Education

Years of discovery

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the
people who prepare for it today."
- Malcolm X

when we were young we were so inquisitive,asking questions about
almost everything,and school to some of us was a place of discovery,a
window to the unknown world,it was away of joining us unto diverse
people with their unlike cultures from all walks of life.Rich and poor
families who understand the priceless value of education send their
children to school into hands of strangers with a hope that their
children with time will get along well with them ( teachers and fellow
pupils). we were taught vowels and the alphabet in a very interesting
funny way without knowing exactly how important it would be in the
future.
I can recall the songs we used to sing which would help us memorize
what we were being taught easily;

Axe baazi banana matooke,Cup,cup kikopo Drum ye nggooma,Elephant ye
njovu fish kyenyanja Girl ye muwala House Enyumba again,

you know

ffe tuli embata eto,tetumanyi kubala,tubala ngatudamu,emu bili satu
nya,tano mukaaga musanvu munana mwenda nekumi uncle.
(We are young ducks and we don't know how to count,we count repeating
over again,1 2 3 4,5 6 7 8 9 and 10 uncle)

As the years went by,our learning kept elevating bit by bit,from
numbers and letters to words and sentences,then sentences and
punctuations,then stories and comprehension of stories to derive
meaning.Ever watched Akeelah and the bee ?  I found it very
educative,it is a movie about a spelling bee,the professor trying to
encourage one of the participants(Akeelah) said that there was no need for her
to fear the competition,he told her that however complex a word might
be,it has it's basic simple word.For example the word academiotics
wouldn't be that complex if you knew it comes from the word
academe.Any way of cause no kindergarten teacher would begin to teach
their pupil such words,but as you keep studing,you are introduced to
new things.
I hope many remember SST (social studies) where you are asked
questions like, what is an Environment ? ,what is a map ? etc,from
studing about and drawing Uganda to letting you know there is an East
Africa and an Africa at large,then other continents of cause,I did'nt
know there was an Antarctica until I was in form five of high
school.And today as technology advances we hope to see more and more
discoveries yet to come which of cause will later be included in the
curriculum in schools.

This continuous process of discovery is what can be called
Education.it is expected to be got from school formally,but if you are
to consider it keenly,you will find that most of it is got from home
( community ) since education is a process of discovery,it is from
home where we first discover most things.At home we learn what is
edible and what is not,how to get what to eat,handling our personal
hygiene,how to relate with other people et cetera.
Whatever kind of education ( discovery ) we get,it should prepare and
help us to face the world independently,as the good book has adviced

Train up achild in the way he should go,And when he is old he will
depart from it. proverbs 22:6

In Poor dad rich dad ,Robert Kiyosaki says "the thing with education
is that you become what you study"
Some people have defined education in different ways but it is all
related to learning something new;One said

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
- B.F. Skinner, 1964

Do you remember what you were taught back at school? I mean the
µ,%,the pie chart,logarithm,Mussolini,Bunsen burner,area of a circle and
all the other scrap which caused you sleepless stress filled
nights.Most likely you won't remember all,but that which you remember
however small it could be and you are always using it in everyday
life,is what one could term as education.Some one said "nothing is
useless if you use the experience wisely"
which gets me to another view,others say education is experience,it is
not something that is just passed to you passively,you have to go
through it yourself,you need to test it.Sometimes you won't know
something but when challenged to try it out,you will master it.when we
were kids we didn't know how to do certain things,but after we
observed and tried them out however difficult they seemed to be,we
learned them and now they seem obvious to us which was not so then.So
education is practical experience.
Education therefore according to me based on a non-extensive
research,is the ;Acquisition of knowledge,experience and attitudes to
face the world.
Many people look at education as a key to material gains,a
job,money,house,cars and the like,which is not a bad thing,the trouble
always comes when one goes to school,attains academic certifications
and fails to get the material rewards they had expected.They will feel
bitter and be tempted to think that perhaps their years at school were
spent in vain.Some will be blamed by uncivilized society for spending
all those sums of money and time in an unprofitable business.
but you see education is not an expense with some monetary value,it is
an invaluable investment which always brings both visible and
invisible returns.Gone are the days when education was thought of as
being for only the rich,In this age education is not a luxury you
indulge in by sending your child to school,it is a necessity
,something you can't live comfortably without.the Baganda say
"obutasoma buluma bukulu" literary illiteracy pains in old age

Because one is not formally employed in some fancy corporate company
it does not mean that their school years are useless,you know they say

"A master can tell you what he expects from you.A teacher
though,awakens your own expectations."

