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Reflection on epistemology
What is the importance of education
What is the importance of education
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Every decision that we make has an effect on one’s life. Simple choices like the clothes we wear to complex decisions like the schools we attend shape our future. Most decisions made by people are to help them achieve success or live a “good life.” The common steps to living a “good life” are going to school to get educated, going to work to support yourself, and retiring to enjoy the remaining years. Just two years ago, I made a decision to go to LASA high school instead of my home school. Why did I do this? I felt that being educated would help me live a “good life.” The problem I had was that I neither understood what a “good life” was, nor did I know how education would help me live a “good life”. The quest for the answer will help me understand more about myself and my values, as well as help me find steps to create the life I want.
First we must find what the real value education is. In David Foster Wallace’s “Commencement Address to Kenyon College,” Wallace points out a flaw in the thinking of people that, if overcome, can be used for the better of themselves as well as others. Wallace presents an idea about epistemology, the way we think. He says that people must overcome their “default setting” (Wallace, 3), which is the idea that you are the center of the world and your “immediate needs and feelings are what should determine the world’s priorities” (Wallace, 3). By getting over this default setting, you can “choose to look differently” (Wallace, 4) at situations by establishing “self-awareness” (Wallace, 5) and this gives the “freedom of a real education…learning how to be well adjusted” (Wallace, 4). I think that as human beings, we get caught up in the mundane routine of everyday life and we fall unconscious and rely ...
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... science skills that will help me in the medical field in which I want to go into. I think that becoming self-aware is just a positive by-product that the education system gives to students, but there is no doubt that self-awareness is essential to a “good life” in fact I think that the definition of a “good life” is living WITH self-awareness, attention, and discipline. Being self-aware allows for you to stay conscious and awake for every decision, resulting in a fulfilling life because you have mastered your own principle values.
Works cited
Nawaz, Moe. "What Is Self Awareness?" Mastermind Coach. N.p., n.d.. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.
Wallace, David F. “This is Water.” Commencement Speech. Kenyon College. May 21, 2005. Transcription of the 2005 Kenyon Commencement Address. Purdue. n.d.
The importance of attending an institute of higher learning continues to grow as the job market becomes more competitive, and a diploma is essentially required to compete in it. However, with the growing demand for college and university successful students the concept of education has become clouded. In two commencement speeches, one by David Sedaris and the other by David Wallace, this concept of what education means and how it is viewed by the individual student is discussed as well as the process of thinking. David Seders, in his speech What I Learned, writes in a satirical format based on how education is being viewed. David Wallace in his commencement speech addresses the process of thinking and being self-aware with a college education.
In today’s society, one of the most natural human traits is selfishness. David Foster Wallace incorporated this idea in his commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. Wallace aims to persuade his audience that, “the most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about.” Although the intended audience of his speech is the graduates and staff, along with their friends and family, the piece has become quite popular since its delivery. Wallace offers, “nothing less than the truth” and captivates the listeners with his complete honestly. His personal tone lets the audience feel like they are a part of the conversation, rather than just receiving it. Wallace successfully conveys his message that society is blind to the world around them through the use of logic, humility and emotional appeals.
When Chris Langan was faced with a tough decision in college, he decided, “that was the point that I decided I could do without the higher education system” (Gladwell 94). Chris made a decision that not many people in America want to do or nonetheless, actually do. He carries the risk of affecting his entire future by not receiving a college degree and getting a job that he can support himself with. Chris also knows what is best for himself, and that everyone is different. He does the best for himself, and others will see. This type of situation will hopefully help others by influencing them to do the best for only themselves in order for them to feel like they have achieved the American Dream. Another situation that people may come across where they have to make a life-changing decision is as immigrants. At a young age, a “Brilliant immigrant kid overcomes poverty and the Depression, can’t get a job at the stuffy downtown law firms, [and] makes it on his own through sheer hustle and ability” (Gladwell 119). As it is, it is really hard to adjust to a new life in a new country. People do not know what to expect when they immigrate to a different country, even despite what they have heard from others. This difficult decision to go to a completely new place and start over is one that has to be made and
Similarly, in This is Water, David Foster Wallace argues a real education as offering people the choice of what to think about in life. He states that “a liberal arts education is not so much about filling you up with knowledge as it is about ‘teaching you how to think’, but rather about the choice of what to think about” (1). After getting educated, students obtain the basic knowledge among many subjects, but with all the information and facts being offered, people may lose conscious of what to think about. Schooling may cause students over-think things which are unnecessary because it may take over what you actually notice and care. Wallace insists “learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and
"To be self aware is to be conscious of one's character, including beliefs, values, qualities, strengths and limitation. It is about knowing oneself" (Burnard 1992).
