The Great Aim Of Education Is Not Knowledge, But Action

Education at its best is a process of teaching people to explore ideas about themselves and the world in which they live, to ask questions about the experience called “living” and to embrace ambiguity, to notice the unusual without fear and to look upon the ordinary with new eyes.

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.

Education should not only be looked at as attending college and passing exams to succeed in school. Nevertheless, it should be seen as the complete development of one's personality, intellectual development, and moral evolution. The system tells everyone to learn the same material, even if the students are bored and even if they’re sleeping during class. In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto states, “teachers didn’t seem to know much about their subject and clearly weren’t interested in learning” (Gatto). This shows the teachers and the students disconnect from the context because either it’s irrelevant or not being taught in inspiring ways. I believe an educated person should at least have some background knowledge for a job

There is an endless supply of knowledge out there in the world, and I am ready to take in as much as I can. Every time I learn something new, I see the world a little differently and interact with people on a new level. For instance, learning about nature or receiving new information about how living things function, helps me appreciate the life that I am living. I never find a class to be fruitless, even if it will not be the most practical subject in my life; I still treasure the information that I retain from it. Some people are content with knowing what they learn from their classes and going home and watching the television, but for me, learning does not stop when I leave the classroom. I read books at home, research topics discussed in class, and attempt to memorize pieces from my favorite poets. Learning is a never-ending, but delightful, process for

Yet even with these realizations that delve into the deeper meaning of education, modern education is still calling for simple measurable outcomes and continues to be geared towards specific employment ideas. This model of education is blatantly inadequate though. Many students today will end up holding jobs not yet invented in fields not yet discovered, so the teaching of answers to today’s questions is utterly useless. Albert Einstein once said, “Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” and this statement reigns true throughout time. To continue academic success, the education system needs to impart a mastery of one’s own mind that allows students to not only answer current questions but also to pose questions that will shape the future world.

Some people might like education, others might dread it and really don’t see a reason to continue learning about it. Today, for teachers and professors it’s easy to them to tell how the education they teach is effective for an individual student. As we know, education is being taught at school, home, and a little of both. For America today, most children attend preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle school, high school, and college. Depending on the pupil's career choice, it can take up to 20 or more years completing their schooling system, Usually, during the middle and or high school years in America, professors teach you valid things pupils will be using in life.

Education is the gradual process of meaning making and acquiring “knowledge.” One views the world through his or her own set of lenses or filters, from his or her own perspective, and the mind of the learner attempts to connect new information to existing schema to make new connections. These constructions and connections in the brain become "knowledge." Therefore, knowledge when people begin to understand facts or information through experience and/or learning. We begin to realize, through knowledge, details that we learn in isolation are actually interconnected. Education can be intentional or unintentional and can occur everywhere and at any time. Education is greatly influenced by affective factors and social context. It has both internal and external value, both to a person and to all of society.

Education is the very foundation in which we as individuals grow, and formulate the knowledge we gain through life into meaningful ways of adapting to the world.

When I was a child, I had a need for perfection in my academic pursuits - I focused on getting every question on my tests right. My father would shake his head disapprovingly at this strategy. He told me, “education is not only what you learn, but also how you will put what you learned into use.” At the time, I couldn’t understand what he meant, but as I grew older, realizing that it’s impossible to memorize every detail I read, I understood the importance of making my knowledge practical.

The misconception that occurs between education and knowledge isn’t rare. Many say that knowledge is knowing many things, but education is understanding many things. One can simply memorize the material, know it, and then receive a one hundred on a test. Whereas an educated person will learn the material to where they understand it and can use what they learned in everyday life. By learning the material and understanding it, that material will be carried on throughout one’s life. This is because when one understands something instead of memorizing it, they will have a long-term memory of that

As a teacher, my philosophy of education focuses on the individual child and their educational needs. I would like my students to feel comfortable, develop their communication skills, and build positive character traits. Along with encouraging the children to grow in a positive way, I will treat children equally for grading along with providing them with the skills they need in order to achieve the most they can academically.

People have ignored the importance of education in one's life nowadays. They give too much emphasis on the grade that they will get and not on the wisdom that they will obtain from it. We must realize that the grades does not exactly determine how well we have learn but it is through experience where we learn most. For example, a person learns how to love oneself more when one experience pain and suffering. A person becomes stronger when it faces different challenges in his life. Hence, experience is the basis of the level of knowledge and it is the ultimate judgment on a person's level.

I believe that education extends far beyond the classroom walls, and involves many more people than students and teachers. People should be learning wherever they go, and should continue learning long after they’ve graduated from high school or college. Education isn’t something that can be quantified with tests or report cards, but is instead something that people carry with them. It’s a survival pack for life, and some people are better equipped in certain areas than in others. People with a solid education are prepared for nearly anything, as they will be able to provide for their own physical, emotional, and aesthetic needs.

I cannot write this essay without reference to study of my own experienced and my daughter’s- placed in the harsh environment of the government schooling system and its observations of the stark belief systems of “the child to fit the system” and not “the system to fit the child” with reference to the what education should be about. This means different things to different people. To some this means a teacher teaching and passive learning taking place, the outcome is expected at the end of each year that each child has to achieve the same outcome and is graded accordingly.

As Daniel J. Boorstin said, “Education is learning what you didn 't even know you didn 't know.”