I ran across a section in a book called Think on These Things by J. Krishnamurti that sheds much light on this topic. Here are his direct quotes.
to understand the whole process of life
Surely, education has no meaning unless it helps you to understand the vast expanse of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys.
to find out what life is all about
to cultivate in you the intelligence which will try to find the answer to all these problems
It is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear… but rather an atmosphere of freedom – freedom, not just to do what we like, but to understand the whole process of living.
to discover
To live is to find out for yourself what is true, and you can do this only when there is freedom, when there is continuous revolution inwardly, within yourself… to question, to find out for yourself what God is, because if you were to rebel you would become a danger to all that is false.
to help each one of us to live freely and without fear
to give you freedom – complete freedom to grow and create a different society, a new world
We must create immediately an atmosphere of freedom so that you can live and find out for yourselves what is true, so that you become intelligent, so that you are able to face the world and understand it… it is only those who are in constant revolt that discover what is true… constantly inquiring, constantly observing, constantly learning.
to eradicate, inwardly as well as outwardly, this fear that destroys human thought, human relationship and love.
But to understand the various influences – the influence of your parents, of your government, of society, of the culture to which you belong, of your beliefs, your gods and superstitions, of the tradition to which you conform unthinkingly – to understand all these and become free from them requires deep insight…
to help you from childhood not to imitate anybody, but to be yourself all the time… always to be what you are, but understand it.
The hope of a new world is in those of you who begin to ask what is false and revolt against it, not just verbally but actually.
Society is the relationship between man and man… society is the relationship between you and me and others. Human relationship makes society; and our present society is built upon a relationship of acquisitiveness… we have built an acquisitive society.
The real function of education is not to turn you out to be a clerk, or a judge, or a prime minister, but to help you understand the whole structure of this rotten society and allow you to grow to freedom so that you will break away and create a different society, a new world. There must be those who are in revolt, not partially but totally in revolt against the old, for it is only such people who can create a new world – a world not based on acquisitiveness, on power and prestige.
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