Education and Culture:
Society and Culture:
Man is a social animal. He is closely related to society. He, along with his parental heritage, also acquires social heritage. This social heritage is greatly influenced by time, place and social circumstances. The social changes to a great extent are brought about through the education process. Some results that are achieved out of his education are called culture.
Meaning of Culture and its Effect:
The word “Culture” is derived from the Latin words “Culture” and “Colire”. It connotes cultivation or refinement as a result of cultivation. Culture also denotes “Cult” and “Cultus”. These words stand for the system of religious belief or worship. Thus culture includes religion also.
Definition of Culture:
In the words of Matthew Arnold, “Culture is the pursuit of total perfection by means of getting to know of all matters that must concern us, the base which has been thought and said in the world”.
Dr Ramdhari Singh “Dinkar”, the famous Hindi poet also feels that culture cannot be defined exhaustively but it can be known by its characteristics. Culture is that total of qualities which we have embraced in ourselves.
Dr A. N. White Head is of the opinion that Culture is “Thought and receptiveness to beauty and human feelings”.
E. B. Taylor has remarked, “Culture is defined as the complete whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society”.
Really, culture is a treasure of the acquired qualities by men. It is a system of life which is the result of many centuries. Essentially culture is the quality of the soul and not of the body.
Individual and Culture:
Individual and culture are interrelated because culture is established by the individual himself. The following lines support the view that the culture has got a closer relationship with thoughts and sentiments as compared to material life:
“However it is essential to bear in mind that the culture of a people is “man-made”, sometimes the materials exist in a “state of nature”, but man creates his cultural object……..(a baseball bat, is made out of the tree…….it is also important to remember that perhaps the major parts of the culture of all peoples do not consist of material objects, but rather of an ideological phenomenon, such as knowledge, belief……….morals, religion, ideals, so forth”. (Roueck Associates)
It has also been rightly said, “Man makes his culture, not each man as a separate human being but man as a group”.
Society and culture have a close relationship with each other. Culture is a social heritage. Since man has made all-around development in society, this social development is a part of the culture.
Characteristics and Ingredients of Culture:
Following are the ingredients of Culture-
- Literature and its branches i.e. drama, poetry, prose, story etc.
- Philosophy and its apparatus.
- Art and its various aspects, i.e. photography, architecture, paintings etc.
- Pattern of administration and social custom.
- Social, family and reciprocal treatment.
- Place of our nation in the international field.
- Political, economic, and social institutions and their phases.
- Fine arts i.e. music, paintings etc.
- Commerce and industries.
- Educational and recreational institutions like library, theatres, cinema halls, museums, clubs, schools etc.
Education and Culture:
In this regard, it has rightly been said, “The culture of the people thus refers to the sum of all other material things and their beliefs, value, traditions and activities”. (Roueck Associates)
Determining factors of Culture and Education:
There are two factors i.e. (a) ideological, and (b) environmental, which help us in the determination of culture. These factors are related to the life of an individual and they are utilized in education. The individual builds his personality with the help of these factors.
Moreover, learning also plays an important role in education. It is learning by which man is able to adjust to the different circumstances of society.
A. W. Melton says, “Learning is……….the process of adjustment and organism of a problem situation in which obstacles to the satisfaction of a motivative condition cannot overcome by the direct utilisation of previously acquired models of behaviour”.
Of course, education is a process of development and this development is a part of the culture. If a proper atmosphere is not created in the schools, then the culture of the society cannot be saved. Educational institutions are, in fact, the custodians of culture.
Role of Culture in Education:
The role of culture is considered in the sense that it should make man able to adjust themselves in his social environment of life. In other words, education and culture have got a similar role to play in the life of human beings. In this connection the following quotation of Roueck Associates may be noted:
“Personality development is necessarily influenced by physical, mental, emotional heredity, these, in turn, are developed within their, capacities by the individual’s group life……..In short, what he shares in every phase of his culture is in personality being developed”.
Ottaway and his views about Cultures:
Ottaway has said two things:
- That the behaviour of human beings is very flexible and will adjust itself according to the cultural environments.
- That education depends upon the culture of all society as a whole.
