Better To Be Freed By The Truth Than Held Captive By A Lie

Education asks us to loosen our grip on reality, to let go of the past in the form of what we believed to be true and embrace a future created through applied knowledge and understanding. Learning isn’t just about the acquisition of new information; it’s also about re-evaluating what we have been conditioned to believe, and what we hold to be true. Our teachers could only teach us what they themselves had learnt, and in many ways what we perceive as tradition and history are no more than stories written by those in a position of power and authority to do so. Their version of events are coloured to reflect kindly on their motives and actions, if we simply accept what we have been told as the gospel we run the risk of perpetuating lies half truths, myths and misconceptions.
Tradition has its place in education and learning but it should never be at the expense of truth, knowledge and understanding, and as seekers of the truth we must be willing to break new ground and old ideas in equal measure in order to reach a place of personal enlightenment. Like any journey it may at times be slow and laboured, detours and dead ends may delay our progress as we take the time to unlearn the old ways and discover new ways, new knowledge and understanding that allows us to move forward.
If we judge the past harshly based on its imperfections and failings, then we must also accept that those who come after us will judge us according to our actions, and invariably find us wanting in so many ways. The past can be a great teacher but if we simply use it as a template for learning we run the risk of making the same mistakes over and over again. A new age of learning requires us to adopt a new open and responsive mindset where we can without judgement look at what was, what is and most importantly what can be.