If you let education open your eyes,you will always see that what you
put in your head is far better than what you invest outside.
I remember the motto of my primary school was
' knowledge is power '
and our school mission was

"we strive to produce useful and productive citizens for today and tomorrow "

Close to 13 years since I left that elementary school,but when I
reflect on those words today I now understand them better than I used
to.Indeed knowledge is power,we now live in the information saturated
age,those who know something that is not known to other people have a
better welfare than the later.
Any kind of education should prepare us to be self sufficient,I thank
my parents who taught me more than I learnt from school,Dad used to
wake us very early when sleep is sweetest to go farming,I used to feel
so bad,I always wanted him to find his hotelia work far away from home
like he used to do most of the time,because then I would dodge
digging.
there are questions most kids hate,you remember ? "Did you bath? have
you done your home work? when are you going to school? wake up".I saw
them as a punishment then but now I find them a great stepping stone
to my hopes and dreams in today's fast changing world.Today no one
wakes me up to go for work, I do it myself without excuses because I
know responsible people earn their living.

"But before any great things are accomplished, a memorable change must
be made in the system of Education and knowledge must become so
general as to raise the lower ranks of Society nearer to the higher.
The Education of a Nation, instead of being confined to a few schools
& Universities, for the instruction of the few, must become the
National Care and expence, for the information of the Many."
- John Adams, in a letter to Matthew

Through the MDGs ( melinium development goals ), credit be given to
the government for the implementation of free formal Education for
those who can't afford it.There are so many issues with UPE (universal
primary education ) and USE (universal secondary Education ) some
people substituting Universal for useless ,but wait,like I said
nothing is useless if you use the experience wisely .I am a product of
UPE and I passed in first grade,but putting grades aside,that so
called useless education has prepared me for further formal and
informal discoveries .In today's world,to a greater extend what
matters is not where you went to school but your attitudes towads
life.

You can study from good schools but if what you learnt there does not
challenge you to be creative and self reliant,if all your life you
have learnt to be on the receiving side being spoon fed by
teachers,then that education may not be so helpful,With that kind of
Education system we can not have more Bill gates-microsoft,Jack Dorseys-twitter and
steve Jobs-apple who have redefined world-wide day to day operations,and
they did that because they,deep in their hearts knew that 'education
is not the certification paper that you are given on graduation,rather
it is an eye opener or trigger of inner endowed potentials which
invent extraordinary revolution.'

Sometimes what you learn along the way to a goal is more valuable than
the goal itself.
Good education should be that which keeps us thinking to find
solutions to challenges around us.even if we haven't learnt a lot of
practical professional skills yet,we expect to use our reading and
writing skills to discover things for ourselves,let us say locating
places using sign posts,communicating through written and spoken
languages,reading literature materials to draw information et cetera.
I have heard some people say that if you want to hide something from
an African,you put it into writing.Just because we don't have a
reading culture.Many people prefer television to reading.

"I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the
set, I go into the other room and read a book."
-- Groucho Marx

when you are watching television,your brain is put in the box of the
director of that drama,but with reading,your brain operates with a lot
of freedom ,you create your own images and scenarios the way you want
them.

The natural law of learning states that whatever you learn must come
out in a more thought-through productive way,whatever goes in must
come out,the apostle paul of the bible said to Timothy his spiritual
son that

"And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses
,commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" 1
Timothy 2:2

A teacher must teach,a doctor should attend to patients as a
journalist speaks for the weak and voiceless.The problem is that at
school we were taught with high expectations of working for money,and
with such a mentality we shall continue to be a strainous burden to
our communities.

"The greatest opportunity in life is being faithful with what is in your hands"

Whatever level of education that you receive,under any
circumstances,it must produce fruits to nourish the community.

"Poverty has many roots, but the taproot is ignorance."
- President Lyndon B. Johnson

- Sir Claus Moser
However much the African governments will try to help their people to
come out of poverty ,this won't be possible until we get right
attitudes and experiences in terms of good Education towards life.
The youth fund ( loan scheme ) won't be successful until we learn how
to handle our personal finances,most of us don't have a saving
culture,just because our parents from whom we were to learn from did
not have it,and school also does not teach this.so even if we get a
lot of money,without this financial discipline we can't get out of the
vicious circle of poverty.With the right financial literacy, some
people wouldn't even need a loan for capital (Entandikwa).
Some of our parents have poor spending habits and so it can't be a
surprise if the children do the same proudly calling themselves names
like Bigspender,uncle money,.
Education has never been cheap to aquire,if you want to have it you
need to get out of your comfort zone.
one professor said

if you think education is expensive,try ignorance

"Education costs money, but then so does ignorance."
- Sir Claus Moser

This is one of the contraversial statements of all time,but to be
honest ignorance is very costly .The bible says

my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge ,because you have
rejected knowledge I will also reject you from being priest for
me;because you have forgotten the law of your God,I also will forget
your children. Hosea 4:6

It is God who teaches us but to profit and have our knowledge and
experiences affect the world positively.