Historical Development of Aims of Education

In an ancient India the model of life was spiritualistic. The purpose of education is determined by the design of life. Thus the aim of the education was self-realization or we may say the realization of Brahma or the Absolute.

In ancient Sparta education was not egocentric but the socialist. Each man was not born for only himself, but was born for the state. The state itself was a school. The instant goal of this education system controlled by the state was to train young people in the barracks away from home, developing a rustic spirit in a robust body to produce brave soldiers. Human freedom was not allowed. Education was primarily physical.

In Athens, the individual occupied the central place in the field of education. Athenian education aimed at harmonious development of personality physical, intellectual, moral and aesthetic. It secured harmony between the people and the state, between the physical and also the mental development, between thought and the action. Its immediate goal was to develop a beautiful spirit in a beautiful body. Plato and Aristotle, Socrates, the Greek idealists, discarded extremely individualistic aim of the education.

Socrates stressed the acquisition of knowledge or the universal and eternal truth.

Plato advocated the harmonious development of all the powers of the individual and personal achievement equated with social solidarity.

Aristotle defended the ideal of harmony between the individual and society, between intellect and character and the theory and practice.

The ancient Romans had no interest in the acquisition of just the theoretical knowledge. Their outlook was materialistic. Their highest aim of life was the attainment of material success. The purpose of the Roman education was therefore to produce a worthy citizen of the Roman state, able to enjoy the rights and perform the duties of a citizen. During the middle ages, education was wholly a priestly affair. Mysticism, monasticism, chivalry and scholasticism dominated life in all areas. Education was absolutely formal and religious character in Outlook.

With the passage of time, this liberal humanistic education has degenerated into an artificial and formal system. Against this false education the Realistic movement started under the leadership of Bacon and Comenius. According to them, lack of knowledge was at the root of all evils. So they pleaded spread of universal and integrated knowledge. The individuality of the child, powers and interests were of utmost importance. For religious, social, psychological and educational reasons, a new educational theory, known as the theory of mental or formal discipline was in vogue. John Locke was the historical representative of this new doctrine. He said the purpose of education should be to create a healthy mind in a healthy body. The purpose of education is to discipline all faculties such as memory, imagination, perception, thought, etc.

A true individualistic ideal of the education came into existence in the 18th century. J.J. Rousseau rebelled against the existing artificial and demoralized system of education. He not only championed the cause of ordinary people but also the cause of the child in the field of education. Thus the naturalism emerged in education. Rousseau’s concept of negative education highlighted education according to the nature. The child was considered to be important and central factor in the field of education. The aim of the education should be therefore, spontaneous natural self-development of the child’s nature in close contact with nature.

Kant was strongly influenced by the individualistic conception of education and identified education as the process by which man becomes human through its voluntary efforts.

Pestalozzi introduced the psychological tendency in the education and with it the movement of the centrique child in education has received a new impetus and boost. According to him, education is the process of spontaneous unfolding of latent powers of the individual towards perfection.

Herbart shouldered this task and has developed a systematic psychology of teaching methods.

Froebel, the German idealist, regarded education as the spontaneous development of a joyful auto business, creative.

From the above survey of educational ideals, it is clear that the objectives and functions of education have been variously defined in different ages by different teachers. Therefore, we can conclude by saying that the goals of education are not fixed and static, but they are subject to constant and dynamic changes.

Education in the Broader Sense

In its wider sense, education is the complete development of the personality. In this direction. Education consists of all those experiences that affect the individual, from birth to death. Thus, education is the process by which a person develops his love freely according to its nature in a free and uncontrolled environment. In this way, education is a long process of the environment of the growth of life.

S. S. Mackenzie shares his thought about it as:

• In a broad sense, it is a process that continues throughout life, and was promoted by almost all experiences in life.

M. K. Gandhi said:

• By education, I mean the all-round development of the best in children and the body, the human mind and soul.

Dumvile said:

• Education in its broadest sense includes all influences, on an individual during his transition from cradle to grave.

John Dewey said:

• Education in its broadest sense is the means of social continuity.

Education in the broad sense is a life-long process. It begins with the birth of a child and it ends with his death. It is a nonstop process. Continuity is the law of life. Education is not limited to class only; it is also not limited to a particular period of life. Education is a life lengthy process and goes on from birth to death. Throughout the life one goes on learning to adjust oneself to the changing patterns of the life. Change is the fundamental law of human existence. Life is a continuous process of growth and development and so education is an ongoing process.

