There are two worlds out there: the world of facts and the world of values. The first is what we learn and explore, the second is what we act upon. In the modern, secular education settings, we learn a great deal about the former but rarely do we pay as much attention to the latter as it requires. This leaves us with a vast number of university graduates who know and understand the world around them but often get confused when it comes to their actions.
To quote Alain de Botton from his book Religion for Atheists, “Universities are in the business of turning out a majority of tightly focused professionals (lawyers, physicians, engineers) and a minority of culturally well-informed but ethically confused arts graduates aptly panicked about how they might remuneratively occupy the rest of their lives.”
Perhaps, it is not entirely fair to put the entire blame on universities. We have implicitly charged them with a dual and possibly contradictory mission: to teach us how to make a living and to teach us how to live. And we have left the second of these two aims recklessly vague and unattended, often in the name of freedom.
This is where the religion comes in. For centuries, different religions have asserted themselves confidently when it came to the matters concerning values. How should I become a better human being? How should I help others? Should I kill an animal for food? Should I always tell the truth? If not, under what circumstances do I lie? These questions hold a significant place in our lives but universities hesitate to interfere in these matters. It would be nice, though, if someone could take us through the sphere of values and teach us how to act in this world. That’s the lesson our universities can learn from the religion.
What is the lesson exactly?
There are many, but there is one crucial thing that holds more significance than the rest. It’s the art of teaching. Religions teach us with the assumption that we are imperfect, fallible human-beings. This leads them to be more patient with the students. They understand that we are forgetful; therefore, they break down a valuable lesson into something incredibly simple and repeat it indefinitely. They know that we are looking for guidance. So they teach us how to act, what to do in a particular situation. We don’t have to copy their contents. We simply have to observe their approach and make the best use of it. That will have a huge impact on the lives of young students.
Kalampedia 