prepared to accept the reality so that changes are made to our system and move forward,
The danger is looming large.
The foreign investment in higher education is looming large.
Unless Indian institutions takes the right attitudes, the Indian education system will collapse.
One can see themselves, as to what happened to Postal department and communication services after liberalization.
I have a scientist friend who has developed a fool-proof examination system to replace question paper leaks in competitive examinations.
Any one in this forum would like to take a look at it.
Especially the competitive examinations for job Medical PG admission are always suspects.
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- The first step in that direction is Understanding what is knowledge? .
- Then follows defining the objective of Education, at each level/.
- Then the anlysis of an knowledge processes.
- The factors that come in the way of the processes.
- The elimination of road blocks.
- Then follows the ways and means of achieving the establishment of a new education paradigms.
- Then testing for effectiveness,
- Periodic review of course and effecting course correction.
I took this question studying various education systems in place in various parts of the world, experimented the learning process in small children to Graduated Engineers seeking employment.
Article 01
Education & Knowledge
My search, to understand Education Systems and Knowledge, began when an Eminent Jurist and an Ex-CJI of Supreme court of India, Justice Lokoti raised a doubt, a few years ago. In a thought provoking article in Times of India, he raised his doubt if the Education system in India that was handed down by British, was defective. 
The question was raised in the context, where educated people are often found as gullible as uneducated people. Apparently the education did not give the ability to think, the ability to distinguish between good and bad and so on, Now I write my findings for the reader to examine. Here I have attempted to define several terminologies and explain some other.
What is Knowledge?
(Q1) All of us, intuitively know that Knowledge is important for us for the following reasons.
(1) Succeed in our goals & desires(2) Prevent failures.(3) Lead a good life – in general.
(4) Not to get cheated or deceived by others.
(5) Not to be enslaved
(6) Pushed into poverty.
But, people with colonial mind-set has created a socieity where only white collar jobs would be paid a reasonable income. So, the poor who struggle for even mere existence choose education for leading a meaningful life.
Rich nations do not practice the above discrimination.
(Q2) Can we trace Poverty, slavery, sufferings, failures to Lack of Education?s,
The answer would be yes, if education system delivered the knowledge. Instead they deliver tools useful for knowledge acquisition without necessary methods of using it.
The .answer would be No, otherwise.
It is the knowledge that determines the above parameters of human life. It is not Lack of Education that are the root cause, but the lack of emphasis of learning.
No education system can provide all the knowledge that a man would need during the course of life.
Education can be compared to a fishing-rod. that would help one fish his food for life.
We look to eating the fishing-rod. We fail and cry. At the same time, the fishing-rod, expensive and nice looking has no features that fish can be caught using it.
The learning is the process of extracting the knowledge from various sources such as . written, spoken, observed and so on.
Some action that can be compared is extracting
scent from the flower. If the flower
Sugar from sugar cane or beatroot.
Honey gathered by honey bees in a honey comb,
is the message (events in the past and present - books - spoken words) the scent is the knowledge.
The process of reaching to a garden of flower and extraction of scent and storing it properly. can be compated to learning.
Without the learning process in place, the learner picks the flower and drops it off after the scent evoporates,.
Like the flower dries-up looses scent,, the information that we carried for a while also loose value in it (knowledge).
Q3) Do I take it that Education and Knowledge are not one and the same?
Knowledge is the Goal and it is a life long journey. Education is a formal start of learning with which we equip ourselves to gather more knowledge and quickly.
(Q4) How long it takes to acquire knowledge?
According to a Tamil Poem:
கற்றது கை மண்ணளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு.
There is so much to learn & use that a life time is too short. The most learned in the world, at best would have learnt just a fist full where as there is as much as the entire earth is there to learn.
(Q5) What is an education's role in gaining knowledge?
Education system is the Jump-start of, the fast track learning process which equips a person with one or more linguistic skills.
Languages as learning enablers or as a learning tool.
The number and its application as a very very important tool along side the Languages.
எண்ணும் எழுத்தும் கண்ணெனத்தகும்.
Alphabets and Numbers are two eyes of the mind. This is again a great statement by ancient Tamil saints.
