The true power of learning from students
It is very common to ask: What is the purpose of education? For many parents, educators, and educational institutions, the primary purpose of education is to impart knowledge and fill our children's minds with information. Such knowledge is essential, but to a point. In addition to imparting facts and knowledge, education should arouse learner's interest and cultivate a passion of learning. True education starts by igniting the human mind's innate fire, which enables learning to develop and thrive on its own, even though fundamental knowledge and abilities are still required. A Greek Platonist philosopher, Plutarch, who was also a historian, biographer, and priest at the Temple of Apollo in Delphi, wrote, "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." These are the timeless words. Over the past 28 years, these timeless words have reverberated in every classroom I have entered, serving as a constant reminder that education is about lighting sparks of inquiry, creativity, and transformation rather than dumping knowledge into receptive minds. Knowing that I am not the only source of knowledge in the room makes me humble every time I enter a classroom. Teaching has never been a one-way process of knowledge transfer and never should be. Fundamentally, it is an ongoing conversation and a joint path where students and teachers work together to gain understanding. This is really true. The mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but rather wood that needs igniting—no more —and then it motivates one towards creativity, originality, and instils the desire for truth.
As stated by Swami Vivekananda, Education can emancipate. It frees one from negative tendencies and a lack of awareness regarding one's authentic "Self." Therefore, education should not be regarded as an end in itself; instead, it should serve as a vehicle to facilitate an individual's development of self-awareness and lead them to comprehend the ultimate unity of existence, a notion that has been eloquently expounded upon by influential figures such as Sri Ramakrishna (1836-1886), Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), and more recently. According to Vivekananda, Education is not the amount of information we put into our brains and let it run riot there, undigested, all our lives. We must have life-building, man-making, and character-making assimilation of ideas. Suppose you have assimilated five ideas and made them a part of your life and character. In that case, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library….the ass carrying its load of sandalwood knows only the weight and not the value of the sandalwood.
If education is identical with information, the libraries are the greatest sages in the world, and encyclopaedias are the rishis.
Therefore, it is clear that our purpose is to provide an education that fosters the development of character, enhances intellectual capacity, and enables individuals to stand independently. The primary task of a teacher is to elicit the hidden knowledge in individuals. Knowledge resides within humans. So, knowledge is not something external. It is not possible to impart knowledge to any student. A teacher should guide a student through proper guidance to help them discover their inner wisdom. The universal ideal of a teacher is to harmoniously develop all the intrinsic qualities of the student – physical, mental and spiritual.
I have been teaching in Higher education sector since 1998. As I reflect on my years of teaching, I see that my students were often the source of the most profound discoveries and lessons that genuinely altered my viewpoint, rather than textbooks or theories. They originated from their experiences, inquiries, difficulties, and distinct perspectives on the world. My students have been dreamers, dancers, managers, singers, poets, writers, engineers, accountants and philosophers. In addition to their intellectual curiosity, each of them has contributed a richness of life experiences to the classroom. And when people open their brains and hearts in those interactions, I realise that I am learning just as much as I am teaching. I now believe that teaching is more about fostering an environment where insight may come from everyone in the room than it is about lecturing from the front of the room. The real purpose of education is discovered in this exchange. Every question posed and every tale told ignites a new flame in the classroom, which turns into a cycle of growth for both the student and me.
Teachers are not only teaching students relentlessly in the classroom, but they are also taking on many responsibilities. They are sometimes educators, sometimes service givers, mentors, protectors, or givers of blessings, love and encouragement like a father or mother. Many teachers spend sleepless nights worrying about their students daily so that every student can rise to the heights of life. They are as proud as the parents of the child when celebrating achievements, and as devastated and burdened as the parents are at the failure of the students or any other sadness. As an educator, I feel proud to belong to this aesthetic social philosophy of nurturing minds. Yet in the classroom, my students are the true heroes—they ignite fires within me, challenging me to think beyond my own horizons and inspiring learning as a shared journey.
This term, I have the joy of teaching a diverse group of MBA students, each carrying within them a world of stories, experiences, and wisdom. They come from different countries, cultures, and languages. Some are singers, poets, lyricists, astrologers, numerologist and composers; others are managers, business owners, and leaders of organisations. Yet in the classroom, my students are the true heroes—some bring a wealth of industry experience, others balance the roles of motherhood and family life. Every student possesses a different 'rhythm', a different' way of looking upon the world', and a distinct 'light to shine.' The students, when entering the classroom, do not come 'empty'; they come 'loaded'. I experience this as a teacher every time I listen to their accounts: experiences, ideas, and reflections on different domains: business, philosophy and meditation. I appreciate these interactions as a teacher, where a teacher and a student engage in a monologue, but a dialogue. It, in fact, is a holy communication.
