The Enlightenment's Influence On Education: The Power Of Education

The Enlightenment period was a time where change began in the education system. Prior to this time, religion was held in high regard and that is what was the driving force in education. One of the driving forces behind this push for change was because many started to see that the way people should be living life is by believing in reason and evidence, instead of what the beliefs are that have already been laid out for them to believe. Another aspect of the way of thinking before the Enlightenment was that life would be better after death instead of living a fulfilled life while they were living. The supporters of the Enlightenment promoted the idea that a happy life can be found in this world. That happiness could be found through the belief

Because of how strong of an influence religion was, I’m sure that is was a fear that we may not have ever escaped the “control” of the church. Another large concept brought about during this time was the fact that we are not born a certain way. In other words, "No longer would any "enlightened" person accept the artificial inequalities and injustices of life as they were natural occurrences that could not be changed" (d2l). As individuals we are not born into a life that we cannot change. Jean Jacques Rousseau made it known that we are shaped by our education and our experiences. As a future edcuator this statement is one that fully expresses the importance of being educated. However, he also mentions that we have the chance of being corrupted by our environment. Both of these statements are controadictory, but I see it differently. If by saying that believing in the enlightment will ensure a happy life is true and we are shaped into those people through education and experience, then I see the second statement as being true only if we are not edcuated. Regardless of the type of education that you are

More efficient school management, to me, is contradicting one of the other ideas of these school. They are said to be open to all children: “common schooling was ‘universal,’ that is, open to all children regardless of staiton or status” (2014, p.88). Reading this made me feel that this was the time when education became availble to everyone, but once I continued reading my thoughts changed. It was still not openly accpet blacks or students with differing or strange religious beliefs. I do not beileve that a reform can call themselves a reform if they are not changing one of the biggest issues in education, the acceptance. Synonyms of universal are widespread and collective. It is injsut and unfair to be widespread only to a point where they choose to stop. Education today in some slightly less extreme ways parallels this mindset. Even though all students all allowed to go to school, it has been my observation that not all schools provide universal services, especially in reagards to children with special needs. In both the past and the present situaitons, those in the field of education are neglecting to see that what they are doing it not benficial to the children. It is one thing to say that you are “universal” or that you are “inclusive,” but its another thing entirely to actually follw through with it. When looking at the schooling system