The Definition of a True Education

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After more than 200 years later, this great America has overcome many hurdles such as becoming independent from Britain, a civil war, and the civil rights movement; yet it still has not overcome one thing: education. Administrators or the school board may think they are doing well at their job based on test scores taken by the students but they are not. Too many kids are unprepared for college and too many students drop out of high school for reasons such as pregnancy, financial issues, and having lost the motivation or desire to learn to continue their education. Although the education system is better than it first started hundreds of years ago, it needs improvement in order to educate the students better to prepare for the tough world waiting upon them.
The definition of a true education is when every student no matter who they are; what their statuses are; what their situation or circumstance they might be in; receives the same high quality of education. It also goes beyond just receiving their education. The students are truly educated when their teachers guide them, “to make them think through,” to understand what is happening around them (Gitlin). The goal of a teacher should be for their students to be free thinkers and, “stop off his uproar, fooling, and horseplay---keep his nature and arm it with knowledge in the very direction to which it points” (Emerson). They are truly educated when they are able to make reasonable decisions in their classes and, “think for themselves when they are out in the world on their own” (Ravitch). School is not only a place to educate students on math, language, history, science and other subjects but also to help be prepared for the time when have to making the decisions on your own. When...

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...hings, so it is best for the student and not for the school.

Works Cited

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. "from Education." Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. The Lanuage of Composition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 189-195.
Gitlin, Todd. "The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut." Renee Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition: reading, writing, rhetoric. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 251-253.
Mann, Horace. "from Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education." Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. The Lanuguage of Composition: reading, writing, rhetoric. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 248-250.
Ravitch, Diane. "Stop the Madness." Renee H. Shea, Lawrence Scanlon, Robin Dissin Aufses. The Language of Composition: reading, writing, rhetoric. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 257-260.

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