The End Goal Of Education

There seems to be no perfect answer to the question, “What is the purpose of education?” Every expert and activist probably has a different answer. Martin Luther King said the purpose of education is to, “…enable a man to become more efficient, to achieve with increasing facility the legitimate goals of his life (King, 1947).” Eleanor Roosevelt argued that the purpose of education is good citizenship (Roosevelt, 1930). Others, like Newman (2006), posit that education is a much broader idea. It is the “entire process by which a culture transmits itself across a generation” (Newman, 2006). In trying to form my own idea of the purpose of education, I tried to look at all of these ideas

The Purpose of Education has been a very widely talked about subject within parents and students, but what really is the answer to this much asked question? I believe the purpose of education is to get useful personality traits through your experiences in school and to be morally ethical. In the article, “The Goal of Education is Becoming” , the author, Marc Prensky talks about his beliefs in education for our young children, “The real goal of education, and of school, is becoming—becoming a ‘good’ person and becoming a more capable person than when you started” (Prensky 3). The author clearly describes that the new generation has to “become” a better person than how they started and find who they really are. Additionally, the students can

In Kisautaq Lenona Okakok’s essay “Serving the Purpose of Education” she discusses the education dilemma in her borough of North Slope, Alaska, where many of the occupants are indigenous people of the Inupiat. Western education was thrust upon the Inupiat people of Alaska, changing the traditional way they taught their children. Okakok explains why and how The Board of Education for North Slope, Alaska took entire control of their education system after having Western education try to influence their way of teaching. The way the Inupiat teach is different from that of Western education, not only do they teach a different language (Inupiaq), they also need to teach a different curriculum that is better suited for the people of the North Slope compared to that of Western education. Okakok’s essay analyzes the way Western culture and teachings influenced her own culture, and how the Inupiat have taken control of their own education again while using considerable examples to defend her claims.

The goals of public education revolve around three main areas that include; the political goals of schooling, the social goals of schooling, and the economic goals of schooling. These goals were placed with the idea that all children should receive public education whether you were poor or rich and schools focused on teaching about political views and the law to avoid conflicts. Schools were the focus of many hopes for political, social, and economic improvement.

One of the most important decisions in any teenager’s life is what they decide to do after high school, the choice is usually between college and deciding to get a job and start making money. Although the cost of education in America continues to rise, the benefits of a higher education are substantial and can be seen in the success of anyone who has a college degree.

Today, education enables us to enlarge our knowledge and open doors for opportunities to the path of having a good future. In the five readings, each written by a different author, there was a lesson learned and something to take away from each one. Reading through the passages by Mann, Moore, Malcolm X, Gatto, Rose, and Anyon, each author contributed his or her point of view on general public education. This topic can be very argumentative depending on the quality of education people receive. Education today is the single most important mean for individuals to achieve their personal goals in the workforce.

Everyone has a different story and background, but we all hold similar aspirations for the future. We can either let our background draw us into an inescapable black hole or use it to thrive over any obstacle. For many minority students as myself, the shot at college is the only chance we truly get to overcome our situations. It’s true that not everyone needs a college education to succeed, but the truth is not everyone has the resources to make something of themselves without the valuable education which a renowned institution like the University of Illinois has to offer. I come from a low-income family which had their share of struggles from an early age, which impacted our lives greatly. My decision on what major I possibly might be interested in pursuing might not have been directly linked with my family history, but the overall aspiration of attending college has. At the age of eight I faced the sad reality that I would be left without a father figure. My dad would be incarcerated for the next seven years for dealing drugs and at the end of his sentence he would be deported back to Mexico. This incident left a heartbroken family and a mother to fend for four kids all by herself. This overall incident was a wake-up call to better myself and not let myself be defined by the mistakes, which my father committed. I saw the struggles, which my mother had to endure.My mother is one of the most

Higher education has a vast history; beginning in the early colonial period and spanning ten generations. With its wide range of history, aspects of higher education have changed as the ideals and reforms of society adjusted. Albeit, the missions and purposes of college have remained the same. In this paper, I will clarify the three main missions and purposes of higher education. Then, I will shift the focus of the paper to the area I would like to pursue in higher education and how it reflects those purposes.

In May of 2011 a video by the National Inflation Association (N.I.A) surfaced on YouTube gathering over two million views and opening the eyes of people to the American college system.  According to the producers of this video, "College is the largest scam in US history!" Is college a worth-while investment? Is it just a way for the government to stimulate the economy? Are college degrees really a necessity in performing on the job? All of these questions have been asked and answered with both yes and no. Four writers with different views on this matter have written up articles concerning this issue. While

But to fix the problems and to serve the students we must first have a vision of what good education is (Ravitvch). What is a good education? A good education isn’t just learning and comprehending, a good education should also teach us how to work well with others, to use our common sense, to expand our range of friends and how we think. Now, what are the goals of a true education? The goals of a true education are learning how to work for yourself by yourself, to grow and adapt as a whole person, to build up your character, and to have a desire to learn more. If our schools were to meet the goals of a true education, it would leave us with a thirst for knowledge that leaves you restless at night, that only education can fulfill.

Both opinionated articles, “The Goal of Education is Becoming” by Marc Prensky and “The Common Core Costs Billions and Hurts Students” by Diane Ravitch, take the readers into a whole new perspective on this generation’s education system. Marc Prensky believes that the new system of education should focus on developing character traits in order to succeed, instead of becoming a good test taker and ending your education after college. In paragraph 14 he states that, “We spend so much time and effort looking at test scores, averages, and other petty measurements of "learning" that we have little time or energy left to focus on who our students are (or are not) as individuals, what they love or hate, or what drives them.” In other words, he believes that taking tests will not benefit

The National Education Goals, adopted in 1990, specified eight goals for educational improvement in the United States. As stated in the National Education Goals, “By the year 2000, every school will promote partnerships that will increase parental involvement and participation in promoting the social, emotional, and academic growth of children” (National Education Goals Panel, 1998). According to the final report, there was no significant change in the level of parent participation in the majority of the states. The No Child Left Behind law established strict provisions for states, school districts, and schools with regard to parental involvement among the parents of disadvantaged students for increasing academic achievement (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). Epstein suggests that schools establish comprehensive school-family partnership programs.

The goals of education are controversial and not many people can agree on what they are. A commonly shared opinion of the “purpose of education is to prepare students for the “real world” to “succeed””. Children are constantly being prepared for the workforce and what will

Ask any highschool student what the powerhouse of the cell is, they’ll reply “Mitochondria,” without processing the question. Ask what slope intercept form is… “y=mx+b”. High Schoolers will be able to tell you the precise structure of an atom, or the names of all three ships Columbus sailed on in his exploration. Ask them why they have a social security number? What a credit score is? Or, how do you do taxes or apply for a loan? And they will stare at you in a blind gaze. If we take a step back and think of what we really learned in four years of high school… what does it amount to? What does a good education look like? Why are we questioned what number/percentage we received instead of what did we learn? Education today prioritizes what scores we receive instead of what we have actually taken away from the work, and fails to provide us with the most basic life skills that we need to succeed.

Every now and then I think about my education from kindergarten through senior year of high school and I wonder where I would be and who I would be without it. I have realized that those thirteen years of my life were essential to my development as an individual, for they have shaped me into the person I am today.