Post Image
The Serengeti in East Africa is one of earth’s most stunning landscapes, and as well as being one of nature’s enduring beauties, is also home to the wildebeest. It is one of the places I have always dreamt of visiting, as the sight of its unabashed, untamed beauty, which the dark toned wildebeest epitomizes, calls to me. The wildebeests, or shy beasts, as some love to call them, and their migration pattern every year is one of the world’s true moving wonders, and a testament to tradition, and never changing mindset. The migration in search of grass and water has become a yearly phenomenon now extensively covered by the media. What gets my attention though, more than the graceful magnetism with which they move and how their movement of purpose, and sheer number glisten against the smiling sun, is their lack of collective preservation. Every year, the lions await them, hiding behind tall grasses, patiently waiting. Every year, the lions employ the same tactics of divide, and conquer, where they charge at them, to destabilize them, and in the process, look for the weakest, or the youngest to attack. Every year, like clockwork, it works, as the strong and fast leave the young and slow to the guts of the lions, even though they easily outnumber the lions, sometimes by ten thousand to ten. Animals, by default, are born with survivor instincts, or are made by default to operate under ‘natural selection’, where the strongest feeds on the weakest, and everyone is for himself. Humans, like other animals, are born with a default setting that starts with I, and ends with ME. I want so, so, and so. Everyone is against ME … No one gets ME! We then act from a subconscious, myopic angle, where we fail to see beyond our noses, and see ourselves and our perspective as the singular most important, revealing thing in the world. But what has separated us from animals, and taken us from the caves to the edge of space has been our collective learning, and education; knowing that what happens to one, is a disservice to many. Education, to me, is everything you learn besides that which is taught in class. It is what you remember and what shapes you, when everything else you’ve learnt is long gone, and forgotten. It is how knowledge reshapes your life lessons, and coordinates your mantra. It is that which teaches you what the most important thing in life is. Our default setting is destructive, selfish, and prejudiced and what it does is, make us see ourselves, our family, and friends, tribe, religion, and belief system as the peak of human intelligence, endeavours, ability, and comprehension. We are wired to act subconsciously in such manner. So the essence of a real education is to help us stay aware, and conscious of our biases, and default settings, and if possible, help us get rid of these beliefs. What education should do is wither away at our inborn prejudices, replacing them with curiosity, and consciousness. Education, as much as it is learning, is also unlearning. Unlearning our default system, and prejudices, while learning to be aware, and conscious. David Foster Wallas in his now legendary speech, This Is Water, said “…value of a real education … has nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness; awareness of what is so real, and essential …”       About the Writer: Odesomi Olanrewaju Bayo is an accountant, writer, and a dreamer. You can reach him on twitter @lanreode
You might also like:
This article was first published on 24th April 2015

guestpost

Comments (0)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *