Education in present day culture and its influence on the material world

Alan Watts who lived around the 1950s was considered one of the pioneers who brought the eastern
teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism to the west. He spoke and wrote about it in such a
fashion, that his interpretation on topics of life, culture bring about insight if our brains are let to dwell
on them for some time. His view on education which our present day society is structured upon is
certainly a matter to look into as it involves our fundamental values and conditioning which make up
for new generation.
Watts claims that the education which the students are compelled to go through imparts no knowledge
of material capability. It is narrowed and overly bookish. It is designed in such a way that the structure
will produce people who are insurance salesman, bankers clerks, teachers, and optimistically some
intellectuals. Hence it is so common these days to find students who are drop-outs of college and
sometimes even through high school. Very few enter into graduate schools and even then if they do,
end up the professions which make them into a machine working around the clock. He argues that
the whole nation cannot run entirely on computational and intellectual trade. There are few places
where the art of pottery, carpentry, painting are introduced in early education and in some graduate
schools these are given on credit basis which is utterly irrational. He points out that a society needs
people who know how to handle the material world in a tactful way. However we treat these trades
with regret. These are provided with a degrading manner and consider only for them who are dropouts from schools. Trades like metallurgy, cloth weaving, cookery, fishing and so on need to be
introduced in our education system and to see that a society cannot function with just intellectuals.
This leaves the society where people are unable to handle the physical matter. Which in-turn makes a
society who just simply do not know how to enjoy the material world.
With all such riches that an intellectual earns daily, it would be an obvious choice that one would go
back home at end of his shift and enjoy the material world. Enjoy with a good massage, attend
concerts, have a lavish meal, and have pleasures all throughout the night. However, this is not the
situation as Watts points out. He says that we have divided the life into two categories: work and play.
Work is something that we do in order to get money and there is so much work that is boring that
nobody wants to do it and theyll pay someone else do to it. So with all this money one has gained in
a day, what does he do? Well, he goes home and sits in front of TV which is merely an electronic

reproduction of video and sound and eats his dinner. Television is as fake as a note, you cannot smell
it, taste it, and going further you cannot even touch it. Yet he considers this thoroughly enjoyable. His
food, also, is dish which is frozen which feels like rubber and this mildly heated over and eaten.
However, one makes sure that this food has all the calories, proteins, carbohydrates that one needs
for a healthy living and this is checked by the labels behind the food box. Further, the food labels
almost mentions the scientific formula of how it is prepared just enough to remove any doubts of its
nutritious value. This way, Watts observes that we are killing the food. That we just consume it to go
on living and do not enjoy it all. Amidst all this, one takes a beverage which is somewhat alcoholic and
gulps down along with the food to make himself feel lightheaded and to forget the daily troubles and
pursuits tell it puts himself to sleep. This, Watts considers sadly as to what our society has come to.
This way of living is followed monotonously by all and very few who see cracks in it, try to break
down the wall but still pulled back by the chains of conditioned society. This way we are killing the
material world with its improper use. We can see how the technology has advanced so immensely in
past couple of decades that more than it providing us with more time for leisure and play, by its misuse
it has led to pollution, global warming, political wars, space wars and so on. Just because there are no
material people who know how to make use of its fruits correctly, they are creating havoc to the
environment.
Whose fault is it? asks Watts in his book The Book on Taboo. We think that society is an object
created by vague individuals and we have to follow because everyone else follows it. But, society as
Watts exclaims, is created by each one of us. The only way to be aware of the conditioning thats been
going on from centuries can be broken by simply being aware of it. By dealing with facts and seeing
the world as it is, one can see how the world is in total crisis and chaos. Each one of us make up the
society and it begins from each individual. Religion, nationality, race, sex, as Watts points out,
conditions the human mind and prevents it to deal with facts.
With right education, each one can see these chains that we are bound to and break them. The word
School etymologically means Leisure. When a child goes to school and learns with a mind which,
as Watts explains, is at leisure, when it can see clearly without conditioned thinking, it can learn. It can
learn about the society, environment, boundaries what one has set himself, the misuse of his intellect
affecting the material world. Only when the mind in unconditionally free, one can observe ones action
through daily activities and spot his effects on society. For this, the entire education structure needs
to change to the point that there is not difference between work and play. When this happens, he

starts to change himself. When this takes place all over the human race, there is a new society created.
One understands that the society is not separate from him, but society IS him. Then one becomes
tremendously responsible to the whole of mankind. Now, there is no misuse of technology and then
we can truly call ourselves materialistic people. After all, being a materialistic means the love for the
material world.
As seen, Alan Wattss views and his ideas are still relevant in present days and one can only hope these
can be put to use to build a better society, which is living in peace and harmony with nature. To quote
one of his many: No work or love will flourish out of guilt, fear, or hollowness of heart, just as no
valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for living in the now.