The purpose of education - Essay Example

June 5, Education Introduction Education has been known to have numerous reasons for one to be actively involved in it. The main reasons for engaging in education are based on the basic principles of education that is preparing students for specific careers, teaching those lifelong values, discipline, and the ability to explore new ideas that enables a person to think independently. The usual reasons why people take up education are to instill skills and knowledge in order to be good citizens. Education also helps students to become critical thinkers, which enables them to be competitive in the market place. Education has an important role depending on the proponent be it those that take education in the liberal form, vocational aspect and the civic aspect of it. Different camps have emerged with different views on the relevance of education. For example, the proponents of the importance of education along liberal lines such as Menand, Newman and Gutting see education as meant to improve the intellectual capacity of a person coupled with his judgment. Quite different from this, are those such as Jefferson and William who think that education is meant to increase the participation of citizens in the day-to-day activities and the running of government. These are grouped in the civic education camp. The last camp of those with opinion about the purpose of education is those who believe that education should provide the vocational education and training in the job through the imparting of technical skills as not every student is often willing to be in the classroom. Such theorists include Carey and Professor X. It is important to note that education does not have a single purpose in attaining its objectives. This is because it serves several objectives that though important serve the interests of anyone that actively involves in the offering or attaining of education. What every proponent of the importance of education agrees on is that it improves the well-being of persons who undergo through it. Liberal Education Liberal education focuses on the most important and common objectives of education that is to improve the intellect of a person and his judgment. It also helps the learners to understand the surrounding world and preparing them on how to handle the challenges that may be posed by the society. Menand, Newman and Gutting agree that the role of education is to increase majorly the intellectual capacity of the learner. The liberal education camp therefore espouses the ideals of education as that which is meant to attain intellect thus improving the capacity for proper judgment in life. Menand in the article “Debating the Value of College in America” carried in The New Yorker argues that education is important as it helps to identify the intelligent members of the society and separate them from others who are less intelligent (Menand, 2). Similarly, Newman states that the university is a place for the learning of universal knowledge through extension of knowledge that can later be shown by level of intellectual capacity and reasoning that a person has after education (Newman, 6). Writing in the New York Times, Gutting argues that most students in college agree that they attend college in order to grow intellectually. He therefore states that most students in college would attest to their reason of attending college as meant to increase their intellectual capacity as it instills a culture that enables the learner to properly reason and dissect information and other things. It enables the students grow and mature intellectually as they prepare for their careers in future. As already stated, Menand argues that education is important as it helps to identify the intelligent members of the society and separate them from others who are less intelligent. The importance of this is to identify the intelligent ones in order to allocate them the best careers that will lead to a proper realization of their talents. He therefore states “Society needs a mechanism for sorting out its more intelligent members from its less intelligent ones, just as a track team needs a mechanism (such as a stopwatch) for sorting out the faster athletes from the slower ones. Society wants to identify intelligent people early on so that it can funnel them into careers that maximize their talents. It wants to get the most out of its human resources. College is a process that is sufficiently multifaceted and fine-grained to do this” (Menand 2). Therefore, to him education offered in colleges enables the students to be exposed to material that can empower them in their careers of choice. This improves the socialization ability of the learners as students from different backgrounds come together to achieve a common stand in terms of beliefs and norms. Whichever way one analyzes it, education can be termed as a means of personal and intellectual growth and not about competing interests. It is a means of bettering a person’s life in his daily life (Menand 4). Menand further comments on a study by Arum and Joska titled “Academic Adrift” stating that the motive of education at the college level is to teach people and not just to get them up the right educational ladders or careers (Menand 5). They also argue that most students find that the reason for attending college is socializing. Newman in his work titled “Idea of a University” states that the university is taken as a place of teaching universal knowledge in that it has an intellectual duty as opposed to a moral obligation and that it is a place of diffusion and extension of knowledge rather than advancement of the same. He states “When the intellect has once been properly trained and formed to have a connected view or grasp of things, it will display its powers with more or less effect according to its particular quality and capacity in the individual. In the case of most men it makes itself felt in the good sense, sobriety of thought, reasonableness, candour, self-command, and steadiness of view, which characterize it. In some it will have developed habits of business, power of influencing others, and sagacity. In others it will elicit the talent of philosophical speculation, and lead the mind forward to eminence in this or that