Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.
Malcolm Forbes
Our mind is like a blank piece of paper when we are born. Whatever we learn in our formative years stays with us for the rest of our lives. And that is where our education plays a key role. It leaves the right impression on our impressionable minds. In that sense, education works as the key that opens to us a world of possibilities.
Contrary to what most people think, education isn’t just what we learn at school or college. It is also about everything we learn from our surroundings and experience on our own.
No matter what we have been brought up to believe, education is a lot more than a means to securing a high-paying job; it defines our identity by defining our views on life and a lot more. No matter how much an uneducated person earns, he can never match up to the sophistication of a knowledgeable fellow. An uneducated individual is driven purely by his instincts, rather than a concrete set of values. For him, there is hardly any sense of right or wrong; anything that suits his interests works, even if it goes against the larger interest. An educated person, on the other hand, always takes decisions based on the collective good. His ideas shape his decisions, making them logical and consistent.
However, arguably the best part about education is that it knows no barriers of age, religion, or gender. Anyone who is willing to learn should be able to do so; age truly is a number when it comes to learning new things. Being a never-ending process, it continues throughout one’s life and ends only with their demise.
Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, popularly referred to as Malcolm Forbes, was an American businessman. Well-known for his lofty views on education, he once commented: “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”