How can education be adopted at home?

Education is mainly concerned with the development of man. Therefore, it is very difficult to distinguish between the meaning functions and aims of Education as they are so closely interrelated with one another.

There is much overlapping, but all work together. Yet, for the sake of distinction, we may say that in meaning, we discuss ‘What education is’ in function, ‘What education does’ and in aim ‘What education should do’. The school, the church, the state, museums, libraries, art galleries, organised sports and recreation centres, etc., is the formal Agencies.

Active agencies are those which educate through the inter-action of individuals. Family, school, church, playgrounds, youth groups, professional organisations, etc. are some examples for this.

But in modern times these are agencies influence individuals without their actual interaction which is a two-way process. The press, the radio, the T.V., the theatre, the museum, the public library, the cinema and other such agencies influence the individuals, but are not influenced by them in the absence of interaction. Thus, these are termed as passive agencies.

Entire behaviour of a person at different stages of his life is modified by not one but many agencies of education. A system of education can be successful only if it makes use of services of all these agencies. All these agencies form a system of education.

Education begins in the family and at the school but lasts till death. It is a continuous process in the life of an individual. Home and School, however, are supreme in the education system.

Home is the original social institution. All other institutions are developed out of it. Morality is to be expressed in words and deeds. This he learns in the family. He forms the habits of industry, perseverance, self-control, reverence for nobility, striving for truth, courage, honesty, conquering the brute in man, sincerity justice etc., in the family. Home is the most significant informal agency of education.

Home provides a complete social environment to a child of vocational insight, teaching of social virtues, education in citizenship, moral and religious education, development of proper attitudes and interests. The element of disintegration in family has crept in, yet it is still a force in education.

The school carries out the programme set by the community and keeps the interest of the nation before it. Changes in society interact on the programme of education and thereby on school. School adopts, assimilates, conserve and transmit what is given by the society and creates new values for the society to adopt.

There should be no room for any kind of social, economic, religious, or political exploitation in our democracy based on socialism. It is possible only if the school system is based on such pattern.

The child from in such a school with from the habit of living in society as a part of the whole from the very beginning mutual love, to respect elders and learned, sympathy and co-operation with others, dignity of labor and pleasure in service and such other qualities become the inherent part of the student behaviour in their later life.

As the society became larger and more complex with the growth of civilization and human knowledge and experience accumulated informal agencies of education because in adequate thus the necessity of school arouse in the recent times role of the school as an agency of education has been well appreciated. Modern civilization has grown to such an extent that informal agencies of education have practically ceased to discharge them educational function.

The function of the family and the society or community also has become a concern of the school. The school, along with its own educational function has to provide to the student what home and community provided in the past. Universal education is now a necessity as well as an accepted social order and ideal. Education is the joint responsibility of home, school and society.

Education conserves and perpetuates social life. School provides minimum general culture to all the pupils, School trains children in a manner that they enrich and modify the cultural heritage.

Education, primarily, is a social function. All education takes place in a social setting or in the social milieu. Education being a social function has to discharge manifold social obligations.

As a matter of fact, education is a social necessity and school is a social institution. As such, the main task of education is to transform animal being into a social being. Man is essentially a social animal.

Through the process of education, mature members of the society pass on certain experiences, social values, traditions, purposes, attitudes, etc., to the younger and immature members of the society. This is the only way to ensure the continuity of the society. Without social and cultural heritage biological inheritance has no validity.

Education has been interpreted in regard to its functions. The main theme of education is to enable the individual to discriminate between good and evil, and to have a sense of values.

In a more simple way, it may be said that the main function of education is to prepare an individual for future life, an individual grows and develops and attains certain skills and learns the modes of successful living.

This process starts quite at an earlier stage and goes on upto the extent of death. John Dewey accounts the main function of education in equipping the child in the art of successful living. An individual has to recognise fundamental truths of life and practise the higher values of life.

In the olden days, a child participated in the activities of his society and learnt inter-personal relationship of the group. Through the day to day experiences of his life, he gained knowledge of the relationship that existed between himself and his social environment. Social life in those days was, also, very simple.

The family and community gave the child all the social education he needed. Also, he could learn the traits or trade of his ancestors.

No formal education was needed for this purpose. As the cultural heritage became more extensive, it contained more information about skills, techniques and methods to be employed in order to make a better living. As the child watched imitated, participated in the various activities of living, he was being informally educated.

Today the social order has become highly complex. Life in itself has got complicated. Therefore, education being a social function has to fulfill various needs. Moreover, due to the explosion of knowledge, multiplicity and specialization of occupations, scientific and technological advancement, the role of education has tremendously increased.

Previously all education could take place in the family or the society. At present it is beyond the means of these agencies to perform this important function. The whole social order has undergone a radical change.

For this purpose, now school has to provide what home and society provided in the past. It has to provide a total and complete education – Education for knowledge, skills, attitudes, understanding culture and for a proper orientation to the modern world.