'The Purpose of Education': Martin Luther King Junior On Education

New Delhi:  "I have a dream..." is perhaps one of the famous speeches in history. Delivered by Martin Luther King Junior, on August 28, 1963, at the 'March on Washington', it remains his most celebrated speeches. On January 15, 2018, the world celebrates Martin Luther King Junior's 89th birthday. Martin Luther King Junior was a leader of the civil rights movement in America and was one of the proponents of non-violent activism. He was greatly inspired by Mahatma Gandhi and visited India in April 1959. 

While he attended Atlanta's Morehouse College, writing for the campus newspaper, the Maroon Tiger, in 'The Purpose of Education' he highlighted the importance of education in not just achieving intelligence but also achieving the goal of social living. 

He underlines the role education should play in enabling an individual to think 'intensively' and 'critically'. In the essay he says, "Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.  The broad education will, therefore, transmit to one not only the accumulated knowledge of the race but also the accumulated experience of social living."

He says that an education which focuses only on 'efficiency' and not on character can turn out to be the 'greatest menace to society'. In the essay he contends that the most dangerous criminal is a man who has reason but no morals. 

He warns teachers and colleges that if not careful they would end up producing a group of 'close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts.'

Comments

His simple words, written more than 70 years ago, still hold truth. An education which focuses only on imparting students with reasoning ability cannot be complete and must also encourage character and moral development which are crucial in developing a humane perspective. 

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