One of the students, a singer, described the discipline needed to train a voice: practice, the right touches of pitch, and the willingness to take correction. I heard this student, and I thought, leadership is also like this. It is like music, requiring unity, no gaps, and full surrender in listening, not to oneself, but to the whole, like a singer, to the whole, including the whole of the singing system. I don't think I will ever forget that. Another student, a poet, recited verses on the daunting and the mustering. The way the words fell is a reminder not just that business and life is not strategy and outcome, but also on the meaning. One of our students, who is also a numerologist, gave a presentation to the class on how practicing just five minutes of meditation each morning can help us begin the day with greater calmness. It was truly wonderful to witness meditation being integrated into teaching and learning. We even practiced meditation together in the classroom, making the experience both engaging and enriching. A manager deals with numbers, but the person behind the manager —the imagination, the creativity, the out-of-the-box thinking —is the whole of business.
It was on that day that my student reminded me that poetry is no different from management; both require an act of imagination. One of my quietest students hardly speaks in class. Yet, when they finally shared, their words were filled with depth and humility. Their silence itself became a lesson to me: in leadership, sometimes the most significant strength lies in listening rather than speaking. I realised that silence, too, is a kind of knowledge—a space where wisdom germinates. The astrologer in my class once compared human decision-making with the patterns of the stars. Whether or not one believes in astrology, the perspective offered was profound: patterns exist everywhere, and we must learn to observe them with patience. In business, as in life, patterns guide us. They teach us to anticipate change, prepare for it, and adapt. I would never have reached that insight had it not been for my student's unique lens on life.
The Greek philosopher Socrates' enduring lesson that knowledge begins with acknowledging our own ignorance is confirmed by my experiences with my students. I shouldn't, and I don't know everything. The classroom is a circle where teacher and student come together as equals in search of truth, not a stage on which a teacher performs. A roman philosopher, dramatist and advisor to Emperor Nero Seneca famously remarked, "We learn when we teach." In addition to being a gift, each story my pupils share serves as a reminder of just how much more there is to learn, experience, and comprehend. According to Socrates, acknowledging our own ignorance is the first step toward achieving true wisdom. A significant role of an educator is not to pour knowledge but to cultivate curiosity, sparks to think beyond their normal thinking, and help to change behaviour to have a positive growth mindset—for oneself and for others. When a student raises a new perspective, it invites me to pause, reflect, and sometimes even unlearn. That unlearning is just as vital as learning itself.
Paulo Freire and other contemporary philosophers also argued that education must be dialogical—conversations rather than monologues. This is how my classroom feels. It is alive with voices, questions, laughter, and sometimes, silence that says so much. Some days, I leave the class not with the satisfaction of teaching a lesson, but with the joy of learning one. For example, in a specific research class, my students clustered the notion of "finding truth" not only with rigorous academic work, but also with meditation, mindfulness, and personal honesty. Such perspectives made me realise that their understanding of research is broader than the traditional method and includes the development of human beings. They withhold the ability to create, to set forth, to inspire, and to ignite the flames of passion and creativity within, and yet foster flames of understanding within themselves. To merely deposit information with the learners is to defeat the purpose of education entirely. True learning is not devoid of questions; however, nurturing the ability to pose new questions is the aim of celebrating potential. It is listening to allow others the space to recognise and share their potential and wisdom within.
It is a constant reminder to us educators that, although we aim to transfer information, our goal is also to spark a change.
The students are empowered through our focus on their individuality and the respect we give to their contributions. Respecting their contributions inspires us to remain humble, stay flexible, and never stop learning. My students and I, along with the world, understand the divisions created by language, culture, and beliefs. The classroom emphasises that diversity is an asset, not a problem. The more stories told, and ideas debated, the more wisdom we all gain. The student who is a singer, through him, I learn to appreciate rhythm and harmony, and, by extension, leadership is also learned. The metaphor is a tool the poet uses to show a deeper relationship with truth. The manager leads the class in the art of decision-making in a condition of scarce information. The student who doesn't speak much reminds me of the strength that is found in silence and stillness. All of them give life a dimension, and in them, I progress more.
Students have imparted to me virtues like bravery, fortitude, and imagination. To them, the idea of diversity is not only an abstract concept that can be emphasised in a classroom or a workplace, but something that profoundly enriches us in ways that often elude us. They have helped me rediscover the fact that the classroom should not be reduced to a simplistic, rigid space of control and learning, but is, in fact, a dynamic and fluid ecosystem of thinkers, idealists, and practitioners.
I say to my students, your learning is not one-sided. I equally learn from you. In fact, you are my life teachers, and the value of the knowledge you bring is equivalent to that of a textbook or theory. Your questions, the stories you tell, and even the silences you keep, all play a part in my ongoing process of becoming. So, you should never underestimate the impact of your existence. To my fellow teachers, I wish to say this: to teach is not to stay in an elevated position, but to move to the side. It is an attitude of deep reverence that entails listening, changing, and knowing that knowledge is not one way. A classroom, I would say, is not magical because of the teacher's all-encompassing knowledge, but rather because both the teacher and the students are willing to learn from and with one another. The classroom is more than a space for pedagogical approaches and instruction; it is a space for co-exploration and co-existence, where each partner —teacher and learner —steps forward, deepens their understanding, questions more, and ignites new thoughts. To the words of Socrates, "Education is the beginning of a flame, not the filling of a vessel." Indeed, once that flame is lit, it illuminates the outside world, as well as the classroom.
Dr P R Datta
Educator, author, and researcher