Knowledge!

knowledge has been, more often than not, misinterpreted by many of us, including me..some might ignorantly equate knowledge and information..yet, these two things are very different in term of their philosophical meanings..

knowledge, by and large, is broader and more inclusive than information is..one who possesses thousands of information will not necessarily be knowledgeable..knowledge, according to Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas, is "the arrival of meaning, as a result of true information that one possesses."

so, literally, knowledge is composed of two important elements: meaningful and truthful..so, acquiring knowledge is not simply by reading/taking info from any sources, but is to do complete analysis and research..the credibility of the info, nonetheless, must be attested..only then, one can proudly say that (s)he is now possessing a knowledge!

yet, what is happening right now is the fact that people are not concerned of spreading knowledge..since the process of acquiring knowledge is much harder and complicated than of collecting info, one would rather choose to spread the latter..but, the question is, how much the information would help to build a very sound society, in which each of us is entitled w/ good and vast knowledge? 

and i beg to differ that what has been taught in our local schools or colleges is not how to acquire knowledge, but merely on how to possess information..one has only to memorize all the information given by the lecturer so to pass the exams at the end of each semesters..then, these high scorers will be applauded for the knowledge that they has ostentatiously gained..alas, no one does care on the subsequent process that involves the analysis part...this is very saddening for us, in general, since the real knowledge is yet to be acquired, but the process has been stopped..

so, i would like to suggest that the whole society (this includes the gov/politics, the business, and the civil society) to start redefining the philosophy of our education..abolishing UPSR, for example, might be one of the strategies to improvise our education system, yet it is minuscule in effect! we need more comprehensive plan as to tackle this problem..the gov/politics alone, might not be able to come up w/ a good solution..so, each of us, regardless of different ideologies, religions, upbringings, and etc, should speak our opinions so to give more inputs to those lawmakers..anyway, it is indeed very important to give proper and quality education to our kids so that our country can prosper and move towards higher level of achievement!  ;)