(Q6) If there are so much that we cannot learn all that are there, how do we decide as which to pick and which all to drop?
Very true. For a life without pain, you need language, There is no separate time slot to learn and another time slot to live.
There are two ways:
The answer would be yes, if education system delivered the knowledge. Instead they deliver tools useful for knowledge acquisition without necessary methods of using it.
The .answer would be No, otherwise.
It is the knowledge that determines the above parameters of human life. It is not Lack of Education that are the root cause, but the lack of emphasis of learning.
No education system can provide all the knowledge that a man would need during the course of life.
Education - Fish - Fishing rod
Education can be compared to a fishing-rod. that would help one fish his food for life.
We look to eating the fishing-rod. We fail and cry. At the same time, the fishing-rod, expensive and nice looking has no features that fish can be caught using it.
The learning is the process of extracting the knowledge from various sources such as . written, spoken, observed and so on.
Some action that can be compared is extracting
scent from the flower. If the flower
Sugar from sugar cane or beatroot.
Honey gathered by honey bees in a honey comb,
is the message (events in the past and present - books - spoken words) the scent is the knowledge.
The process of reaching to a garden of flower and extraction of scent and storing it properly. can be compated to learning.
Without the learning process in place, the learner picks the flower and drops it off after the scent evoporates,.
Like the flower dries-up looses scent,, the information that we carried for a while also loose value in it (knowledge).
Q3) Do I take it that Education and Knowledge are not one and the same?
Knowledge is the Goal and it is a life long journey. Education is a formal start of learning with which we equip ourselves to gather more knowledge and quickly.
(Q4) How long it takes to acquire knowledge?
According to a Tamil Poem:
கற்றது கை மண்ணளவு, கல்லாதது உலகளவு.
There is so much to learn & use that a life time is too short. The most learned in the world, at best would have learnt just a fist full where as there is as much as the entire earth is there to learn.
(Q5) What is an education's role in gaining knowledge?
Education system is the Jump-start of, the fast track learning process which equips a person with one or more linguistic skills.
Languages as learning enablers or as a learning tool.
The number and its application as a very very important tool along side the Languages.
எண்ணும் எழுத்தும் கண்ணெனத்தகும்.
Alphabets and Numbers are two eyes of the mind. This is again a great statement by ancient Tamil saints.
(Q6) If there are so much that we cannot learn all that are there, how do we decide as which to pick and which all to drop?
Very true. For a life without pain, you need language, There is no separate time slot to learn and another time slot to live.
There are two ways:
1. The Reactive learningWe face challenges in life. It manifests in the form of wants, unfulfilled desires, pains of various kinds, health related problems, disharmony with people around. (The list is endless). Each such challenges give us the priority of what knowledge to acquire and what not.
2. Proactive learning
(Q7) Define knowledge ?
In the foregoing Q & A, knowledge was explained so that one can differentiate and connect knowledge and Education,
Knowledge can be defined in a few different ways. They are as follows:
Knowledge is an abstraction of the world deal-in.which helps one to predict its behavior towards us.
With the ability to predict the behaviour of the.world that we deal-in, alternately called Domain, we can have control over our dealings in that domain.
Right knowledge gives us the ability to react correctly to a given situation that bring a success or prevent a failure in a given domain..
(Q8) How knowledge is acquired?
A society or a nation without an education system, people acquired knowledge through experiencing.
As the society grew they understood the necessity of carrying forward those experiences/
They left in the form of poems, stories and proverbs.
Some people took-up the job of consolidating all that is there to learn from the people who lived in the past, to distribute them to the people. That became the education system.
(Q8) How difficult is acquiring knowldge?
There is a commonality between acquiring physical strength and acquiring - the mental strength.
As one gets tired of physical work that help us build muscles and physical strength, there is a mental fatigue while we attempt to learn,
Understanding the difficulties of living on mere faith (in God or other men around us) makes one overcome the inertia or resistance to learning.
Realization of the fact that by acquiring and living with the help of (whatever partial knowledge that we would gain), Knowledge would help in a big way living with minimum pains will reduce the mind's rejection of knowledge.
