The Heart of education is Educating the Heart not only Minds

Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was once standing near a window of his office while he worked at DRDO. He saw the boundary wall of his compound laced with glass pieces for security purposes. He called his security incharge of DRDO and asked to remove glass pieces from his compound wall as that would hurt birds when they sit on the walls. The instance shows that he was not only educated in mind but also in heart.

But what does ‘educating in heart’ mean? Educating in heart deals with educating an individual or a society in morals, values and belief. Giving them education about their society to inculcate the feeling of compassion and empathy to inculcate tolerance towards vulnerable communities and other cultures and promote a feeling of mutual peace and harmony. Educating in heart and not only mind thus deals inculcation of above beliefs along with knowledge of technology & science.

But how is it necessary? Is it even relevant in today’s society? Has it even prevailed earlier or is a new phenomenon? In this essay, we will try to find answers to above questions and also take help of views of some eminent personalities in such investigation.

Ancient Indian society always did stress on value education along with acquisition of skills for war. Ashoka even though the greatest are warrior was a messenger of peace who even sent his children to Sai Lanka to educate others. Even the Mahabharata talks about the ‘just’ war which is fought for reasons.

In the medieval India, Akbar started religion of Din-e-Ilahi to educate people about ‘one God’ and to propagate peace among all amidst the clouds of war.

But with advent of Europeans, culture eroded. Britishers, who were educated only in mind, did not work for welfare of people. They did mindless exploitation thus robbing Indian motherland of its treasures.

A person who is educated both in heart and mind is at peace with himself and others. Feelings of hatred, anger are alien to him, He/ She is rational and has inclusive outlook.

There have been many individuals who have been educated by heart like Ramakrishna Paramhansa who propagated message of love, peace and devotion. Tribals are also an apt example of people educated by heart, if not mind according to conventional standards. It is the tribal society and their egalitarian ethos that female foeticide and sexual exploitation is one of the lowest in their culture. Even Indian women, who have a lesser literacy rate than men (of 64%), are still regarded as epitome of love, care and responsibility.

But why is it that today’s education system is neglecting the importance of ‘heart education’? Education today has become commodified and consumerist culture coupled with western influences has led to traditional Indian culture of inclusivity and education in morals take a backseat. The result has been increasing skirmishes and radicalization. It is not only education in mind but also morals which determine what we do with such knowledge.

Martin Luther King -“Educating a person only is mind & not morals is like educating a menace.” ISIS chief Abu-Bakr Baghdadi had a PHD but was still one of the most wanted terrorists. Even Hitler who had full education led world to war due to lack of morals but are there any examples in contemporary society where lack of education in heart if corrupting the system?

There are plenty. Our legislators who are supposed to be role models are engulfed in criminal practices, they themselves find loopholes in the law to evade taxes & bribe police. Economic inequality and exploitation is the foremost example of greed of individual acting on poor. This has rendered and manifested in 1% Indians accumulating 73% Wealth (Oxfam). It was lack of morals manifesting into wage inequality that millions of workers had to ‘walk’ back home during COVID-19 in India.

Even in agriculture sector rampant cutting of trees, groundwater extraction etc. has led to problems of water scarcity, decreasing sail productivity. If only people were more sensitized towards environment such problems could be easily avoided.

Examples of online harassment, cyber attacks, online bullying, sexual harassment are all different manifestations of lack of education by heart.

But then how do we change it? Has no step been taken till now? Various education policies of 1968 and 1986 mainly deal with classroom teaching. But very recently ethics curriculum has been introduced as part of syllabus which is a positive step. We must be taken from Gandhi’s Wardha Education policy which involves value education as its core aspect.

The technology is neutral. It is up to us how we use it and our ‘heart’ (viz. values, beliefs) play a major role in it. Oppenheimer might not have thought that the nuclear process that he has discovered will one day become a threat for the very world due to its greed and lack of morals.

Individuals who are educated both in heart and mind are the real change agents. It took an Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar to win rights for widows to remarry and an Ambedkar to win justice and equality for untouchables.

Hence, the need in society is to create awareness about such education. Role models such as Dr. Kalam, Vivekanand need to be taught right from school stage as it is there that child first learns Art 46 of Constitution and Art 21(A) of Right to education should be interpreted in their ‘spirit’ and value education be included as compulsory part of curriculum.

Even corruption by civil servants is an act of a person educated in mind and not in heart. Such acts need to be dealt strictly to set right precedent.

Vivekanand has asked youth to have ‘nerves of steel’, ‘muscles of iron’ and ‘minds like thunderbolt’. But in order to channelize this thunderbolt, education by heart is necessary and not only mind.

As a country too, India needs to take special care to utilize ‘demographic dividend’ and materialize the rise of ‘Asian Elephant’. It needs to educate its children in mind as well as morals to become a Vishwaguru and in words of Tagore forge an India and world –

Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken into fragments
by narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way
into the dreary desert sand of dead habit.