“The aim of liberal education is to unsettle presumptions, to defamiliarise the familiar, to reveal what is going on beneath and behind appearances, to disorient young people and to help them to find ways to reorient themselves.”
A very noble declaration: Remove the excrescences; go beyond the superficialities. Learn to unlearn and relearn. The key words are: unsettle, defamiliarise, disorient, reorient. “A thought too bold; a dream too wild.”
What are the implications?
Education should give us a new perspective, a new vision: broader, wider and deeper. It should give us mental strength and ability to sail the unchartered seas, move away from conventions, beliefs, faiths, to explore and experiment. The educated should be unbiased, not prejudiced and be tolerant. Humility is the mark of an educated person. He respects the contrarian view point; his convictions are strong but flexible, not rigid; he listens;....