An individual learns through his experiences, which are acquired throughout his life. Education is not just collection of some information. It is achievement of experiences through life in the social and the natural environment. It includes all the knowledge and experiences, acquired during childhood, infancy, adolescence, boyhood, youth, manhood or old age through any organization of education, the travels, the press,  the club, and the nature- formally and informally. Therefore, the education becomes the sum of all experiences that the child obtains either in the school or outside in life. In this broader sense, life is the education and the education is life. Whatever broadens our horizons, deepens our knowledge, refines our responses and stimulates thought and feeling, educates us. In other words, education is the process by which a human being himself gradually adopted in various ways to the physical, social and spiritual environments. It is the development of all the capabilities of the individual, which will allow him to control his environment and fulfill its potential. “Education, in the broader sense, is transmission of life by the living, to the living, through living and for living”. Education is a means for the development of balanced all-round harmonious development of personality. Personality includes not only body and mind but also spirit.

AIMS OF EDUCATION

Need of Aims of Education

Education is a determined activity. Through education we intend to bring certain desirable changes in the students. The education is a conscious effort, and as such, it has specific goals and objectives. In the light of these objectives, the program is determined and the educational outcomes of students are measured. Education without aims is like as a boat without its rudder because aims give us a direction to activity. With the absence of an aim in education makes it a blind alleyway. Every stage of human progress had some aim of life. The aims of the life determine aims of the education. The aims of the education have changed from age to age and therefore it is dynamic because the aims of the life are dynamic.

Nature of the Aims of the Education

With the aim to know the aims of the education, we must know the nature of the aims. The aims of the education are not fixed, eternal and the universal. These are changeable and relative. The nature of the aims of education can properly be understood in the light of two distinct philosophies of life-idealism and pragmatism. Idealism stands for ultimate, absolute, eternal and the universal values. It promotes high standards of life, which are mostly spiritual in nature. Idealism implores “knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”In idealist society, the education is for the general and for the moral development of a person. According to the idealism, the aims of the education are spiritual and idealistic in nature and they are absolute, predetermined, unchangeable and the universal. The aim of idealist education is to realize these pre-existing, absolute and the universal values. It is “The Education for complete living.”

Pragmatic deals with life as it is and not as it should be. It is also known as the realistic approach to the life. Realism in the social, the political and the economic circumstances or force of life is considered. The current conditions of the life establish the objectives of the pragmatic education. Pragmatism does not believe in absolute and eternal values: philosophy of life is always reflected in the goals of education.

Plato measured that the guardians of the state should have high theoretical ideals.

Locke emphasized that “the disciplined and well-ordered mind.”

Hegel stress on idealistic the aim of the education, that is glorification of the state and the fulfilment of the will of the absolute.

Marx was a materialist. Therefore he emphasized material the aim of the education, that is, the practical economic needs of a man. In a materialist society, the educational aims are based on the materialistic outlook of the people. In such a society moral or the spiritual values have nothing to do with the education. The idealist society tries to glorify those values and emphasize moral upliftment of personality.

The socio-political ideology also determines the aims of the education. A fascist government, A democratic government, A communist government each one formulates its own split ends and means of the education. The democratic ideals of the life are flexible and change with the changing conditions of the life. Thus, in a democracy, the goal at the highest development of innate potentialities of the individual. In fascism the personality exists for the state and the education aims at glorification and the welfare of the state. Man is seen as the creature of the State Social and economic issues are also critical of the goals and objectives of education. Education must prepare to the future generation for the economic and the social system of the country. To determine its educational goals, each country must consider its economic conditions. Therefore we find variability is the nature of the educational aims. The Secondary Education Commission (1952) place it: “As the political , social and economic conditions change and new problems arise , it becomes necessary to thoroughly review and re- articulate the goals of education for the final stage should keep in view.”

LOGICAL MEANING OF EDUCATION

In the following lines, we are annoying to create the meaning of education more clearly by explaining its constituent issues in better details:

• Not restricted to knowledge imparted in Schools:

Education cannot be limited to the processes of giving knowledge to children in the schools only. Its program goes on from birth to till death. In other words, every one learns something or the other throughout life by different experiences and activities. All of these counted in Education.

