--- title: Education vs Taming description: Essays on education written by Professor Alejandro Marcello. author: name: Adri�n Blanco url: http://adrian-blanco.idoneos.com canonical: https://slan.idoneos.com/essays/education_vs_taming/ source: essays/education_vs_taming/index.md ---

[[adcontent:]] ## Education vs. Taming

I would like to present my ideas in connection with "educating" a person, and, to do so, I will inevitably also have to write about "taming" a person, an activity that is far from my concept of education, but that, sadly, takes places too frequently.

Educating has to do with guiding a person, helping him/her with his/her questions about the world, about life, about a specific subject. Educating someone means letting this person be what he/she really wants to be, without limiting him/her to being what society dictates; it means letting the person be.

Imposing my ideas on my student or my child, no matter how good I consider those ideas to be, or how much I support them, has to do with taming my child or student. He/She is going to be obedient. Unhappy at heart, yes, but obedient. Why? Basically, because I am restricting his/her freedom to do what his/her heart tells him/her to do.

This is an unfair act towards the child. It is all very tempting to force a kid to learn what I have learned or I was taught, but this child needs to explore and discover the world by himself/herself, and does not need my beliefs, my ideas, my limitations, my religion. He/She might need my assistance, yes, which is an entirely different thing, closer to education, far from taming.

A child needs to be free, and the freer he/she is, the happier he/she will be as a child first, and later, as an adult. Hence, while I have my intentions to educate this person, I will have to do so by allowing him/her to be himself/herself. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions", remember.

It is not my needs that count, nor the society's, but the child's. Otherwise, this person will not have ideas of his/her own: he/she will be merely repeating what I have imposed on him/her; and that cannot be called "education".

In fact, the word "education" could well be replaced by "guiding", as it would be more accurate. We ought to guide children, students; not press them, persuade them, force them to become someone they are not interested in being, they will never be able to be.

As a teacher, one should first of all be a caring person, taking into consideration the differences mentioned here. Taming versus educating. My subject is not the important thing. If I cannot reach a student, if he/she is not at all interested in my class, I need to try to teach through his/her interests.

If I am still not successful, maybe I need to understand that this student should be somewhere else. But also, when in the presence of a student responding to my subject, I will teach it, nothing but the subject; showing it, exposing the student to it, but not using it as an excuse to talk about morals, beliefs, good and bad. Because imposing good and bad should not be a teacher's (or a parent's) main focus.

Taming my student or child may be necessary for a society to work smoothly, but not for the human being in question to be a loving, caring, peacemaking, and, ultimately, happy person.

**© Alejandro Marcello 2008 - Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial de texto y/o logos. Todos los derechos reservados.**
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