If you find people around you suffer due to lack of knowledge (perhaps trouble you too) accept them as it is.
After my few decade long research into Spirituality, I have reasons to believe it is the nature God or whatever is responsible for the creation and sustenance of life in the universe dictates the quota of different abilities - physical and mental, That fits into LOGIC and reasoning.
A. Both the processes - Acquiring Physical and Mental strength are life long processes. The reason being the obsolescence of old knowledge over time and emergence of new knowledge in its place.
1. Both require, life long, non-stop exercising to remain fit.
2. Both can have people to guide. Fitness instructor and Teachers.
3. Instructor & Teacher can show the way of carrying out the exercises, however (tough or painful), the student should do the workout.
4. There is no easy way of getting both.
Acquiring knowledge.
How do we extract knowledge from Informtion / messages / events?
(Q6) Can knowledge be categorized ?
(Q6) Can knowledge be categorized ?
It can be done in several ways.
Let us discuss a few.
(a) Domain knowledge – The Knowledge in one or the other of functional area, such as medicine, accountancy, Carpentry, Automobile design, garment design, Singing classical music, law etc. They can successfully solve problems or create products or services in that domain with varying levels of success depending upon the extent of identifying patterns in the domain of pursuit.
(b) Domain Independent Knowledge:
I prefer to call this ability, what generally people refer to as intelligence. There are those with knowledge across several domains. Such people see identical or similar patterns in every domain and solve problems or create product and services. Again their success depends on the depth of identifying patterns.
(c) Primary knowledge. Direct Knowledge or knowledge acquired by personally experiencing: Newton’s knowledge on Gravity, forces etc are direct. Miniscule of Human race has such people
(d) Secondary Knowledge:
Practicing professionals, the teachers who teach Newton’s laws, are examples of people who possess the secondary knowledge. While books and literatures provide access to primary knowledge, the experiments associated with it help us internalize and feel that the knowledge is as good as Primary,
(e) Three major dimensions of knowledge.
A) Known ; B) Knowable 3) Unknowable.
It is easy to explain the three in an indirect method.
(f) There are three type of People - grouped based on knowledge dimensions.
We the normal people are type I.
The scientists, philosophers and thinkers form Type II.
The Sages and saints form part of type III.
While we, the type I, live within the boundaries creaed by sense perception, live and die in knowledge of Known. This means that any one who is inclined to know, can know a small part of known. Collectively, the knowledge of the society at any time could be full.
Several billions or trillions of human beings knew what are all there to know.
Knowable are events entities and objects beyond the perception limits of human being. Several devices and equipments are being designed and deployed every day so that we push the boundaries of perception is broken and enhanced.
Type II people hover over the first two knowledge spaces.
Unknowable. There are events entities and objects that the scientists could not bring them into their enhanced perception. That can be called the unknowable. But the type III people accomplish treading this domain. Type III people hover over, all the three knowledge spaces.
A group of people who possess one or more of several discrete chunk of Secondary knowledge are educators. They learn / practice offering to transfer their secondary knowledge to others seeking it, in an organized way.
It is a formal start of learning and essentially equipping and training in the use of tools, for the students acquiring secondary knowledge on their own, when they leave the education system.
(In reality, the tools are not used significantly evening during the stay in Education system. The usage after leaving the education system is imaginable).
Tools for learning (Languages, numbers, analytic capability, logic and reasoning) are provided which helps acceleration of learning at the early stage of life. As the age advances, the natural learning ability whatever little is there, slows down.
Those who seek a job in information technology, these tools for analytical, logical, lateral, mathematical thinking abilities are offered as an ADD-ON outside the formal education system.
The completion of formal learning in Education system signifies the start of informal learning that should continue till the end of life.
(Q9) Do education system provide all the knowledge that we need?
I was one of those who believed, for very a long time, that every formal Education system gives the people the Knowledge.
Now I would say, a fine tuned education system, at best, can provide an opportunity to get required knowledge. Not the knowledge itself.
There are chances that those who had been through formal education process stay a little ahead of others in knowledge spaces who did not receive a formal education. But it is not true always. There are several exceptions to this assumption.
