The Real Characteristics of Education

The major characteristic of education is its emphasis on development. This implies the all-round development of the m&fidufl. : vidual is mad_e_ up of several components whichever to condition the way he reacts to events, persons, and bisection his environment. Prominent among these are the physical nature of the person (e. g. his size, looks, and physical fitness), his emotions (the way he feels and expresses his feelings), his social being (the way he relates to other people in his environment and the way others feel the effect of his behavior towards them) and his intellect (the way his ‘brain’ works, his reasoning ability, etc.). All these make up the personality traits of the individual child. Every child comes into the world with these traits, and no person’s personality traits are exactly the same as those of another. The ind-individuals personality traits tend to determine the way he behaves. The behavior exhibited can be of two main types - desirable and underside-able. To a large extent the code of conduct of the society to which the individual belongs determines what is desirable and what is not. What one society regards as desirable may not be so regarded in other societies. In most parts of Nigeria we bow, kneel, or prostrate while greeting our elders. In societies outside Africa (particularly in Europe and America)such elaborate rituals are not considered necessary. This is why it is common in educational and psychological writings to talk of socially desirable and socially undesirable behaviour. While it is true that the 'individual’s immediate environment determines the type of behavior that is regarded as socially desirable, some behaviour patterns are believed to be universally desirable. Every society in the world, for example, disapproves of theft, murder and adultery. Also, in every human society, an individual is expected to live peacefully with his neighbors. There are however differences, especially in degree, from one culture to another. For example, (as has already been pointed out) type of society in which one finds oneself. what constitutes adequate respect to elders varies between European and African societies. What constitutes bad language will also depend on the The task of education mainly involves helping to nurture (i.e. encourage and develop) the quality of those human traits so far dis-cussed In the process of education the child is helped to use these traits to behave in ways that are socially approved. Those aspects of his behaviour that are, at the same time, socially unacceptable are progres- sively discouraged All human faculties (the physical, the emotional, the social and the intellectual) can be nurtured in this way. Neglect of any one of them is hkely to lead to a lopsided form of education. We see evidence of lopsided education all around us. There are people who have spent a long tune in school, and who have passed all their examinations, but who cannot control their tempers and so cannot live peacefully with others There are those who can use their brains and not their hands, and so on The individual s physical traits are the easiest to take note of because we can readily see what a person looks like. Helping the individual’s physical traits to develop to their fullest capacity is one of the most important tasks of education We can easily notice differences in the rate of physical growth of European children and African children, children in the rural areas compared with those in the cities, children in over- crowded urban slums (like Apegunle and Mushin in Lagos) compared with those who live in healthier surroundings (like Ikoyi in Lagos), etc. The most important pomt about a person s physical traits is not size but health A very important task of education therefore, consists of helping the body to develop in a healthy manner. That is probably why nearly all cultures and societies encourage sports and games, good healthy surroundings, high quality food and care of the sick. Emotions are not as easy to see or touch as are physical characteristics. The effects of emo- tions are however easily felt. This is because an individual’s emotions determine the way he behaves towards other people. Moreover, the indi- vidual’s behaviour towards others determines the extent to which they accept or reject him. We can easily think of emotions like anger, love, hatred, ambition, kindness, and so on. Some of these (anger, hatred) are likely to be dismissed outright as undesirable by most people. The others (love, ambition, kindness) would probably be accepted by most people as desirable. However none of them is intrinsically desirable or undesir- able. What matters is the extent to which the individual controls them and the way he uses them in dealing with other people. One of the major tasks of education is to help nurture the individual’s emotions so that they are controlled and exhibited in ways that are not harmful to other people.

Human beings do not usually live in isolation but tend to congregate in communities. Communities exist in various hierarchies - the immediate family, the extended family, the village, the clan, the ethnic group, the district, the emirate, the region, the local government area, the state or the country. They can also be in different geographical and social loca-tions, for example, rural, forest, grassland, desert, or be engaged in all sorts of occupations such as farming, pastoral or industrial. They can be at different stages of development - traditional, modern, industrialised, transitional, etc. Whatever the nature of the society in which the indi- vidual finds himself, the fact remains that he has to live side by side with, and deal with, other people. Dealing with others, communicating with them, buying from or selling to them, reacting to what they do, is often referred to as social interaction. One of the major tasks of education con-sists in nurturing the child in such a way that he grows up to interact in a socially approved manner with other people in his society. We have so far discussed the individual’s physical, emotional, and social traits. We have stated that these have to be nurtured to the extent that they help the individual to behave in ways that are socially desirable. Man, unlike the lower animals, usually has a capacity for controlling his emotions and actions. This he usually does by using his intellectual powers, the ability to remember, to relate one event to another, to draw inferences and conclusions or to make judgements. Human actions are usually characterised by the mediation of the mental processes just mentioned. One of the major tasks of education is to nurture the indi- vidual’s intellectual abilities so that he uses them for the benefit of his other faculties in behaving in socially desirable ways.

Topics for Discussion

1 Can there be any real education without literacy and numeracy?

2  In what major ways do the people of your area bring up their chil-dren? How are these related to some of the views on education dis-cussed in the preceding chapter?

Project

Make a list of types of desirable social behavior among your people. Com-pare your list with those of other members of your class who come from different parts of the country. Then prepare a table to show the extent to which different groups in the country share common beliefs on desirable social behavior.