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Benefits and importance of education
Benefits and importance of education
Benefits and importance of education
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What is education? By definition, education means, “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life” (dictionary.com). In, “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch argues that education is not what it used to be. Education’s primary focus used to be about teaching the rights and responsibilities to the citizens. Currently, it is not like that at all. Sadly, the definition from dictionary.com does not satisfy the actual definition of today’s education. Today’s definition should grammatically be, the act or process of teaching children to focus on test scores and accountability rather than the …show more content…
Parents want their children to have a full liberal arts curriculum rather than having them learn how to take tests that determine their future forever. Children today are losing their creativity and individuality due to the recent changes in our education system, and policy makers see nothing wrong with that. Many programs and federal Acts are taking advantage of our lives. We as a community need to stand up to this and make a positive change in the world for our future generation.
By federal law, schools are expected to teach mathematics and reading to be tested for the future. Schools have increased the time to teach these subjects while pushing out other essential topics. Policy makers, “don’t show any regrets if a school spends inordinate amounts of time and
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Education has changed dramastically throughout the years and it won’t get any better if we do not do anything about it. We are being taken advantage of, and we will not take this disgrace anymore. Both Diane Ravitch and me, believe that education today is the act or process of teaching children to focus on test scores and accountability rather than the original purpose for learning, such as character and the love for education. Children should have a full liberal arts curriculum just as their parents wish. Again, I state, what is education? The world may never find the
If they are taught correctly, liberal arts classes have the potential to help “students cross social boundaries in their imaginations. Studying a common core of learning will help orient them to common tasks as citizens; it will challenge or bolster… their views and, in any case, help them understand why not everyone in the world (or in their classroom) agrees with them,” explains Gitlin in his article “The Liberal Arts in an Age of Info-Glut.” By exposing students to this in high school, they will be more prepared when this moment occurs in their careers. I, along with many students throughout the country, have been exposed to incorrectly-taught liberal arts classes. Students taking English, for instance, must read specific novels while assessing a theme that is already pointed out to them. Then, they must answer a question that has only two answers. This type of curriculum not only eliminates the development of opinions, but it keeps the students from being exposed to most of the author's beliefs and the author’s point of view, which is the main purpose of liberal arts classes. Without this exposure, students are left incapable of working with others and accepting their opinions in order to develop solutions to
In Diane Ravitch’s essay, “The Essentials of a Good Education,” she explains how schools in 2008 made budget cuts on a variety of if important subjects in school, such as history and science, in order to spend more time on tested subjects like mathematics and reading. Ravitch believes that public schools are forsaking the importance of life and social skills that every student needs. A child’s knowledge should not be rank, rated, or labeled, according to Ravitch, because “it does not measure their character, spirit, heart, soul, or potential.” Ravitch blames reform programs such as “No Child Left Behind,” which requires states to test children’s basic skills, on the cuts made in important subjects, which she believes are key components of education. She also said that educated parents would not want their children going to a school
Education is in itself a concept, which has changed over the millennia, can mean different things and has had differing purposes according to time and culture. Education may take place anywhere, is not constrained by bricks and mortar, delivery mechanisms or legislative requirements. Carr (2003. p19) even states, “education does not necessarily involve teaching”. Education, by one definition, is the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life (education, n.d.).
Education is the foundation of American society. It empowers the youth of America to become the successful leaders this country needs for the future. Education has been one of America’s top priorities since 1965, when the Elementary and Secondary Education Act was passed. Now, education is controlled by the No Child Left Behind Act, which was launched in January 8, 2002. This act was passed with intentions from the government to provide Americans with a more superior education system. However, The No Child Left Behind Act carried many flaws which were left unseen to a vast majority of the public. This act limited American students by not allowing them to demonstrate their full academic potentials while proceeding in school. While the act was still fairly fresh, there was already evidence to prove that it had already gotten off to a bad beginning. For the crucial math and science courses, statistics showed minimal improvements which had begun around the time period in which the No Child Left Behind Act was passed. The act was also supported by a number of educators who voiced themselves by testifying against having the right to teach at their own free will. Teachers across America claimed that because of this new act, they felt a constant heaviness upon their shoulders from the state government to “Teach the test.”
The education system has been changing in recent years and the same problems that existed continue to get worse as years pass. Problems that were seen as minor at first have now grown. How to change the public higher education system has been a major topic of discussion but there has still been no major action taken. We struggle to figure out how much funding is needed for higher education and where it should come from. Our people continue to suffer from an underfunded high cost system. The wealthy minority of people continue to be the only ones accounted for and it is time to change this. We need to adapt to the changes and the costs that continue to rise. It is time to help the struggling middle and lower classes. I believe that the best
For as long as any American can remember, education has been a top priority of the majority of the population. The more schooling a child receives, the brighter their future becomes. Everyone wants their child to be successful in and out of the classroom, and the government has been working to make sure of this in schools nationwide. Over the years, a series of programs have been implemented to better the education of elementary and secondary students, including the No Child Left Behind Act, establishing guidelines and requirements that public schools are expected to follow and accomplish in order to provide a quality education to all of their students. But are these plans, policies, and promises working? Are the goals and objections being reached by each school as expected? Although some may argue that the No Child Left Behind Act has some positive aspects, overall, it is not working because some teachers have studied the outline of standardized tests, reworking their curriculums to teach students what they need to know in order to reach the required standards and students’ learning abilities, socioeconomic status’, and native languages are generalized into a single curriculum.