• Education as the Development of Child’s Innate Power:

Education is developing the native endowments of a child rather than something forced into the mind from outside of the children.

• Education as a Dynamic Process:

 Education is not static but a self-motivated process, which develops the child’s activity and mind according to changing situation and times.

• Education as a Tri-polar Process:

1). John Dewey regards:

                                     Education is a process of development.

According to John Dewey education has two features:

1)    Psychological and (2) Sociological.

He declares that the development of a child does not take place just in vacuum. It takes place through the society in which the teacher and the child both live together in school life. Thus, it depends more on society, which will determine the aims, contents and methods of teaching. Thus, the process of education contains three poles, namely, (1) The teacher, (2) The child, (3) The society. These three features actively cooperate in the efficient and successful working of the educational process.

THE CYCLIC PROCESS OF EDUCATION

Education should be a continual repetition of these cycles. Each lesson in its minor way should form an eddy cycle concerning in its own subordinate process. Longer periods should issue in exact attainments, which then form the starting-grounds for fresh cycles. We should drive out the idea of a mythical, far-off finale of education. The pupils must be continually enjoying some fruition and starting anew, if the teacher is inspiring in exact proportion to his success in satisfying the rhythmic cravings of his pupils.

An infant's first romance is its awakening to the apprehension of objects and to the appreciation of their connections. Its growth in mentality takes the exterior form of occupying itself in the co-ordination of its perceptions with its bodily activities. Its first stage of precision is mastering spoken language as a tool for classifying its contemplation of objects and for strengthening its apprehension of emotional relations with other beings. Its first stage of generalisation is the use of language for a classified and enlarged enjoyment of objects.

This first cycle of intellectual progress from the achievement of perception to the acquirement of language, and from the acquirement of language to classified thought and keener perception, will bear more careful study. It is the only cycle of progress which we can observe in its purely natural state. The later cycles are necessarily tinged by the procedure of the current mode of education.

There is a characteristic of it which is often sadly lacking in subsequent education; I mean that it gets complete success. Finally of it the child can speak, its ideas are confidential, and its perceptions are sharpened. The cycle achieves its object. This is much more than can be said for most systems of education as applied to most students. But why should this be so? Definitely, a new-born baby looks a most unpromising subject for an intellectual progress when we remember that the difficulty of the task before it. I suppose it is because of nature, in the form of surrounding circumstances, sets it a task for which the normal development of its brain is exactly fitted. I do not think there is a particular mystery by the fact of a child learning to speak and think as a result all the better; but it has to think about.

Into further education, we have not sought for cyclic process in a finite time their course and their own limited sphere get a complete success. This is the end of an exceptional nature in the natural cycle for infants. Later, we start a child on a topic, say Latin at the age of ten, and the hope of a uniform system of formal training to achieve success at the age of twenty. The natural result is failure, both in the interest and acquisition. When I speak of failure, I compare our results with the brilliant success of the first natural cycle. I do not think it's because our tasks are inherently too hard when I remember that a child's cycle is the most difficult of all. This is because our tasks are defined in a natural way, without rhythm and without intermediaries’ success and without concentration stimulus.

The whole being of the infant is engrossed in the practice of its cycle. It has nothing else to divert its mental development. In this respect there is a striking difference between this natural cycle and the subsequent history of the student's progress. It is perfectly obvious that life is a very different and that the mind and brain naturally develop so as to adapt themselves to the many-hued world in which their lot is cast. Still, after making allowance for this consideration, we will be prudent to preserve some measure of concentration for each of the subsequent cycles. In particular, we should avoid a competition of diverse subjects in the same stage of their cycles. The fault of the older education was unrhythmic concentration on a single undifferentiated subject.  Our modem system, with its emphasis on a preliminary general education, and with his easy tolerance of the analysis of knowledge in different subjects is a collection unrhythmic equally troublesome waste. I am importunate that we shall endeavour to weave in the learner's mind a harmony of patterns, by coordinating the a variety of elements of instruction into subordinate cycles each of intrinsic worth for the immediate apprehension of the student. We must garner our crops each in its due season.

Capabilities of computer

Speed:

A computer can process data/information faster than any other machine designed to perform a similar task.

Repetitions:

A computer can tirelessly perform the same operations million times in exactly the same way without getting bored and tired of the way a human clerk would.

Accuracy:

The high-speed processing of a computer is accompanied by high-precision results. No other system can have as much precision as a computer system.

