Chapter 9
Knowledge and faith
The discussion on education would be incomplete if we discuss Education, without touching the twins, the knowledge and faith, .
Every one of us are aware either at conscious or at subconscious level that Knowledge is very important to us.
Some, unlettered villager to eminent persons in the society, some how, relate education to knowledge. Every one expect the educated to be knowledgeable.
But most educationalists deny any knowledge on how to impart knowledge.
What they know is to cover the syllabus, a process akin to “a priest chanting prayers before the deity”.
Often people working in Education space and information technology proudly announce themselves knowledge workers without contributing anything for knowledge.
So a short discussion about knowledge is inevitable.
Knowledge is not merely knowing. We use the word knowledge often, to mean “being aware of”. Instead, it refers to the result of a series of processes.
It starts with acquiring all the relevant information from various sources pertaining to a given domain, processing them and kept ready to recall and deploy any time The knowledge so acquired, ultimately, gives one the capability to understand a given problems in a given domain and solve them successfully within a short time.
The knowledge can be domain (dependent) knowledge or domain independent knowledge.
Domain dependent and Domain independent knowledge:
Domain dependant knowledge: Several branches of science, engineering and technology, medicine, health, accounting, agriculture, law are examples of knowledge domains.
Domain independent knowledge: This is what people refer, generally as Knowledge aka worldly knowledge.
Normally, one gathers information, process them and extract knowledge from it. The source for gathering information could be from: our own life experiences, experience of others around us, reading from books, listening to others. The rate at which one learn through experience is too slow. They sped their life experiencing and learning.
A literate person is better placed to learn and live a life, less painful than an illiterate. He can generate knowledge and use them.
Thinkers who lived in the past generated knowledge that is useful across the societies, valid For several generations of people. These knowledge is kept alive and passed from one generation to other. Through proverbs, stories, parables, poems.
They are ready for use form (Fast food?). They needs no processing for deployment.
The great thinkers divided the knowledge into three major groups / divisions. (1) Known (2) Knowable (3) Unknowable.
Known : Common man, that is, other than scientists and saints, every one of us live within the scope of Sense Perceptions. Any one with basic physics knowledge knew to his mind that what we see, what we hear, what we taste, what we smell and touch sense have very limited capability. What we can perceive is almost negligible compared to what is there around us.
In the limited perception, there are so many things to know so that we can live our lives through fulfilling our needs from time to time.
Even then, there is so much to know and our life span is too short for it.
We divide all that is there to learn into a small pieces and share among us. The education system is expected helps us achieve it. The details such as those a particular part, those responsible for imparting the knowledge and the methods varied from time to time
Knowable: The knowledge is not directly perceivable. They lie just outside the Known. Those who pursue that knowledge are far few in number. They need special skills that enable them to see through mind’s eye. what-ever that cannot be seen, through normal eyes, They use gadgets to extend their normal perception. It is possible, with more gadgets and time the penetration into Knowable would increase. Presently this is a domain frequented by Scientists.
Unknowable: A domain that is treaded by Saints of various schools of thought. Impossible for the common man and Scientists to haunt. IF any one does, he is then called a saint..
There are good reasons to believe that, a saint can wander through all the three spaces, at will.
The education system by and large touches upon information delivery in Known. Different persons entering these institutions to varying extent depending upon their individual learning capabilities and abilities to convert them into knowledge.
Modes of acquisition of knowledge.
Pro active and Reactive.
1. The Reactive learning
We face challenges in life. It manifests in the form of wants, unfulfilled desires, pains of various kinds, health related problems, disharmony with people around and so on. (The list is endless). Each such challenges give us the priority of what knowledge to acquire and what not.
Ideally, we should learn a lesson and convert them into knowledge so that we will not suffer from the same problem again. This is reactive learning. Often we repeat the mistakes and suffer from the same problem, time and again.
2. Proactive learning
Curiosity is another important factor that direct us towards a set of knowledge, without experiencing a suffering or set- back. . Very few among us learn from other’s mistakes. The source for such a knowledge is real life incidents and stories. Such an attitude enable one to learn ahead so as to prevent failures and losses. Such people face less pains in life.