The need for basic literacy skills is vital in order for our nation to continue to operate successfully. With approximately 5 million students, graduating below the National Standard for Literacy and unable to read, we must take a look at the curriculum and teaching techniques to assess whether the current systems need to be revised to better assure ALL students are successful. (Adolescent Literacy: A Policy Research Belief p. 1) The issue begins first with the definition of “Literacy”, and the fact that there are several aspects of literacy which are not currently included in the curriculum. Another issue is the “old” standards which are in place do not support the level of diversity which is now seen in many school systems. Then comes the issue of funding for schools and many schools in better neighborhoods obtain the highest level of private, and public funding and therefore are able to provide the higher level of education. However, in “The Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (LEARN) Act”, Senator Patty Murray states, “Research also shows that low income children are less likely to have access to high quality, literacy rich environments. These same children perform 40% lower on assessments of literacy achievement even before they start kindergarten.” (Murray) So, whose responsibility is it to ensure the success of the upcoming generations? Will the Federal Government step in to create a better system for the generations to come? There are quite a few solutions which have been used by Teachers, but with such an “old” system in place the issues of diversity, financial demand, inflexibility of the curriculum to assist individual students, classroom sizes increasing on a yearly basis, pressure to achieve sp...
In 2002, President George W. Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind Act” which tied in schools’ public funding to standardized tests and enforced the tests in elementary and high schools every year by state education departments. This law also began to put more emphasize on standardized tests which has diminished our level of education and the law “made standardized test scores the primary measure of school quality” (Diane Ravitch 28). Bush hoped this law motivated more students to do well on these exams and teachers to help them prepare better, but it ended up hurting many schools in the process. These exams like the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) should not play such a prominent role in schooling and the government should not make tests the main focal point.
Cochran, Clarke, Lawrence Mayer, T.R. Carr, Joseph Cayer, Mark McKenzie, and Laura Peck. "Education: Conflict in Policy Direction." American Public Policy: An Introduction. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 334-335. Print.
(2014) exclaimed that why do 62 percent of parents think the Common Core is not perfect for their kids, despite it has fascinated some entrepreneurs such as Bill Gates and the secretary of education. In a case in point, parents should get more involved in the education of their children if they do not approve of measures being used. She agrees to the idea of a federal government using incentives to adopt their specific education program, but then again she only sees that parents complaining and not taking action. In another context, “parents have no choice about whether their kids will learn Common Core, no matter what school they put them in, if they want them to go to college, because the SAT and ACT are being redesigned to fit the new national program for education”. (Pullmann, J. 2014, September 24, p. 1). In fact, Porter (1989) states that the Common Core standards became as opposing to teachers and teaching occupation, and the tactics are not good strong enough for enabling teachers to be dependent. The teacher is often understood to be the planned without rules. Moreover, some voices against the criticism of the common core, they believe that it is meaningless because districts are still permitted to select which material goes out with stem the basis stated by the Common Core
Public education in America is the responsibility of both the federal and state governments. With the rise of the technology-based economy and industry, there is a high demand for workers that are skilled in more ways than the basics. In order to meet the needs of these changes, “reading, writing, and arithmetic” are no longer making the cut and students are entering the world of work only meeting the bare minimum. What is the problem? Public schools are not preparing Elementary and Secondary education students for the jobs of today because the importance of technical and trade skills are being ignored.
Despite the push for education reform some thirty years ago, the American public education system has still not made adequate progress. The issue of education reform is a very complex issue with many di...
With this promise came serious concerns over education taught students ranked 28th in the United States out of 40 other countries in Mathematics and Sciences. 80% of occupations depend on knowledge of Mathematics and Science (Week and Obama 2009). In order to ensure that educators have enough money to fund the endeavor to be more competitive with the rest of the world in Mathematics and Science, President Obama will increase federal spending in education with an additional 18 billion dollars in k-12 classrooms, guaranteeing educators have the teachers, technology, and professional development to attain highly quali...
There is no one single definition for what education really is. Experts and scholars from the beginning have viewed and commented about education in different ways. The definition mostly agreed upon was that education is an acquisition or passing of skills, behavior or knowledge from an institution to another. This institution can either be a person, a school, a family or even the society. If we go in the ancient meaning and the ideology of education, it means to lead out of ignorance. In other words, education or knowledge in this sense was light and education brought the person out of the dark. The purpose and ideology of education is therefore to bring out the potential of a person and pass on knowledge
Education is meant to be the key to a successful life. It is supposed to inspire great ideas, and prepare each and every generation for their future. However, school for today 's generation fails to meet those requirements. Every student knows education is important, but when school is not engaging or in some cases, even relevant, it makes learning difficult. Improving the school system is something educators attempt to accomplish every year. Despite their best efforts, there are numerous flaws students see, but adults overlook. There is a lack of diversity for students to learn, an overabundance of testing, and students’ voices are being ignored on how to create a more productive learning experience.