Question

essay on the whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows in 1000 words

Answer 1

“The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows” — Sydney J. Harris.

This metaphorical thought from Sydney J Harris, the famous American journalist us quite intriguingly meaningful. It emphasizes the age old universal purpose of education in new words. Education since ancient times has been instrumental in broadening man’s outlook on life; it has always humbled man. Before receiving education man is like a mirror; always reflecting shallowly. Mirror has no depth. It just reflects whatever comes in front of it. Similarly, without education man is as shallow as a mirror. He fails to see the truth about life that is hidden in the depths of knowledge.

Let’s try to understand the concept through an example. Let’s put two men in our perspective for comparison. One man is illiterate and uneducated; he does not read any books, has no pursuit in any field. He just lives, sleeps, works, eats, faces life’s challenges as they come. What contribution or breakthrough can you expect from him? Will such a man dare to dive into the sea of knowledge and bring some pearls or diamonds out of the depth? I leave the answer to your own discretion.

Let’s now bring in our perspective an educated man, who has gained the basic knowledge about certain subjects; and he has been intrigued by one subject particularly, say physics. He does his masters in this subject; but his curiosity to know more impels him to do PhD in it. While studying, he realizes the infiniteness of the subject he is studying, and starts focusing and researching on this infiniteness. Einstein was such man who

Now, which out of the two assumed men in our mental perspective do you think is looking through the window into the grand vista of the infinite universe, and which is standing in front of the mirror of his very limited vision of life’s mysteries?

Of course, you will agree with me the latter man with education has a far better chance in finding something new. The former will just go through the routine activities of daily life. He cannot experience the thrill of knowing the vastness of the universe!

I would like to bring your attention towards the fact that Einstein, Newton, Dr Bernard, Shakespeare, Helen Keller, Abraham Lincoln, etc, all belonged to the category of men and women who are not only educated alone, who have done exemplary work in their respective fields. Now, what was the power that enabled them to be so brilliant in their fields?  The answer is, they were all educated! Education proved to be a window for them to look deep into the universe and the infinite possibilities of doing and knowing the secrets of life. Imagine if the above mentioned names of personages had not got this window, what would have happened? Einstein became the great Einstein only after looking out of this window into the mysteries of life and finding solutions to them! So did the other achievers.The truth is education's transforming powers converts every illiterate man (mirror) into windows (educated man) of infinite vistas of knowledge.

So education is the only power that equips us with the required skills to lead a happy, fulfilling and meaningful life. Without education we would remain mere shallow mirrors, the inadequate creatures of imperfection. Our life problems unsolved!