Dear Guardians,

Reading the famous line of the unparalleled philosopher my thoughts began to flow and the desire to express myself to you about the statement began to overpower me. Plato said, “The direction in which education starts a man, will determine his future life.” How true!

The statement is absolutely and universally true. My future life will be determined by the direction which starts me. Every road has direction that leads one to a destination but why is my generation so confused about the direction that they have to take. Standing at the threshold of a future life, why is the mindso clogged?

As children we are trained in body, spirit and mind. Education seeks to nourish the good qualities in us and draws out the best, which would irrevocably give the desired result. It seeks to develop the innate inner capacities. By educating an individual an attempt is made to give him some desirable knowledge, understanding, skills, interests, attitudes and the ability to think analytically as well critically. That is, he acquires knowledge of history, geography, arithmetic, languages and sciences. Apart from this, the earnest effort to develop the individual into a mature, understanding human being who realizes the deeper essence of lifeand complex human relations is also an earnest mission of education. He develops attitudes towards social work, democratic living,and co-operative management.

As an individual in the society, he has to think critically about various issues in life and take decisions about them being free from bias and prejudices, superstitions and blind beliefs. Thus, he has to learn all these qualities of head, hand and heart through the process of education. So, the direction seems to be very clear.

Thus, education is an essential human virtue. Man becomes ‘man’ through education. He is what education makes him. It has been rightly said that without education, man is a splendid slave, reasoning savage. Moreover, an individual is made up of different entities. Education brings about the integration of these separate integrated lives. By doing so, it gives significance of life. Education is a sign of superiority. Educated men are as much superior to the uneducated as the living are to the dead. In short, education is an essential concomitant of all human societies. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a soul! This does not confuse me at all.

With deep concern about my generation, I understand that we are often advised to follow our dreams and passion. As our guardians you think best for us but it makes me sad to admit that you are bound by social constrains and pressure us to follow the beaten track that assures success since there’s no risk involved.  The truth, however is, that staying and remaining in the wrong place may after all be the riskiest thing of all!

So, then the pressure begins to mount. Our dreams wish to move in a contradictorydirection, so making choicesin a direction that would lead us successfully to our future life,becomes our greatest problem This is very critical stage, perhaps the most crucial and which  needs delicate handling and wise counselling.

Therefore, I pray, give us the correct direction that will help us realize not only our dreams and desires but will also make us successful in society. We need to take decisions, move ahead in a particular direction and we also need to know whether they can be reversed if they are not life or death choices.So, you need to arm us with knowledge, help us choose for the right reasons and allow us to step in a direction that will shape our future. Given the right direction, wecan do much to keep our personalities on an even keel and keep ourselves from going astray. This will then validate Plato’sphilosophy.