Logical Operations:

The computer can make decisions based on certain conditions and take alternative action plan accordingly.

Store and recall information:

The computer is like human brain as it can store facts, instructions and information and recall them when needed.

Self-checking:

The computer verifies the accuracy of its own work by means of a parity check.

Self-operating:

Once the data and the program are fed into the computer memory, the computer is able to execute the instructions alone without human intervention.

Use of Punched Cards by Hollerith

A step in the direction of automated computing was the development of punched cards, which were first successfully used with computers in year 1890 by Herman Hollerith (left) and James Powers, who worked for  US. Census Bureau. They have developed devices that could read the information that had been drilled in the cards automatically, without the human help. Because of this, reading errors were reduced significantly, work flow increased and most importantly stacks of punched cards could be used as easily/with no trouble accessible memory of almost unlimited size. Moreover, different problems could be stored on different stacks of the cards and accessed when needed.

These great advantages were seen by the commercial companies and soon led to the development of improved punch-card using computers developed by International Business Machines (IBM), Remington (the same people that make shavers), Burroughs, and other the corporations. These computers used electro-mechanical devices in which electrical power offered mechanical motion like turning the wheels of an adding machine. Such systems included characteristics to:

•   feed in a specific number of cards automatically
•  add, multiply, and kind
•  feed out cards with punched results

As to compared to today’s machines, these computers were slow, usually processing 50-220 cards per minute, each card holding about 80 decimal characters (numbers). At the time, however, punched cards were a massive step forward. They offered a means of I/O, and memory storage on a vast scale.

For more than 50 years after their first make use of, punched card machines did most of the world’s first business computing, and considerable amount of the computing work in science.

THE FATHER OF COMPUTER: CHARLES BABBAGE

Charles Babbage was in born in Walworth on 26 December, 1791. He attended Cambridge University in 1810 to study mathematics and graduated without honors from Peterhouse in 1814, after it, he received MA degree in 1817. After getting graduation he got marry with Georgiana Whitmore with whom he had eight children, three of whom lived to adulthood, the couple from them made their home in London off Portland Place in the year 1815. His Wife, father and two of his children died in year 1827. In 1828 Babbage decided to move Marylebon, which remained his home till his death on 18^th October 1871. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in year 1816 and he was also the Lucasian chair of mathematics at the Cambridge University, England from 1828 to 1839. He was also a mathematician, philosopher and mechanical engineer, Babbage is best remembering for originating the concept of a programmable computer.

In 1812, Babbage realized that many lengthy calculations, especially those who needed to make mathematical tables, were really a chain of predictable actions that were constantly repeated. From this he supposed that it should be possible to do these automatically. He started to design an automatic mechanical calculating machine, which he named a difference engine. By 1822, he had working model to demonstrate with. With the financial help from the British government, Babbage started fabrication of a difference machine in year 1823. It was intended to be steam powered and fully automatic, including the printing of the resulting tables, and commanded by a fixed instruction program.

The difference machine, although adaptability and limited applicability, was in reality great progress. Babbage continued to work on it for the next 10 years, but in 1833 he lost interest because he thought he had a better idea the structure of what today would be a general objective, fully controlled by program, automatic mechanical digital computer. Babbage named this idea an analytical Engine. The ideas of this design showed a lot of foresight, although this could not be appreciated until a full century later.

The plans for this great engine required an identical decimal computer operating on numbers of 50 decimal digits (or words) and having a storage capability (memory) of 1,000 such digits. The built-in operations were supposed to include everything that a modern general purpose computer would need, even the all important Conditional Control Transfer Capability that would allow commands to be executed in any order, not just the order in which they were programmed.The analytical engine was soon to use punched cards (similar to those used in a Jacquard loom), which would be read into the machine from several different Reading Stations. The machine was supposed to operate automatically, by steam power, and require only one person there.

The computer of Babbage was never finished. A lot of reasons are used for his failure. Most used is the lack of accuracy machining techniques at the time. Another assumption is that Babbage was working to find a solution of a problem that few people in year 1840 really needed to solve. After Babbage, there was a little bit loss of interest in automatic digital computers.

Between 1850 and 1900 most great advances were made in mathematical physics, and it came to be known as most observable dynamic phenomena can be recognized by differential equations (which meant that the most events occurring in nature can be measured or explained in one equation or another), so that easy it means for their calculation would be helpful.