Do economic and social status of a person, a factor in the abilities to acquire knowledge.?
(In my early days, I have made a few children of daily wage workers to learn English and Mathematics. They learnt them in astonishing speeds. They were put to government run school with the help of a local political leader.
I am glad to see the impact of this effort has transformed a very large number of children to take to education. Today they live better, economically with improve social status.
(I am disappointed to find that there are many among them, who pursued higher education but yet, did not grow anywhere close to fellow city youth both economically and socially. This proves mere graudation is insufficient to attain higher economic and social status, the the aspirants believe that the education would provide for).
The knowledge, what we commonly believe it to be, is not about a mastery in a specific knowledge domain such as masonry, accountancy, carpentry. They are domains with its own return-for-effors and efforts to acquire the knowledge.
(Q10) What is expected of an educated person?.
(1) Educated should be, basically, a Knowledge enabled individual.
(2) Varying depths in, one or more of the domain knowledge.
(3) The educated persons are expected to possess the ability to understand the environment around them, to decide what is the right action to take.
(Q11) Do the education system address such crietaria adequately?
There are chances that those who had been through formal education process stay a little ahead of others in knowledge spaces who did not receive a formal education. But it is not true always. There are several exceptions to this assumption.
Do economic and social status of a person, a factor in the abilities to acquire knowledge.?
(In my early days, I have made a few children of daily wage workers to learn English and Mathematics. They learnt them in astonishing speeds. They were put to government run school with the help of a local political leader.
I am glad to see the impact of this effort has transformed a very large number of children to take to education. Today they live better, economically with improve social status.
(I am disappointed to find that there are many among them, who pursued higher education but yet, did not grow anywhere close to fellow city youth both economically and socially. This proves mere graudation is insufficient to attain higher economic and social status, the the aspirants believe that the education would provide for).
The knowledge, what we commonly believe it to be, is not about a mastery in a specific knowledge domain such as masonry, accountancy, carpentry. They are domains with its own return-for-effors and efforts to acquire the knowledge.
(Q10) What is expected of an educated person?.
(1) Educated should be, basically, a Knowledge enabled individual.
(2) Varying depths in, one or more of the domain knowledge.
(3) The educated persons are expected to possess the ability to understand the environment around them, to decide what is the right action to take.
(Q11) Do the education system address such crietaria adequately?
I can tell with full confidence that, Imparting this ability was not a part of the curriculum of any of our education systems. Neither there is a direct nor an indirect approach to make people, knowledgeable.
(Q12) How do you identify people who are not knowledge enabled?
Some sample situations are listed below, for our own understanding.
If we are not knowledge enabled.
1. We would believe in (or) follow a leader who not trust worthy.
The educated middle class will invest money in mushrooming finance companies, privately run Chit funds and loosing their life time savings year after year.
2. Buying fake gold coins from cheats.who claim to have found a treasure.
3. Losing the money to touts who promises lucrative employment abroad or Government jobs, is another yearly phenomena.
5. Buying flat / plot of land, Which is already sold to several people.
6. Fake babas and fake spiritual Gurus are manifestations of our lack of knowledge.
The List is endless. But we will end it here.
Year after year people, irrespective of their educational background many become victims to several crooks in the society.
Worst still, is their inability to learn a lesson from the experience of victims of yesteryears.
Knowledge was the focus of attention, after Tamil literature, it was the Chinese Philosophers for more than 1000 years.
PART II
Find-out How ancient
CHINESE PHILOSOPHERS described KNOWLEDGE
02 CHINESE PHILOSOPHERS and KNOWLEDGE
The Chinese philosophers, refer the process of acquiring knowledge as a two step process.
The Chinese philosophers, refer the process of acquiring knowledge as a two step process.
LEARNING & THINKING.
These two steps are essential for leading a successful and healthy life as a human being. These two are essential for any practicing professionals, in any domain.
The most important but nowhere explicitly discussed is the third aspect of knowledge – The ability to remember and retrieve, what ever was learnt.
Though we may not be verbalize it clearly, these two are expected of, from everyone who go through a conventional education.
Learning & thinking.
