Sunday, April 8, 2018

Should education strive for changing society? Or should it try to maintain our social and cultural norms?


       To me, I think education is for both, to maintain our good traditions, but to eliminate the bad ones at the same time. Bhoje (2015) says: “Education is a stabilizer of social order, conservator of culture, an instrument of change and social reconstruction.” In my opinion, education aims to educate people to the right way, and the right way sometimes is to be like your culture, but sometimes not. In some cases, the right way is to change even if all the people around you are against you. Like the “Idol of the Tribe”, we should have the courage to stop doing things that we do only because all the people do, but we are not convinced with. Education should make us able to decide what is good and what is bad, what is pleasant and what is evil, what is beneficial and what is harmful, and then go to the best side that suits both, me and the people around me. So, according to the situation, education should make us choose what is more suitable, Confucius’s or Kierkegaard’s ideas? If I find, according to my education and thinking, that my parents are right, I can obey them and be like them, as Confucius says. But if I find that my parents are wrong, then I should follow what Kierkegaard says and have my own life and decisions.
       The good traditions that I have mentioned meant the ones that keep us united together, that strengthen our relationships and encourage the love and cooperation between people without necessarily being benefited from. For example, sharing both, joys and sorrows with people, helping others whenever they need help, have a strong relationship with our neighbors, saluting…  
       While, by the bad traditions that should be eliminated, I meant the traditions that don’t make sense. There are some traditions that people still do nowadays without knowing the reason behind them or the purpose of them. They just do them because they get used to them. And sometimes when people are asked about the reason behind such traditions, they answer “I don’t know, but my mother and grandmother used to do so” for example. Throwing water after someone leaving to a far distance, putting the shoes of someone died in front of the houses’ doors, throwing the tooth to the sun when ripped, are some examples. Moreover, in my country, all the costs of a wedding should be paid by the man only, including the wedding party, the house and its furniture and so many other things. In my opinion, if the wife or her parents’ financial situation is good, they must help the groom by affording some costs. On the other hand, some people borrow money to make a luxurious wedding. But what is that for? So people wouldn’t criticize? One should be satisfied with what he has and do what he is able to do.
       Moreover, I think education, in both East and West, had changed the social life through technology. Education lead to technology, and technology reduced the social interactions between people, even in families. Two years old children nowadays are having electronic devices. Children are preferring to stay hours playing games on their devices rather than going outside and playing with their friends. This is making them less socialized. I have been tutoring a grade 7 girl for 3 years. Although she is very polite, she never salutes me or any of my family members when she comes to my house to take a lesson. The other day, when she came, she passed in front of my brother in law and did not salute, so he said to her “good morning” in English and Arabic and Frances to make fun with her and make her salutes, and I asked her to reply, but still she never replied and she did not even look at him, she only smiled.
      
       As a conclusion, both, eastern and western cultures have their advantages and disadvantages. We should try as much as possible to know which are the advantages of both sides and benefit from them in our educational systems and in our lives.


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