Furthermore, from a practical view, the availability of steam power caused manufacturing (boilers), transportation (steam engines and boats), and commerce to prosper and led to a period of lots of engineering achievements. The designing of railroads and making of steamships, textile mills, and bridges required differential calculus to find out such things as:

·         center of gravity

·         center of buoyancy

·         moment of inertia

·         stress distributions

Even the assessment of the power output of a steam engine needed mathematical integration. A strong need thus developed for a machine that could rapidly perform many repetitive calculations.

The Birth of Computer: In The Beginning

The history of computers starts out about 2000 years ago, at that time the birth of the abacus; this is a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on them. When these beads are moved around, According to programming rules memorized by the user, all regular arithmetic problems can be done. Another important invention around at the same time was the Astrolabe, it used for navigation.

Blaise Pascal is credited for building the first digital computer in 1642. He added numbers entered with dials and it was made to help his father, a tax collector. During 1671, Gottfried Wilhelm vonLeibniz created a computer that was built in 1694. It could add, and, after make changing some things around, multiply. Leibniz a special stepped gear mechanism for introducing the addend digits, and the great thing is that this is still being used.

The prototypes made by both Pascal and Leibniz were not used in many places, and considered weird until a little more than a century later, when Thomas of Colmar (A.K.A. Charles Xavier Thomas) invented the first successful mechanical calculator that could add, subtract, multiply, and divide. A large number of improved desktop calculators by many inventors followed, so that by about 1890, the variety of improvements included:

• Accumulation of one-sided results 

• Storage and automatic re-entry of previous results (A memory function) 

• Printing of the results

Each of these required manual installation. All of these improvements were mainly made for commercial users, and not for just the needs of science.

A Little Accurate Definition of Education

There are several different definitions and meanings of education as in MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION, guide us to the conclusion that education should have a complete definition. therefore, education may be defined as a psychological, conscious or unconscious, purposive, sociological, scientific and philosophical process, which brings about the development of the individual to the fullest extent and as well the maximum development of society in such a way that both enjoy maximum happiness and prosperity.

To cut a long story short,

Education is the development of individuality according to his needs and demands of society, of which he is an essential part.

In the First article MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION, observations of different educators highlight the following special features of education:

• Education is both, independent as well as bi-polar in nature.

• It is a unbroken process.

• It is knowledge with experience.

• It is progress of particular aspects of human personality or a harmonious integrated growth.

• It is conducive for the good of the human being or the welfare of the society.

• It is a broad-minded discipline or a vocational course.

• It is stabilizer of social order, an instrument of change, conservator of culture and social reconstruction.

GOODNESS, HOW IS IT PRODUCED?

Goodness of character does not come by nature, but is produced by habituation.

Goodness, then, being of two kinds, goodness of intellect and goodness of character, intellectual goodness is both produced and increased mainly by teaching, and therefore experience and time are required for it. Goodness of character, on the other hand, is the outcome of habit, and accordingly the word "ethos," character, is derived from "Ithos," habit, by a slight modification in the quantity of the vowel.

From this it is evident that no form of goodness of character is produced in us by nature; nothing which is by nature can be habituated to be other than it it For example, a stone, which naturally tends to fall downwards, cannot be habituated to rise upwards, not even if we try to train it by throwing it up an indefinite number of times, nor can anything else that acts in one way by nature be habituated to act in another way. Goodness, then, is not produced in us either by nature or in opposition to nature; we are naturally capable of receiving it, and we attain our full development by habituation.

Secondly, in the case of everything that comes to us by nature, we first acquire the capacities and then produce the activities. This is clear if we test it by the senses. It is not by seeing often or hearing often that we got the senses of sight and hearing. On the contrary, we had the senses first and then used them; we did not get them by using them. There various forms of goodness. The things which we are to do when we have learnt them, we learn by doing them; we become, for instance, good builders by building and good lyre players by playing the lyre. In the same way it is by doing just acts that we become just, by doing temperate acts that we become temperate, and by doing brave deeds that we become brave. What actually happens in states is evidence of this. It is by habituation that lawgivers make citizens good and this is the aim of every lawgiver. Those who do not it well, fail in their aim, and this is just the difference between a good constitution and a bad one.