But, no one would ever find the trace of both
in the current scenario. Because, no one in the conventional education system, have set this as a "
(A) a desirable outcome;
(B) No one perhaps knows, as how to accomplish it.
Was there any institution of learning, which worked towards imparting Learning & Thinking?
Ancient schools in India
(1) Caste Based "Skill Training". Father as a teacher, son as a student, knowledge in the trade practice are conducted regularly. The Skill (and associated domain knowledge) was maintained as secret and confined to the caste system, for fear of Economic Backlash!
This knowledge was necessary and sufficient to meet survival needs.
(2) Gurukula: Children moved to Teacher’s abode from early age. Worked for the teacher in their fields and home. They are trained in a wide range of abilities, including languages and its grammar. Trained on reasoning, logical resolution of problems, analytical skills, debating and so on. These are mere tools to acquire knowledge. invariably, these are not useful in eking out a living. But very much essential to run a state or international business.
It can be said, this training, imparted in Gurukula, is targeted to impart the Art of “Learning and Thinking”. Royal families, Rich merchants and children from such affluent and high society could only understand the necessity of such a knowledge. Invariably they seek such a knowledge. Last, but not the least, the afford such a training was not in the reach of ordinary citizens.
Is there a difference between man and Animal?
The key Differentiator – between Man and Animal!
Where is the difference between cattle and man?
The uneducated is considered gullible and are cheated in various ways, whereas the educated is not expected of.
This is based on the belief that Education would lead to the ability to Learn & think.
When it comes to getting cheated, both educated and uneducated there is no significant difference.
Every one in gullible to various degrees.
Q: How does a man live in the absence of Knowledge (learning & thinking)?
Living without knowledge, means Living based on faith. This also means, Swallowing the failures, enduring the pains in life, living as slaves and depending on other’s knowledge for day to day decision making.
In the absence of the above two abilities, (Learning & thinking) , there is no difference in the quality of life of people and animals. Truly speaking, most animals are not very different from people. We enslave cattle and also fellow human being.
- Worst still, we enslave humans too.
- Slave work more and fed very little.
- Goats follow the butcher
- We follow leaders who divide us and rule.
Has the advantage of living without effort.
But, remember, that there is a price being paid.
Year after year, several lakhs of people are duped, in the same way. Yet, people do not get alerted.
Example:
- Fake Swamijis loot the gullible, year after year.
- Foreign Employment racket thrives all round the year.
- Blade finance companies offering higher rate of interest but vanish with our capital.
- Chit companies that cheat the members.
- Offer to Polishing Gold (jewels) make many poor.
- Realtors thrive by Selling same plot / Flat to several people;
In every such cheating episodes, a few people with little bit more ability to learn & think, cheat the people down below in those capabilities.
The Education System that we have do not pay any attention to this important aspect of education.
Ability to think:Logical thinking and reasoning. Exposure to these skills are top-ups when one seeks to get into certain education streams and job hunt.
After learning, if one does not remember the learning goes waste, right, Next most important aspect of education shall be to cultivate the art of remembering right from the age of two or three.
Any practices to remember a large amount of poems/ prayers / songs / stories are training methodology to cultivate Ability to remember.:
When the child starts to reason, his memorizing abilities gradually diminish. Various children stop at the development of these two abilities at various stages.
The last and final step to knowledge that the eastern mystics talk about, is the application of what one learnt and remember. This is where most of the educated and affluent people, fail. This ability also forms part of ability to thinking.
PART 3.
STORIES TO EXPLAIN WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE.
It is understood clearly, living with knowledge is better than living mostly by faith.
It is said that the knowledge is all around us. They are well classified so that we can choose and get what ever relevant to our lives. They are in books, words of thinkers, in the communication that go around us. In the internet, radio, in the news papers and also in News Channels.
The question is, how do I get it?
(Q) Are memorizing the contents of a book, remembering spoken words, read news item become our knowledge?
NO ! NO ! NO!
(Q) Then what is a Knowledge?It is realized / obtained in various ways. We will discuss a few knowledge acquiring processes along with some simple stories to illustrate them.
