Think For Yourself, And Others
One of our first lessons should have been, you guessed it, to think for ourselves. This does not imply my motive to make you selfish but means to have independent thought. Our actions are limited but at least our thoughts can have the power our actions don’t.
Why should I have independent thought when I don’t have the power to put it to action? Because otherwise whatever action we do take will have none of our own awareness.
What we become is largely shaped by what we experience. As children we experience a crude system to memorize and obey. Though in my case creativity did spark when I played with my friends, or alone in the mud. I remember I was obsessed with making small houses for ants, and I imagined they would stay in it and be grateful to me. Maybe my ambition was to have an ant army. But it was bad to play in the dirt and it was good to play with other kids. Just like now it’s bad to play video games alone but good to go out and socialize. We can disagree or agree with these statements according to our perspectives. But the important thing is where these perspectives stem from, or if we’re analyzing the statement without a personal perspective.
Children tend to believe whatever they’re told. Instead of telling each other what things are, if we let our mind wander and sort it out, we may come to discover more things than just what we are told. It’s quite like analyzing poetry, if I just read what others have written I am bound to miss a lot of useful material. If I read about the author I may end up wholly putting the poem to the author’s background. What I should start with is the poem itself, and ideally, end with it too.
It came to me a lot later that I should be able to analyze life myself. Of course life itself is a broad subject and we generally lack the attitude to understand it. This is why letting children discover for themselves, or helping them keep an open mind will allow them to look within themselves first. And perhaps look at life not as a monotone journey but rather a fresh experience each moment. Because really, what are we doing here spending each moment in a frenzy of confusion, when we could be capable of such peace and growth that is unimagined by kids spending all their hours in schools and coaching.
And can I just add, education isn’t supposed to make students want to kill themselves.