Again, the material from which and the means by which any form of goodness is produced and those by which it is destroyed are the same. This is so too with any form of art; for it is by playing the lyre that both good and bad lyre-players are produced, and it is the same with builders and the rest. It is by building well that they will become good builders and by building badly that they will become bad builders. If it were otherwise, we should have no need of anyone to teach us; all would become good or bad as the case might be. So too in the case of goodness. It is by acting in business transactions between man and man that we become just or unjust as the case may be, and it is by acting in the moment of danger and habituating ourselves to fear and not to fear that we become cowards or brave men. So too it is with our desires and feelings of anger. Some people become moral and good-tempered, while others become immoral and bad-tempered, according as they behave themselves in one may or another in these matters. In one word, conditions of soul arise from activities of like character to the conditions. What we have to do, then, is to qualify out activities, since the differences between the conditions of soul correspond to the differences of the activities which give rise to them. It is of no little importance, then, that we should be habituated this way or that from the earliest youth; it is of great importance, or rather all important.

Now our present study is not, like others, a theoretic  one. The object of our inquiry is not to know what goodness is, but to become good ourselves. Otherwise it would be of no use whatever. We must therefore consider actions, and how they ought to be performed; for, as we have said, it depends entirely upon our actions what the character of our conditions of soul will be. That we should act according to the right rule is common ground and we may assume it. But we must come to an understanding at the outset that every description of how we should act must be a mere sketch; it cannot be exact. At the very start we laid down that the kind of discussion required in any case must be such as the subject-matter admits of, and that our statements about action and what is good for us can have no fixity, any more than statements about health. And, if this is true of the subject generally, it will be still more true that the discussion of particular points admits of no exactitude. They do not fall under any art or professional tradition, but the agents themselves must in every case consider what the occasion demands, just as in the case of navigation and medicine. Still, though this is the nature of the present subject, we must do what we can to come to the rescue.

“Analogy shows that the sort of activities which will produce goodness are activities in a mean. The mean is in feelings and actions, mainly in pleasure and pain, which are the true materials of goodness.”

The first point to be observed, then, is that in things of this character excess and defect are both destructive. We must use as evidence of what is obscure such things as are clear, and we see that this is to in the case of health and strength. Both excess and defect of gymnastic exercises destroy strength, and in the same way excess and defect of food and drink destroy health, while the right proportion produces, increases, and preserves it. It is the same with temperance, courage, and the other forms of goodness. The man that shuns and fears everything and faces nothing becomes a coward; the man that fears nothing and goes to meet every danger becomes rash. In the same way, the man who indulges in every pleasure and never refrains from any becomes intemperate, and the man who shuns all pleasures, like the boors, becomes insensible. So temperance and courage are destroyed both by excess and defect, and preserved by the mean.

Not only, however, do we find that the material and the means of the production, development and destruction of these conditions are the same, but also that the activities which arise from the conditions when formed have the same objects. This is in the less obscure cases, for instance in the case of strength. Strength is produced by taking a great deal of nourishment and undergoing a great deal of exertion, and it is just the strong man that can do these things best. So it is in the case of goodness. It is by abstaining from pleasures that we become temperate, and it is when we have become temperate that we are best able to abstain from them. So again with courage; it is by habituating ourselves to despise objects of fear and by facing them that we become courageous, and it is when we have become courageous that we shall best be able to face them.

A Little History About The Great Scientist

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was born at Stagira in Thrace. His father, a physician at the Macedonian court, died while Aristotle was young. At the age of 17 Aristotle went to Athens to become a student at Plato's Academy and remained for twenty years as a student and colleague. After Plato's death, Aristotle taught for three years in Asia Minor and spent another three years at Mytilene. Then he became tutor for about eight years to the young Macedonian pence mi who was to become Alexander the Great.

Upon Alexander's accession to the throne in 336 B.C. Aristotle returned to Athens. There he founded a school known as the Lyceum which soon outshone Plato's Academy, Indeed the Lyceum had many more of the characteristics of a modem university. It promoted research and intellectual exchange as well as teaching. It included a "Temple of the Muses," several lecture rooms, and a library and map room. These were set in a large garden where masters and students walked while discussing their subjects. (Members of the school came to be known as Peripatetics, from the Greek word meaning "to walk about.") It is said that Aristotle lectured to his students in the morning and in the afternoon offered lectures to which the general public was invited.