First and basic knowledge acquisition process:
In a news item or in a long winding speech of a leader / minster/ sainly person, or for that matter every text, every conversation has knowledge contained in it.
There are books that contain experience of others about places, people, attitudes, good events, bad events and the like.
First way is getting selectively, the raw data, the raw information relevant to our lives. (filtering out the remaining) from the above sources.
This is a basic knowledge based on information alone.
Second level of knowledge acquisition process: More often than not, knowledge is not so much open to filter and take it. This is slightly involved. It is easy to imagine the process, through the example of how the scent is collected from flowers.
A simple story from Tenali Rama stories, to illustrate the above.
Example:
It is like SCENT in a Flower. A small amount of Knowledge carried in a large data / information / message / speech / Scripture etc.
The processes of acquiring it, is like collecting the scent in the flower and discarding the remaining.
In the above example, flower is not a knowledge. But the scent is knowledge.
There are many other analogies for this type of knowledge.
(1) Banking - collect small money from investors to fund large projects.
(2) Honey Comb filled with honey collected from several flowers in minute quantities,
We saw two steps to knowledge. The ability to learn and ability to remember whatever learnt. Second one is as important as the first. (Ability to remember is not explicitly stated as a step). Absence of any one is not a knowledge.
(EXPLANATION about knowledge acquisition with a story).
A short story of Tenali Rama will be very useful here to drive home the point:
The Story 01
What is knowledge?
Explaining it through a short story
Being a minster's son, the soldiers who caught the boy took him to the kind's court in a palanquine along with the basket of Roses he had stolen.
The witty minister happened to see his son being taken by soldiers and the basket full of roses. He quickly grasps the situation and before long, he utters , the guy who has a mouth can escape the punishment. Several meaning can be attributed to this statement.
This is an innocent statement that would mean nothing for anyone around. It could mean, some one who can SPEAK properly or intelligently could escape. The minister's son was quick enough to understand the knowledge contained in his father's message.
He ate-up all the flowers before the soldier's reach king's court.
The soldiers could not produce the flower's as an evidence that the boy stole them. Therefore the accused was acquitted.
The witty minister happened to see his son being taken by soldiers and the basket full of roses. He quickly grasps the situation and before long, he utters , the guy who has a mouth can escape the punishment. Several meaning can be attributed to this statement.
This is an innocent statement that would mean nothing for anyone around. It could mean, some one who can SPEAK properly or intelligently could escape. The minister's son was quick enough to understand the knowledge contained in his father's message.
He ate-up all the flowers before the soldier's reach king's court.
The soldiers could not produce the flower's as an evidence that the boy stole them. Therefore the accused was acquitted.
Here the knowledge burried in the message is is eat-up the flower's to escape!.
The information and processes that help one to accomplish desired goals. Alternately, to react correctly to a given situation that bring a success or prevent a failure.
(3) Third process for acquiring knowledge: Clubbing knowledge from different sources.
I had a student who argued with me that there are a lot of superstition in India. He is a brilliant chap and good at Chemistry, botany and was abreast with whatever he learnt some ten years ago.
I asked him to cite one.
He said he had heard in villeges about Ghosts that lives in trees,
They say, he continued, if some one sleeps at night under the Tamarind tree, the Ghost living in the tree would kill the person.
I told him, that it is a perfect science and not superstition.
He refused to accept.
I asked him, if plants breath.
He said, not only plants every living organisms breath.
I asked himm if he had heard of aerobic and anaerobic resperations?
At this moment, the boy's face lit up. He took a few seconds and said. Sorry sir, it is not a superstition. It is definitely a science.
I explained him, only in villages people sleep anywhere and everywhere. We city folk need closed room to sleep peacefully.
Most city folk can be told that certain trees like Neam and Tamarind during night time, breath in oxigen and release Carbon-di-oxide. With the tree breathing in oxygen and releasing carbon-di-oxite is sufficient to choke a person to death.
Most villagers may not believe when you say trees breath. They would start searching for nose in every tree.
What is the substitute to knowledge to ensure that people would be deterrent some one to sleep under a tree that breath out Carbon di oxide. Faith ! Villagers believe in Ghost.