As one ponders on how to live a good life, many ideas come to mind. Whether this may be wealth, family, or beauty, the early philosopher’s theories need to be taken into consideration. Those early philosophers include Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and The Epicureans. These four committed their lives towards bettering life, and are the basis of most philosophical theories. It is evident that these four need to be read, understood, and discussed to better understand one’s life. They always pondered on the thought of how to have a perfect life and society. When one makes their own theory, based upon these early philosophers, not only do they need to establish a strong belief system, it is required to practice this too. Plato had the most basic of theories, being that only virtue was needed in life to be happy and nothing else. For Aristotle, he used Plato’s foundation and added that external goods, such as wealth, respect, friends, and beauty were all necessary. Without one of these, Aristotle believes that one cannot live a happy life. For the Stoics, they settled on a balanced approached between virtue and external goods, saying that virtue is necessary, yet external goods are preferred too. The Epicureans largely argue the Stoics view, and present that pleasure (tranquility) is the goal of every life, but virtues and friends are required for this. Each theory has many critics, even with Aristotle being a critic of his own theory. None seems perfect, yet all fit today’s modern society. I found that I agree with the Stoics theory the most, and find that any external good is fine as long as virtue is the basis of that person’s life.
“Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage, I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that, Marriage is the most important”. This is a series of lyrics from Beyoncé’s song Flawless. This quote is important because I feel this pressure when I am supposed to talk about ‘a rich and fulfilling life’. I almost feel obligated to mention ‘a family’ as one of my requirements to a rich and fulfilling life. As a woman, society expects me to mention children and a husband to complete my life. However, I don 't want to take the traditional route. To me, a rich and fulfilling life can mean different things. Important values to me revolve around my goals and dreams in life. I think a rich and fulfilling life to me includes
As we reviewed the self awareness module this past week, it was very interesting to see how the self assessments provided the class with information about their own personal human behaviors. I was aware of most of the information provided but there were some tendencies I was surprised to find that fitted my character. It was good to be reminded of the things I had forgotten about myself. Learning about my individuality and how I interact and respond to others based on my traits, personality and behavior has been an awakening experience. It is also great to know that I can work on areas that need improvement to become a more balanced person to better assist my subordinates, teams and organizations.
What is value of life? Is it be able to do what you love? Or perhaps the freedom of been able to be who you want to be? No one knows exactly the value of life but many have some theories behind the meaning of life. There’s many ways we as humans value life like; enjoying the tiniest thing in this world, celebrate when a new life is conceived or maybe just be with your love ones. As life is growing and bringing joy sometimes it can be complicated and painful.
How do we get educated? To most, education is an arduous slog through school; starting with simple stories about naughty rabbits swapping bologna sandwiches. As we grow, we move on to more and more intellectual pursuits- onward to ancient kings being depressed. By the time we graduate we are ready for a life as a ‘productive member of society’. One may find themselves wondering where that shift is from ignorant to educated. Most people will tell you it comes when you graduate high school, some will argue that it will not happen until you become a parent, others will say it never happens. David Foster Wallace and Mike Rose believe that being educated is not a matter of how well you have been educated, but how you grow as a person. Mike Rose’s life experiences illustrate this perfectly.
I realised that self-awareness is important in achieving self-improvement. The more an individual understands themselves, the better he or she is at adapting life changes that is according to their needs. The more self-aware we are, it improves the level of confidence we have on oneselves. This can be achieved through greater exposure, thus widens one’s experiences and will be more likely be more accepting of others. Self-awareness will also benefit us to be more accurate in accessing
I was raised as a Catholic and always looked at morality as values and vice versa. I never truly made a distinction between the two until I was older and had to help my own children differentiate between the two. I grew up feeling that if I was kind and truthful, I was a person with strong values, but as I have aged, my thoughts on being moral and what it means have changed. To me now, values are having ideas of what is important to me or not. I value a friend ship or I do not value it. Where morality is the guidelines or rules about how I chose to live my life and I choose the morals that are guided by my Catholic faith. I know that God has given me free will to make choices that can be morally correct and align with God’s plan for me or I can use my free will to make choices that might be morally wrong and lead me in a path further from God. In the book The Tem Commandments, Eileen P. Flynn states that morality is “knowledge based on human experience, reason, and God’s revelation that discovers what we ought to be and what we ought to do to live fully human lives” (Flynn, 2010, p.
Almost everyone wants to understand the meaning of the life, why we’re here and how we get here, what is the basis of existence of life on the planet Earth? But first we have to understand what life it is. For this we have to start from the beginning, Big Bang or almighty God. We need to clearly understand the initial stages of life weather it starts from Adam and Eve or a single cell formation, to reach the current state, meaning changed in the great length. More and more people often say life has no meaning. But then there is some distinct differences made between two reasons: Life had clear meaning given us by God, as a story goes, it was about worshiping him. Then science changed the altered it entirely that life emerged random chemicals, gasses and it states that for all living organism the meaning of life is survival, passing down the genetic materials. Life does have substantial meaning, simultaneously they both holding truth value, even if they both seem pointless. As a
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