It was a laboratory hour and the professor was demonstrating an acid experiment. He took some acid in a beaker, put a silver coin in it and asked the class, would this coin dissolve in this acid? Immediately came an answer, “No!”
“Why?” the teacher asked.
“If it would, you would not have dropped it in the acid,” came the answer. In almost all cases, this could be true.
Learning about all the acids that dissolve metal coins is part of education. Knowing that the teacher would not have spoiled a coin unnecessarily is wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom should go together, in a successful life.
There are the live stories of eight richest men who met in the 20 storied U S luxury hotel, EdgeWater Beach, in 1923. All their wealth together equalled that of the US government, at that time. Here is the survey of their wealth position after 25 years.
The president of the gas company, Howard Hubson, ended up mentally challenged. Charles M Schwab, the president of the biggest Steel company, died bankrupt. Arthur Cutten, who was the President of an established store network also died overloaded by debts. Richard Whitney, once president of the American Stock Exchange was jailed; same was the fate of former Cabinet Minister Albert Fall too. The uncrowned king of Wall Street, Jesse Livermore, the biggest wholesale dealer Ivar Kruegger and Leon Fraser, the President of International Settlement Bank – all committed suicide. These are the set stories of people who were understood to have lived with low self-esteem. None of them ignored their achievements but were not maintaining a financial and functioning discipline.
This is not the case in Japan, were there are no much crashes like these. The importance they gave to education and values were great. There was a Railway station which functioned only for just one passenger, and that for a long three years. That is Kami Shirataki railway station in Hokkaido Island. It was officially decided to close it and it was then that they heard about a girl to whom this was the only source of going to the school. The station worked exclusively for her until 2016. That’s the level of importance that they give to education. It is proper education that instils values in an individual.
Here, our education system is job oriented. Be happy if we could change at least one with the right awareness and knowledge. Eventually, it may change everything around us for the better.
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (1858 –1937) was an Indian biologist, physicist, botanist and an acknowledged writer of science fiction. It was he, who first demonstrated wireless contact. He established the Bose Institute in Kolkata, the first interdisciplinary research centre in Asia. His father was an Indian civil servant. Bose graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He later went to England to study medicine but dropped this idea due to health issues but joined Nobel Laureate Lord Rayleigh at Cambridge, to help him continue his researches.
Perhaps this could be the base, on which Bose built his kingdom. He was credited for many inventions. Bose was the first to use a semi-conductor junction to detect radio waves. He used his own Crescograph, to measure plant response to various stimuli. Bose was not for patenting any of his inventions; he has only a few on his name. He died as a proud Indian, on 23 rd November 1937.