Many of Aristotle's earlier works and notes were lost. Only a small part remains of what must have been a more complete work on education. The works that have come down to us were preserved by his successor as head of the Lyceum and later compiled in Rhodes. His works were rediscovered in the 13th Century from Arabic versions.

Nicomachean Ethics was named for Aristotle's son, Nicomachus. The Politics is based on Aristotle's compilation and study of 158 Greek city-state constitutions as well as his own direct experience in politics. Like Plato, Aristotle is vitally concerned with the relationship between education and government. He sees the cornerstone of the ideal state as being in the training and guidance of the young. Being in the training and guidance of the young.

MEANING, AIMS AND PROCESS OF EDUCATION

In general speaking, ‘Education’ is utilized in three senses: Knowledge, Process and Subject.When a person achieves degree up to certain level we do not call it education. As example as if a person has obtained Master’s degree then use education as a very narrow sense and call the person has attained education up to Master level. In the second sense, education is utilized in a sense of discipline. As for example if a person had taken education as a paper or as a discipline during his study in any institution then we utilize education as a subject. In the third sense, education is used as a process. In actual fact when we talk of education, we talk in the third sense that is education as a process.

By going through the text you will be able

• To make out the meaning and concept of education

• To classify the narrower and wider meaning of education

• To describe the analytical meaning of education

• To know the aims and scope of education

Etymological Meaning of Education

In English the term “Education” has been derived from two Latin word Educare (Educere) and Educatum. “Educare” means to train. It again means to bring up or to lead out or to draw out, propulsion from inward to outward. The term “Educatum” denotes the act of teaching. It throws light on the principles and practice of teaching. The term Educare or Educere mainly indicates development of the latent faculties of the child. But child does not know these possibilities. It is the teacher or the educator who can know these and take appropriate methods to develop those powers.

If we mention certain definitions of education of great educators of the East and the West, we may have a clear picture of the nature and meaning of the term education.

According to Swami Vivekananda:

Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man. Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge Exists in the mind. Suggestion is the friction; that brings out.

Mahatma Gandhi said:
By education, I mean an all-round drawing on the best in children and the body, the human mind and spirit

Rabindranath Tagore opinion about Education:

The highest education is that which does not only give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence.

Rigveda opinion about Education:

Education is something, which makes it an autonomous man and self- less.

Upanishada opinion about Education:

Education is one whose end product is salvation.

Plato’s point of view:

Education develops in the body and soul of the student all the beauty and all the perfection of which he is capable.

Aristotle defines Education as:

Education is the creation of healthy mind in a healthy body. He develops the faculty of man especially his mind so that he can be able to enjoy the contemplation of the supreme truth, goodness and beauty.

Rousseau’s point:

Education is the development of the interior of the child.

Froebel shares his idea about Education as:

Education is enfoldment what is already wrapped in the germ. It is the process by which the child is the internal-external.

Pestalozzi’s thought about Education:

Education is the harmonious and progressive development of all the powers and faculties of physical mandate, intellectual and innate morality.

J.F.Herbert shares his thinking about Education:

Education is the development of good character.

John Dewey writes in his book to clarify the Education as:

Education is not a preparation for life, but rather life. Education is the process of life through continuous reconstitution experiments. It is the development of all the capabilities of the individual who will allow him to control his environment and fulfill its possibilities.

T.P.Nunn thought about Education:

Education is the complete development of the child's individuality so that it can make an original contribution to human life to the best of its ability.

From all above discussion it is now clear that since the times of Plato to the modern times of John Dewey and Gandhi, various educationists have cleared education in different ways. Speaking frankly, the field of education is so vast and varied that to give an exact definition of education about which all educationists agree is very difficult. We sew that some educationists have defined only one feature of education whereas the others emphasize its other phases. The reason of this difference of opinions is that different educationists, most of whom are philosophers, have different outlooks about the aim of life. According to Idealists, the aim of life is spiritual development. As such, they regard education as a spiritual process, which aims at bringing together the soul and the creator leading to self-realization. Pragmatists think about education as a process of social progress. Because of this difference in the philosophy of life, different educationists define education differently. The fact is that the real concept of education is not related solely to any of the above mentioned views. It is more than either of them. In a real logic, education is a kind of synthesis of all the above viewpoints. In this sense, education includes the individuals, the environment,  the society, the social fabric and the prevailing customs. Hence, the definition of education ought to be a very comprehensive and all-inclusive one.