Dear Friends,
It is summer, a time to close the curtain of academics. It’s a time to reap what is sown and rejoice at what is achieved. At the same time it’s a time to count the blessings of the bygone year and to take stock of events that have shaped the lives of our staff and students. Yes, it’s a deserved break for staff and students for having laboured through the year with dedication and commitment.
Though the curtain closes for the academic year 2018-19, it’s worthwhile to make a note that students have listened to many meaningful instructions during the year and teachers have communicated valuable lessons to them. On either side, there was learning, sharing and advancing in knowledge.
Well, gaining knowledge alone is not education; real education is learning the art of applying it to daily life situations, That is why Albert Einstein had said ‘’Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school,” Yes, knowledge may not remain longer but wisdom remains. It implies that the work of the teacher is not simply to share knowledge and test the capacity of the students to reproduce knowledge shared but to prepare them for the hardships and pleasures of life, to make them self – confident and motivated. To motivate students means to teach them to get involved in research and activities linked to broader social issues with a view to making them a creative and critical force in the school campus. It is to enable them to develop a critical awareness through global analysis and cultivate in them a deep and genuine concern for the oppressed and marginalized so that they are driven from within to commit themselves to the task of building a new and just society. If our students are not oriented towards a broader horizon, then education is mere waste.
When our former President of India. Mr Abdul Kalam was asked for a message to the young, he said, “ My message, especially to young people, is to have courage to think differently, courage to invent, to travel the unexplored path, courage to discover the impossible and to conquer the problems and succeed. These are great qualities that they must work towards,” A beautiful summary of education indeed!
As the students enjoy the close company of their parents during summer vacation, I wish and pray that our parents continue to play the role of educators in the absence of their teachers and foster universal and eternal values that can enable their wards to live what Albert Enistein desired, “Try not to become a man of success but a man of value”.
Sr Mariette BS
Secretary,
BES, Mangalore
