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Dominic Chavez
English 220-035
Ms. Alapin
15 April 2014
My Educational Manifesto
Education is the most powerful tool we have in the world today, but are we taking
the correct path down this road to becoming educated? Experience is a key element in not
only becoming educated but also growing up. Should an experience type of learning
become more popular? Also the natural path of learning has been a lost element in the
process of becoming educated. What I mean by this is that all the classes we take in
schools these days are classes assigned that we have to choose from. What if we got to
make our own classes based on the subjects we wanted to learn? That is something to
ponder, but you cant forget the standard academic style of learning that has been around
for years. Throughout this paper you will understand why the best style of learning
involves a core academic education while incorporating the natural style of learning into
the process.
This paper will be divided into six sections to help explore my manifesto. The
first section is a summary and analysis of Gandhis view on education. The second
section is a summary and analysis of Rousseaus view on education. The third section is
some basic information about how the human brain retains information the best. The
fourth section is a description of the path it takes a person to become a doctor. The fifth
section is a review of my paper gathering all my ideas in order to answer the questions

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about my educational manifesto. The sixth section contains my educational manifesto and
how it should be tied in with education today.
Gandhis View
In Gandhis Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth he
describes a time in his life where he was put in charge of educating his two sons and his
nephew. They were young kids only being at the ages of ten, nine, and five so they didnt
need an extremely elaborate education so to speak. Compared to if they were in their
teenage years where they would need to learn about calculus, chemistry and other
complex topics. Gandhi sent his nephew and oldest son to a residential school in India but
soon recalled both of them. When his oldest son was of age he left his father and went to
a high school in Ahmedabad. The other kids stayed along with Gandhi and learned what
they could from him. Even though they felt the lacking of literacy from this style of
learning they continued on. Gandhi supports his style of teaching, Nevertheless I am of
opinion that if I had insisted of their being educated somehow at public schools, they
would have been deprived of the training that can be had only at the school of experience,
or from constant contact with parents (Gandhi 153). These are some very strong words
that really stood out to me as I was reading through this autobiography. What Gandhi is
trying to say in this sentence is that not everything can be learned from a book. You need
to grow and learn from the experience of life rather than keep your head tucked in a book.
He explains that the most distinct traits he taught his children were the ones of simplicity
and the spirit of service. If they had gone


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to a public school they would not have learned these leisurely traits and ultimately would
not have been free from societies day-to-day anxiety and stress.
Even though Gandhi really prefers this experience type style of learning he
definitely doesnt have anything against getting an education through the schooling
process. In his book he states, What harm had there been, if I had given my boys an
academical education? ... Why should I have come in the way of their taking degrees and
choosing their own careers? (Gandhi 154). Just from him asking these basic questions
you can tell that he wasnt holding his kids back from anything. The decision on the way
they wanted to learn was completely up to them. Even though they werent given an
academic education he says the following, I do not think that man to man they are any
better than my sons, or that my sons have much to learn from them (Gandhi 154). In that
sentence he is comparing his kids who grew up with an experience based education to the
kids who were given an academic education. You can see that he is taking nothing away
from his kids or the academically taught children. There is no right way to be taught, but
Gandhi prefers an experience-based way of learning over and academic one for the moral
values of simplicity and the spirit of service.
Rousseaus View
In Rousseaus Emile or On Education he looks at education in a very naturalistic
way. He compares everything about humans and education to nature and habit. I really
love the way he describes education. Everything we do not have at our birth and which
we need when we are grown is given to us by education (Rousseau 38). Regardless of
how broad and simple this statement is I think it is spot on. Obviously breathing is

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something we need to live but he describes the development of organs as education of
nature and that being the most basic form of education. Rousseau then gets into
describing nature as a habit by talking about the growth of a plant. He explains how
habits are brought upon by force and regardless of how strong the habit may be, nature
will always take over when the force of the habit is taken away. The picture that is trying
to be given is the one of a plant starting to grow upward. The plant is then interfered with
by an object and is forced to grow in an alternate direction. Regardless if that direction be
left or right, the change in direction from going up is what is known as the habit. Once
the plant is set free from that force it will once again start growing upward and break free
from the habit of growing sideways. Just as Rousseau describes, But the sap has not as a
result changed its original direction; and if the plant continues to grow, its new growth
resumes the vertical direction (Rousseau 39). This is directly correlated to humans,
except not in the way that you would think. Education is the habit or the force put upon
us. It may seem shocking but really think about it, if you dont continue to learn everyday
and fill your brain with information you will soon forget what you have learned.
Education is merely that habit that we bestow upon ourselves.
Rousseau is really describing nature and education as the natural path we take
without anything being bestowed upon us. Whatever we seek to learn and whatever may
bring us joy is the true education that we all seek deep down. As Rousseau describes, As
soon as we have, so to speak, consciousness of our sensations, we are disposed to seek or
avoid the objects which produce them, at first according to whether they are pleasant or
unpleasant to us, then according to the conformity or lack of it that we find between us

