Compare and Contrast - Essay Example

Moving on with the comparison of the proposition of Penn State with Huxley, introductorily, Penn State states that the education given should be dealing with how to solve the issues and difficulties students face in the society and should deal with making the societies more manageable and prone to solving complex issues and in turn improving the human conditions (Venkatasubramanian 40); Huxley on the other hand claims that students need liberal education where they can choose their field of interest and can become successful only by abiding by the law of nature.

The supporting evidence for Penn State’s suggestion comes from the history of education; travelling back in history to the evolution of education we find that education has evolved only to help the people to be better humans and to improve the human conditions through making them more understanding towards the societal issues. Huxley’s liberal education makes proper sense when it says that there should be liberal education in terms of choosing a field which interests a student but the liberal education in context of the law of nature is hard to be based on factual incidents (Huxley, 1).

There is also no supporting evidence provided to base their argument on. This makes it very easy to comprehend that the proposition of Penn State is backed by coherent and rational thinking, while the liberal education stands baseless and just as a representation of a one sided thinking process and is further away from its implementation. Moreover, Huxley also states that the student should study to acquire all the skills of life in order to be able to deal with the day to day situations that arise in front of him/her.

Human beings can never interpret or forecast their outcomes of a taken decision and the past experiences are also not able to guide the individuals as every situation is different from the other past situations and thus, students need to study everything since they have no way to know what a decision holds for them in the future. In contrast to this Penn State has said that education should be based on problem solving of the day to day situations to help people interpret their problems well and to lead better lives.

Huxley’s concept can be given a thought here but again, it is only good to ponder over it but does not apply to rational thinking, as rationally we tend to learn from our past incidents only. Likewise, it is important for us to have an expected forecast of the outcome of our decisions in which education can play a vital role. It is important for one to abide by the law of nature but when solving problems of the society and making decisions, it is far more than that; solely following the rules of nature cannot make a person fully successful.

Additionally, it is important for the educational system to be applicable and relevant in day to day situations rather than being only theoretical and hazy. Things that will make students aware of their surroundings will help them understand the societal issues and problems and also help them in taking decisions. This should be a part of the education which they receive from their institutions as the main motive of the