Formal education tends to restrain our minds and spirits rather than set them free

Some people assert that formal education restricts minds and souls of individuals, while other say that it opens upon new horizons for people. In my opinion, I mostly agree with the statement that formal education is the way to broaden our minds and souls rather than obstacles or restrictions. I believe this for two reasons.

To begin with, formal education teaches us what works and what doesn’t – for a field we are getting formally trained - by introducing us with the several examples of past and present. By continuously feeding our minds with the several such scenarios, it sharpens the our critical thinking and makes us pragmatic thinkers. Take an instance of a student in an International management course – if student aren’t introduced with several tough management decisions taken by countries in managing relation among each other, what were ramifications of those decisions and how those approaches relate to present world etc., then students would have nothing to base their logics upon and when such critical situation arises where a managment decision can turn course of events around, those who don’t have a proper formal education are more likely to take a leap of faith in their decision than a person who has been formally trained to handle these circumstances. Thus a proper formal education trains our mind to be objective thinker and broaden our scope, which helps in better decision making.

Secondly, people who are not formally educated get confined within past orthodoxies and conventions. These people act obdurate toward anything new introduced in their milieu, and thus a formal education acts as a guide to calm their soul and mind, and teaches them that how changes can uplift societies and improve the overall quality of life. Religious conventions like: child marriage is the best example in this context – a practice that was often followed by many south Asian regions was abolished only by providing formal education the children living in these region. Moreover present issue – like improper sanitation, lack in healthy diet - that are cause of various diseases in several third world countries are being solved by education people in these countries about the consequences. When people are given the formal education based on facts and research, it helps them to extrapolate future with broad mind.

On the other hand, some might say that formal education confines our mind and soul which makes us feel queasy whenever new problem is encountered. But these people ignore the fact that in the state of mind which is inundated with the qualms, the fact that people finally come out of it is by basing their decision upon an analogous situation in some respect – upon which they have been formally trained. Thus an overall development of mind and soul can happen only with the proper formal education which not only keeps us practical but also let us accept problems with the mores and traditions that might be hindering the growth.