Essay on the Function of Education (By Jiddu Krishnamurti)

Preface:

            Jiddu Krishnamurti is a great philosopher, speaker and a writer. He was selected and nurtured at the young age by the Theosophical society headed by Annie Besant to become the World Teacher.  But he spirit grew independently and did not want anyone to follow him. in 1929, he dissolved the Order of the East and said, “The moment you follow someone, you cease to follow truth.” His views on education are as revolutionary as his spirit. In this work, he reveals the purpose of education in connection with understanding life, intelligence, learning, attention, inward freedom and creation of new society.

The Purpose of Education:

            J. Krishnamurti raises the question – Are we educated only to pass the exam and get a job, then for getting married and becoming more and more like machines? Should we study just to be proficient in Maths and Physics? He suggests not to study for life but to study life. Education is to understand the whole process of life – to discover for yourself  what is real. Today man is conditioned by religion, beliefs, ideas, tradition, and society. According to him, the function of education is to help man to live freely without fear.

What Affects and Develops Your Intelligence?

In his words, Intelligence means the capacity to think freely without fear, without a formula, to find out for yourself what is true. An intelligent mind is always clear, simple and direct but what affects it is ambition. Both spiritual ambition and worldly ambition produce anxiety and fear. Once a person is frightened, he can never be intelligent. When a person grows, he is afraid of several things – afraid of exam, placement, living, getting a child, losing a job, promotion, death, what the wife or husband would say, etc. Krishnamurti states, “Most of us have fear in one form or another; and where there is fear there is no intelligence.”

What Does Attention Mean?:

            Attention comes to a person only when the person is interested in something, only when he loves to find all about it. Once attention comes, then the whole mind is there and whole being is there. But what happens in classroom? The student stares at the window. The teacher compels him to pay attention to the subject. Throughout his life, a person is interested to do something, but he is compelled to do something else against his will. Religion, education, parents, society, tradition and everybody stand against him. But the function of education is to help the student to find what he loves to do from the beginning to end of his life.

About Learning, Inward Freedom and the New Society:

            According to Krishnamurti, learning is not restricted to class room and teacher. It is a lifelong process, He says, “When you are really learning you are learning throughout your life and there is no one special teacher to learn from.” Because a person learns from everything – a dead leaf can teach him impermanency, a bird in flight can teach him freedom, and so on. The function of education is not to try to fit a student  into the rotten society but to give him complete inward freedom to grow independently and create a new society. Only a person in constant revolt inwardly against tradition, against his own bondage can discover what is true and create such a New Society.