Education of an Amphibian

ALDOUS HUXLEY’S “THE EDUCATION OF AN AMPHIBIAN” Man and His Position Huxley contends that man is a five or six amphibians rolled into one. Man who is biologically called Homo Sapiens explores the realms of his mind on this earth and also infesting it at the same time. So man is multi amphibian whose very nature is indicative of many troubles for him and the others around him. So we human beings are the most obedient and independent creature on the earth. Man is not homo sapiens only, he is also homo loquax because he possess the gift of speech. If he is not homo loquax then he like the Yahoo of Gulliver’s Travels. Language and Man So the importance of language for man cannot be underestimated. It is the language which raised man from his brute status to civilized one. So language gave birth to human civilization. Language itself is a superb work of genius created by man. Whatever human culture or society may be, language is central to their existence. It is a medium through which we communicate and if this link is broken, we will again turn to brutes because language is the symbol of civilization. This should not lead us to the fact that language is always positive in society. Like everything else, it has its pros and cons. Our various principles or dogmas are communicated through language so language is used destructively. This misuse of language has turned people into fanatics as language is largely used for propaganda. Barlett, in this case, has carried various experiments to see the effect of language on memory. He came to the conclusion that language stamps on our memory and we cannot come out of our conventional or stereotyped image of a being. So language is the foundation stone of memory. Our infancy is the age of non-verbal communication so none of us can be recalled what we did as a child, but we can recall almost everything ever since we began to speak a language. Theorizing and Practicum Huxley believes that too much theorizing is fatal to human soul. It corrupts it and deforms it. Too many lectures or sermons deaden our everyday routine life because theorizing entails no spiritual development. But absence of theory (of medicine, law, religions or any other science) will again turn us into Yahoos. So we need a different approach. We live in the world of ideas and practice. These are two different worlds. Unless we promote education in both these fields, we will be verbal and lead to disaster. Education of Man Modern educationists promote non-verbal aspect of human education more than they emphasize the verbal side. Now, we have instrumental theory of education which is based on learning through experience. Kinesthetic sense is important in learning by doing because we form certain habits by doing something if this is good, learning is good, if the habit or repetition is bad, learning is bound to have bad effect, though some scholars don’t differentiate between good and bad doing. So learning is psychophysical activity. Modern classroom must provide means to get visual perception of the student sound.

We should use certain training devices to make the vision strong and healthy. In this way, spiritual insight is important in non-verbal education. The art of spiritual insight has been defined by Dr. Suzuki as becoming conscious of the unconsciousness. Conclusion The basic theme of the essay is that education should be sound so can we get rid of our misguided perceptions, unsound feelings, unrealistic thinking and bad habits. Man is doer and speaker so he must behave well and this is the key to avoid offensive behavior with others.