“Education is not preparation of life, but life itself,” says John Dewey. Education lights up every stage of the journey to a better life. Education’s unique power is to act as a catalyst to become an independent human being. In a wider sense, it gives equality, regardless of family income, gender, ethnicity, physical ability, etc. Education has a central role and responsibility in social transformation, especially in the promotion of human values of respect and understanding, and in assisting societies to confront the challenges of sustainable development. Education transforms both society and people in a particular direction by shaping and reshaping their patterns of thought, means of problem-solving, and ways of life. This will then contribute to further individual and social transformation in students by contributing to the social skills that transform their identity and ultimately their society.
Ken Robinson in his book Creative Schools, writes about four basic purposes of education. I feel they are four ways of transformation, namely Personal, Social, Cultural, and Economical.
Education enables the child to engage with the world within them as well as the world around them. Education is all about enriching the mind and hearts of people. All students are unique individuals with their own hopes, talents, anxieties, fears, passions, and aspirations. Engaging them as individuals is a heart-raising achievement. The world around them or the learning process helps them to understand how to engage with the world inside them. When education touches every phase of a child, the child transforms.
Education enables children to become active and compassionate citizens. They are equipped to contribute to the development of society through education. Even the least changes brought by them resemble society explicitly. Cultures are the values and forms of behaviour that characterize a different social group. Education enables children to understand and appreciate their own cultures and to respect the diversity of others. Also, we see that education enables children to become economically independent.
The aim of the school is to form the children into integrally developed persons by awakening their dreams, challenging them to unleash their inner energy, and driving them to their high performance. Aristotle says, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all. “All the curricular and co-curricular activities aimed towards forming children to the best citizen, promising individuals in future for family and society.