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and these objects, and finally according to the judgments we make about them on the
basis of the idea of happiness or of perfection given us by reason (Rousseau 39). We as
humans only seek to discover what makes us happy and avoid what makes us sad. This is
the natural instinct we all have within us that keeps us continuing to do what we love and
enjoy and avoid what we dislike or what brings us pain. This rule applies to everybody
that I have met because not once have a met a person that continues to do what they hate.
For instance nobody would go four years through college learning something that they
ultimately hated and took no joy in. You cant force yourself to do something that you do
not like. The argument you may see working against this is how some people work at a
job they hate simply for the money they are making. Rousseau would describe the want
for money as a habit we have picked up over time and this would ultimately corrupt our
opinions over the things we want the most.
How The Brain Learns Best
While researching about education I came across the article How the Brain
Learns Best. I began to read and found out some critical information that should be
common knowledge for everyone reading this. Since we are trying to figure out what
style of education is best, an academic or a natural/experience type of learning I think it is
important to understand how the brain works in the process of learning. Staying focused
on the subject or object you are learning about is a key factor in any education. To remain
focused your neural systems must constantly be stimulated or else they will begin to
fatigue and you will lose interest. Only four to eight minutes of pure factual lecture can
be tolerated before the brain seeks other stimuli, either internal (daydreaming) or external

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(Who is that walking down the hall?) (Perry 1). You will then begin to daydream like
many of us have at some point in our lives. To keep these neural systems stimulated you
must be keeping multiple active at the same time rather than just one constantly. This is
an important fact to know in any type of learning you will encounter whether it be in an
academic classroom or through experienced learning in life. Regardless of the type of
education you are involved with, if your neurons arent stimulated, you arent learning.
Academic Education
As we all know the academic education road is a long and structured one before
you can land a job that you are ultimately happy with. Im going to give some facts that
will recap the average years and time that it would take a person to become a doctor in
our day and age. So for starters you would need a high school diploma, which is already
twelve years of schooling not including kindergarten. Then you must obtain a bachelors
degree that is four more years in a college of your choice. Then you must, Take and pass
the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test) (Santiago 1). Which is just a
requirement needed to get into medical school. You will then be in medical school for
another four years of your life. After this step you will then have to complete a residency-
training program that can range from 3-5 years based on your specialty. Then you will
just have to, Get a Medical State License Pass the medical board exam for your
specialty... Obtain local credentialing and hospital privileges Obtain provider numbers
and DEA numbers (Santiago 1). So overall you are looking at an 11-15 years worth of
training and school to become a doctor, and thats after the 13 years you already invested
from graduating high school. I know becoming a doctor is one of the most official and

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high-ranking jobs in the world but now you may understand why. This may not be the
average academic educational path but it is one of the options that are chosen and
regardless, the academic educational path is a long one.
Pre Manifesto
Now with the help of all the information I have gathered and dissected I will try to
describe what my educational manifesto is. As I described in my introductory paragraph I
was drawn to the natural and experience styles of learning. I didnt understand this
because I grew up in a very structured style of education along with everyone that I
know. Reading Gandhis view on education helped me shape a solid idea of what my
education is in terms to his style of learning. He is all about the experience of life and
learning through that. I can say that you can have and academic education as your main
source of knowledge. As you grow up you learn from experience in everyday trial you
are faced with. I think that this experience through growing up is enough to learn from as
well as have an academic education backing you. I dont necessarily think that full
experience based learning is the best way of learning. Although I dont hold anything
against Gandhis view because he has nothing against an academic education.
Rousseau had the very natural belief in education and I completely agree with
him. It is true that everybody seeks out the knowledge they want to obtain and moves
towards the goals they desire. The only thing that I disagree with in Rousseaus view is
that other forms of education alter our opinions. I dont think that going to school and
learning how to do math will change my instinctual feelings on my love for motocross or
love for animals. That deep inspiration that everybody has within them will always be

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there and will always be the driving force behind seeking out new knowledge that we all
crave.
Now with Dr. Bruce Perrys view on the brain its easy to project that whatever
learning environment you may be in, you need to be constantly stimulating your neurons.
This is just the basic function that needs to be achieved while in any learning situation in
order for you to maintain interest on the subject.
Manifesto
My ideal view for education involves a core academic structure similar to the
academic structure we are all learning in today. The experience-based learning coming
from Gandhi is already a major part of life and the original academic style of learning.
Experience is already involved in everyday trials and therefore a full experience style of
learning is not needed. The natural style of learning from Rousseau is the missing
element in todays style of learning. This natural style of learning is a big way to get the
brain working on all levels and stimulating all neurons. On one side of education you
need to have your standard math, english, and science classes, but as we all know these
can be boring at times. That is where we should have classes in which we can explore and
discover anything we would like. These classes would work the other neurons in our
brain on the subjects that we are really passionate about. Classes where we can learn
about sports, food and even love. Education does need to have the core classes that
educate us all on the same level, but incorporate these classes with classes that we can
explore what we truly love and keep our brain learning at its highest potential.


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Bibliography:
Gandhi, Mahatma. Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Washington,
D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1948. Print.
Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Trans. Bloom, Allan. Emile or On Education. New York. Basic
Books, 1979. Print.
Perry, Dr. Bruce. How the Brain Learns Best. Scholastic Inc. 2013. Web.
Santiago, Andrea. Become a Medical Doctor. 2013. Web.