The teacher must know ‘why’ the kid must study science or history — only then will it reach the child, and only then will the child take authentically to the teaching. Human beings are not born human beings; they have to be educated to become human beings. Schools give birth to humanity in the real sense, and their role must be performed with a great degree of understanding and love.
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Acharya Prashant: Human beings are the only species that need to be born twice, firstly in the biological sense and then more importantly in the psychological sense. A puppy, a cub, a kitten they need to take just one birth — their biological birth, or their animal birth, or their bodily birth.
The human baby needs to take two births before it can be rightfully called a human being. The first birth obviously is from the mother’s womb, it is the biological or the animal birth, not very different from the birth of the offspring of any other species. It’s the second birth that’s far more significant — psychological birth, the coming into being of the psychic human.
The topic given to me is, "Why do schools matter?" This, obviously, is why they matter: the function of education is to give that all-important second birth to the human being. Or else, all we have on our hands is just the biological creature — not very different from an animal.
So, that brings us to the importance and the role of education in schools, in colleges, in families, in society in general. Education has to give shape to the mind of the child. Shape in what sense? Shape in a predetermined, pre-scripted sense? As the potter gives shape to the pot? No not in that sense.