Here we mix information / knowledge from two different domains. The belief systems from villages and botany, to know a truth in superstitions.
(4) (a) Identifying patterns in every natural objects, events and live processes.(b) Comparing new events with discovered patterns (c) Identifying solutions through pattern mapping/ matching,
(a) Every object and event in the universe follow certain
patterns. Every such pattern varies from the other by a
small extent.
Stories for analogies for the above will appear soon,
Where do we find knowledge?
There is knowledge all around us. There are in the books, thoughts of Men-of-knowledge. They are all packaged in the form of a poem or a description. We should gather, that hidden knowledge, the essence of the foregoing list and internalize them.
I will explain all these through simple stories / real life events.
Those who visit this BLOG are requested to leave their comments here.
The information and processes that help one to accomplish desired goals. Alternately, to react correctly to a given situation that bring a success or prevent a failure.
(3) Third process for acquiring knowledge: Clubbing knowledge from different sources.
I had a student who argued with me that there are a lot of superstition in India. He is a brilliant chap and good at Chemistry, botany and was abreast with whatever he learnt some ten years ago.
I asked him to cite one.
He said he had heard in villeges about Ghosts that lives in trees,
They say, he continued, if some one sleeps at night under the Tamarind tree, the Ghost living in the tree would kill the person.
I told him, that it is a perfect science and not superstition.
He refused to accept.
I asked him, if plants breath.
He said, not only plants every living organisms breath.
I asked himm if he had heard of aerobic and anaerobic resperations?
At this moment, the boy's face lit up. He took a few seconds and said. Sorry sir, it is not a superstition. It is definitely a science.
I explained him, only in villages people sleep anywhere and everywhere. We city folk need closed room to sleep peacefully.
Most city folk can be told that certain trees like Neam and Tamarind during night time, breath in oxigen and release Carbon-di-oxide. With the tree breathing in oxygen and releasing carbon-di-oxite is sufficient to choke a person to death.
Most villagers may not believe when you say trees breath. They would start searching for nose in every tree.
What is the substitute to knowledge to ensure that people would be deterrent some one to sleep under a tree that breath out Carbon di oxide. Faith ! Villagers believe in Ghost.
Here we mix information / knowledge from two different domains. The belief systems from villages and botany, to know a truth in superstitions.
(4) (a) Identifying patterns in every natural objects, events and live processes.(b) Comparing new events with discovered patterns (c) Identifying solutions through pattern mapping/ matching,
PATTERNS
patterns. Every such pattern varies from the other by a
small extent.
Identifying such patterns (in the nature. events) is a good learning exercise. Mapping such patterns on future events and objects that we interact compare with already stored patterns makes one understand and predict future events close to accuracy.
Example:
Long long ago Astronomers must have been the first set of scientific explorers on earth. Astrology should have grown, as an off-shoot of Astronomy.
The science of Astrology finds pattern match between patterns of planetary positions and patterns in human lives.I have known in the past quite a few astrologers who predicted as though they are seeing us (our situations) directly.
(This lead me to suspect that, each life must have a signature (like DNA) with a pre-programmed life pattern, with respect to some universal Common time.
Process of learning - Fifth:
Acquiring knowledge across domains give a power to solve complex problems. Applying the principle Four above, - identiying patterns across several domains makes one most knowledgeable.
Stories for analogies for the above will appear soon,
Where do we find knowledge?
There is knowledge all around us. There are in the books, thoughts of Men-of-knowledge. They are all packaged in the form of a poem or a description. We should gather, that hidden knowledge, the essence of the foregoing list and internalize them.
We also possess some small amount of knowledge by personally experiencing ( that we acquired), without ever realizing it.
I will explain all these through simple stories / real life events.
Those who visit this BLOG are requested to leave their comments here.
Other pages:
காரைக்குடி அருகே ஒரு சித்தர் கோவில்
http://science-of-spirituality.blogspot.com/
http://science-of-good-living.blogspot.com/
காரைக்குடி அருகே ஒரு சித்தர் கோவில்
http://science-of-spirituality.blogspot.com/
http://science-of-good-living.blogspot.com/
this blog is really superb. it makes one think.
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