The Education of an Amphibian: A Holistic View of Human Development

 Aldous Huxley’s essay, “The Education of an Amphibian” contains one of the deepest insights into both human beings and their education. In an attempt to combine the two worlds into one, Huxley uses amphibian as a metaphor. He argues that humans, too, inhabit two realms: the tangible world and the abstract world. From this, he thinks that there appear two sides which mould how we view education.

Huxley laments what he perceives as a deficiency of social education systems to impart the essential components of the human spirit, feeling and worth rather giving much attention to the mind, the hands, and the heart. He points out that this produces people who are more skilled in books but weak inside, who may have no endurance to build satisfying personalities. Education, according to Huxley , should foster a complete man, or in this case, an amphibian, by aiming at the physical and metaphysical charactery of life.

In addition, the idea of self-awareness is at the heart of this essay . According to Huxley, education should also not only pass knowledge but help shape how people should reason and help them learn their soul. Through developing awareness and smart passions, a person is capable to make proper and moral choice in the circumstances of life.

Moreover, body and the mind have to be in harmony, is another important idea communicated by Huxley. He also cautions the readers against spiritualisation which alienates man’s body and argues for an education that includes bodily health in its curriculum. He for this reason maintains that music and art and exercise, as other such activities, should be as important as academic learning is for the same reason , for the entire person. 

Another obvious motif is the given author’s focus on the interdependence between people. He bemoans the disaggregate approach of education whereby most courses are delivered independently of the other. On the contrary, he calls for the synthesis approach that shows interconnection between various bodies of knowledge and between the learner and the environment. This type of view helps create identity, and authored responsibility where students feel that they are part of a whole.

Huxley also writes about the religious aspect of learning which he thinks is neglected by most people. He would like to dispel strict religious education, but at the same time, he stresses the importance of the desire for awe and admiration of the life. He believes that this is good for ministering a moral and a compassionate outlook in people.

To put it more clearly, Huxley possesses the education vision to liberate human beings and address the problem of their lives. It wants to produce holistic individuals not mere robot like scholars but people with flowers, people with minds as well as heart, indeed, people who can positively control their entire self, their cognisance as well as their behaviors so as to coexist peacefully and constructively with their fellowmen.

The Education of an Amphibian points to a more deeper level than a simple criticism of conventional practices in education, and the essay can be defined as a call for the development of a strategy that would fit people for life and its fullness. Because Huxley sees the scope of human existence as ranging from the physical to the spiritual plane, he wants people to be created who are at home in both worlds, true Men of the World.