Title: Raising Intellectual giants but Emotional Dwarfs.

Author: Comfort Nyati

Augusto Cury in his book titled Educating the Emotions pursued to unravel the mystery that circles within the parameters of emotions. In his words, he tells us of emotions as a faculty endowed in humanity acting as cardinal points in directing the desires, sentiments and feelings of people of this existential pilgrimage. To quote, he says: “Modern man has never been so enabled to act upon the external world and so disabled to act on the world of his emotions and thoughts.” As long as we develop eloquence in matters regarding the world around us, it seems so pathetic that we are simply incoherent in forcing out the inner world that revolves within them.

However, without further ado, reading along this stream of thoughts allow me to expand the aforementioned issue since it is self-evident that in matters that involve emotions, man is the victim. The world is today, moving at a rate that has even surpassed that of a heartbeat. Everyone is busy. We focus on discoveries and inventions that have taken possession of the universe to the extent of inflicting harm to nature creating toxic pollution that causes global warming and other natural disasters. The flourishing scientific technology is contributing a great deal to enhance the high standard of human life, yet at the same time, it is inflicting an injection of indifference to other human beings and nature as a whole.

Therefore, may I point that science has produced physical and intellectual giants, yet emotional dwarfs. This to some extent has overturned the whole perspective of emotions to our second-millennium generation of human beings. We cannot proceed to categorically state that in this present age, for instance, we are taught in school, the mathematics of numbers, but not of emotions, we are taught different languages, yet disregarding the language of emotions, we, therefore, are taught to explore the outer world in preference to the inner one. Consequently, the whole process of indoctrination undermines the greatest aspect of man which plays a pivotal role in his existence.

Millions of students attend school and their ambition is to come out as the best student during exams, but they are not prepared to face the school of life. Hence education in some African nations is precisely exam-oriented rather than future-oriented for example in Zimbabwe, merits are only reserved and optimized to those who top in their classes, whilst formation of character and emotional balance rewards are not only prioritized but thrashed into the dust bin.

Furthermore, when youths return to society, insults defeat them, frustrations depress them, and fatalities traumatize them. Why? Since they did not receive a holistic education to enable them to withstand life challenges, they begin to resort to suicides, drug addiction and unwanted pregnancies, breeding fatherless breeds. Therefore, one who is not ready to be offended, frustrated and suffer losses has not learned the basic lessons of life. He who fails to learn how to protect his emotions from being centres of tension turns them into waste.

Conventional education is light years away from educating the emotions. It’s not the teacher’s fault, the fault lies in the educational system of certain countries, which rarely acknowledge and discuss fundamental problems like how to manage one’s thoughts and sail through the turbulent waters of emotions. Unfortunately, humankind is collectively sick. Illness is not always a matter of classical ailments like melancholy, panic syndromes or phobias, rather the dysfunctional of emotions. Some get stuck in loneliness caused by the lack of solidarity, age crisis, stress and incapacity to contemplate.

Moreover, there are emotionless thoughts, but not thoughtless emotions. For example, you may think without experiencing feelings but you may not have feelings without first thinking. If you have learnt how to extract a lot from little, you possess much already. If you have not learned this lesson, your possession will always be too little. You will always be a prey of dissatisfaction, depression and frustration. Hence clear conformity to emotional dwarfism.