“Education either functions as an instrument that is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes the practice of freedom.” – Paulo Freire.
Psychologists say that education is the modifications of human behaviour with the all-around development of the children, but that development starts from the mother. The practice of freedom, appreciation, educational opportunities, etc., are parts of love from humans.
Belief is that whatever we see in the environment which is valuable in society starts from the mother. A mother can be illiterate but is intellectual in nature. There are a lot of theories in educational psychology which are developed by psychologists and practised by the mothers where they may not know about the theories.
For example, behaviourism refers to the systematic analysis of antecedents and consciousness of behaviour. So mother always understands our situations where the conditioning and the reinforcement work alternatively. When we grow, the self-realisations become stronger and realise the ideas we experienced.
Most importantly, we grow continuously from one stage to the next stage where the thinking changes in ways that involve more than the additions of knowledge and skills (Piaget).
An experience from my life is that my mother always appreciated whatever I did in my education from the first grade till today. Most of the time I was bound to think why my mother did not stop me to do something. Finally, I realised that she loves me and the most vital feature of love is appreciating the child in the learning process.
And that’s why she is my first and last teacher in the process. She always helped me participate in the participation of any activities with others (children) in my village where the idea of social constructivism is because reflections on social interactions help children to engage in cognitive development.
Most importantly, the knowledge is constructed from both external and internal directions where it is based on social interactions and experiences (Vygotsky).
“It is solely by risking life that freedom is obtained; the individual who has not staked his or her life may, no doubt, be recognized as a person, but he or she has not attained the truth of this recognition as an independent self-consciousness,” – Freire.
So freedom is everything where it might be seen in a domestic nature or academic nature.
Once, I asked my mother, “Maa, what should I do after my bachelor of arts?” She replied, “Beta, whatever you want to do and wherever you want to stay, go there and do that, but ask for ration.”
From that day, I reflect on what the value of freedom in life is. The ability to move and act freely is subconscious in nature from society and that freedom is gendered in Indian society, but there is still relevance in motherhood. The practice of human rights is visible when humans love humans without discrimination and I found in my life the idea of freedom to choose as per the constitutional framework.
The practices of freedom, educational opportunities provide motivation to move ahead without hesitation in the social interactions which are focused on the inner psychological life of people where we construct our own knowledge. However, getting freedom and educational opportunities from the government will be inclusive in nature which is promoting the constitution.
But with the lack of educational opportunities in India, the literacy rate is 74%. Importantly, the female literacy rate is 65%, so we need to think about where they lack behind. The solution is to provide educational opportunities to the unprivileged with the idea of equality, liberty, justice and fraternity.
However, the quality of acceptance in every life helps in mental and emotional development. If a mother always accepts her children without any discrimination then why are there old-age homes? My mother always accepted my explanations where it is true. That’s the power of love where it works for the all-around development of the children.
The culture of promoting freedom, acceptance and love starts from the mother where she is the preamble of human life.