intellectual department.” (Newman, 5-6). Therefore, the purpose of education is to help in training and improving the intellect of a learner to enable him to have an easy view or understanding of the world around him. This helps us to increase our capacity that can be exhibited in the manner we think, reason, and exercise sobriety, self-command and have a steady view. The education attained by the learner helps us in developing habits such as those of doing businesses, having the power to influence others and wisdom. This is just like eliciting talent that allows us to speculate philosophically and lead the mind to think forward. On the other hand, Gutting states that most students in college agree that they attend college in order to grow intellectually. A Pew Research states that about seventy-four percent of college students interviewed contended that their education was “very useful in helping them grow intellectually” (Gutting, 1). He further states, “First of all, they are not simply for the education of students. This is an essential function, but the raison d’etre of a college is to nourish a world of intellectual culture; that is, a world of ideas, dedicated to what we can know scientifically, understand humanistically, or express artistically” (Gutting, 2). The purpose of education therefore is to help students mature and grow as persons as it prepares them for imminent or expected careers or jobs. He states that education may help us to nourish a world of intellectual culture that is full of ideas and dissects what is known scientifically to be understood by humans. Therefore, education that is acquired from colleges and other institutions of higher learning is important as it gives the students a different way of understanding and knowledge of things. Therefore, the liberal education camps are in agreement that education eventually leads to the overall well being of the education seeker. Moreover, all persons within the age of school going are encouraged to attend school in either colleges or universities or any other institution of higher learning to become a well-rounded person capable of surviving in the current world. Civic Education Civic education is the kind of education that requires that once people attend any institution of higher learning, they are expected to apply the same in the proper running and governance of the society. The civic education group propagates the importance of education as that which is necessary to impart a civic duty on the part of the learners in building the nation and enhancing the social fabric of the society. They argue that education is integral in the day to day running of the society, as through education, persons are able to bond together for the well-being of the society. Jefferson proposes that education should be adopted as a way of empowering all citizens of a country towards nation building (Jefferson 3). Williams on the other hand argues that education has the civic duty of making the nationals come together to further a common good of the society through enhancing a strong social fabric as opposed to furthering the interest of an individual (Williams 61). To him, universities and other institutions of higher learning are public utilities for developing individuals for the common good of citizens. Thomas Jefferson further stated that, “These are the objects of that higher grade of education, the benefits and blessings of which the Legislature now propose to provide for the good and ornament of their country, the gratification and happiness of their fellow-citizens, of the parent especially, and his progeny, on which all his affections are concentrated” (Jefferson, 3). He therefore states that the purpose of education that would be adopted provide every citizen with the require information that is important for him to conduct his own businesses and duties as well as improving his morals and faculties through reading. The education provided would also be important to the learners to conduct calculations for himself, by preserving ideas, accounts and contracts in writing. The education would also be important in knowing one’s duty to their neighbors and the nation that requires that the duties be discharged competently (Jefferson 2). Moreover, the education would enable the learner to have discretion to exercise with order or justice to persons related to him through pecuniary terms. The education earned can empower a person to observe and with faithfulness and intellect the social fabric one is placed under (Jefferson 3). Another function included to instruct the citizens of their rights, duties, interests through the teaching of arithmetic, reading, writing, geography and history and elements of measuring. Within the same paper there were reasons placed for the adoption of higher education in the state of Virginia. To the framers of the paper led by Jefferson, the purpose of the education was to come up with people who would play important roles in national governance such as diplomats, members of the legislature and the judiciary whom the prosperity and development of citizens is hinged on. Education attained was also meant to expand and broaden the principles and the structures of the government as it gave equal rights to every member of the society. The education that would be attained from the university would also be important in harmonizing different sectors of the economy such as the agricultural sector to come up with a free market economy. According to Thomas Jefferson, the education would be important in developing the faculties and the capacity of the youth by enlarging their minds, cultivating morals and instilling positive values of virtue and order. Through enlightenment attained from education, the learner is empowered in physical sciences and mathematics which forms an integral part of furthering science such as health and arts which has the effect of making life bearable or comfortable (Jefferson 3). In summary, education according to civic education camp helps in generating habits that may help in organizing populations in the society along moral lines. The person who takes the education along civic lines feels worthy of being a member of that society in that his standing amongst fellow men is rated higher (Jefferson 5). On the other hand Williams in discussing “History as a Challenge to the Idea of the University” states that the idea of a university is propagated as a place for the social good that strengthens the social fabric rather than the furthering of the interests of the individual student. He states, “The interest that this vista represents is the general social good rather than the individual student. Although it does assume individual development, it construes the university not as an isolated refugium but as directly connected to the social fabric. In a sense, it is non-utilitarian insofar as the foremost aim is a general social good rather than job training; on the other hand, it does envision the university as serving a public utility.” (Williams 61). To him, higher education is important as it can impart training on the part of the learner especially the technical and scientific bits of the education in question (Williams 62). Quoting Eliot from the 1869 Atlantic Monthly, he reiterates that if civic education is well organized with a larger scheme of work and it is implemented on student with the ability it will turn the student to be a person well aware of what education expects from him. The product of the education that is the graduate is able to master the principles of his training that eventually makes him more relevant to his employer unlike a person without the requisite civic education. This means that vocational training as an aspect of education empowers students to enhance their economic interests while at the same time preparing them for the world of business. From this article, education at universities is for disciplinary research (Williams, 64) while at times universities may be corporate in nature. Vocational Educational The vocational training group as a purpose argues that education is important for those who find the conventional form of education as offered in the classroom difficult to cope with. The vocational training is therefore encouraged in order to improve on the lives of persons taking the education. They call for the authorities to develop vocational facilities that may be adopted for the well-being of persons reluctant to join colleges or other institutions of higher learning to achieve some level of success. Carey argues that education in the classroom environment may be futile as in most cases; the students are unprepared for the kind of education to be offered there (Carey 1). Professor X proposes that education should be offered in a vocational perspective in order to take care of those students who may find the classroom environment too difficult to withstand, as it will empower them with skills to take care of their needs in the future (Professor X, 7). According to Carey in “Cruel, But Not a Hoax,” most students who have gone through college find it difficult to express themselves due to the fact that few do well in their classes even at undergraduate level. He writes, “Remarkably few of my students do well in these classes. Students routinely fail; some fail multiple times, and some will never pass, because they cannot write a coherent sentence.”(Carey 1). While deriding adult education and part time education, he states “Adult education, nontraditional education, education for returning students–whatever you want to call it–is a substantial profit center for many colleges.” (Carey 1). Therefore, education for adults, nontraditional education or education for students who have gone back to class is just for making profit and is of no or little importance. On the other hand, Professor X in the work “In the basement of the Ivory Tower” states that the idea that education is meant for every person is in itself destructive and he gives the explanation why. He states that most of his students were not prepared for the college education but just found themselves in college. While reliving his experience as a professor he states, “I work at colleges of last resort. For many of my students, college was not a goal they spent years preparing for, but a place they landed in” (Professor X, 2). He argues that this can be attributed to the fact that most students would want to take studies at places that are nearer home or their places of residences. The author admits this fact basing on the fact that his first job application to a place that is nearer his place of work or home (Professor X, 2). The author also states that most students take courses not that they do want to but because they have no options and must just enroll in them. However, he contends that sending children to college is an important strategy and opposing any form of education will be viewed as less courteous in nature. Professor X proposes that though the Americans are less enthusiastic about the conventional vocational track of education and that telling someone that the education mode preferred is based on class and difficult to avoid. He therefore sympathizes with stance taken by such persons opposed to vocational training as he thinks it is a mode that can be adopted by those who feel that the normal college life or university life is difficult to them (Professor X, 7). Conclusion Education forms an integral part of life in every aspect of the society; every person is required or expected to possess some level of education in order to succeed in career and have a fruitful life. This requires that all stakeholders are called upon to decide which form of education is most appropriate for the learner or the person seeking the education. Works Cited Carey, Kevin. Cruel , But Not a Hoax. May 12, 2008. Web. 6 June 2013 Gutting, Gary. “What Is College For?” The New York Times. December 14, 2011. Web. 6 June 2013 Jefferson, Thomas. Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia, Assembled at Rock-Fish Gap. n.d. Web. 6 June 2013 Menand, Louis. “Live and Learn. Why we have college.” The New Yorker. June 6, 2011. Web. 6 June 2013 Newman, John H, and Frank M. Turner. The Idea of a University. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. Print. Professor, X. In the Basement of the Ivory Tower: Confessions of an Accidental Academic. New York: Viking, 2011. Print. Williams, Jeffrey, J. “History as a Challenge to the Idea of the University.” jac 25.1 (2005) Read More