The Importance Of Education In Education

Letter 8, question 2: Why should an educator know the concrete world where their students live? Why does Freire use the expressive term “concrete” when describing the environment where students live?

Educational institutions are designed to ready the next generation for careers and the workforce, but how to accomplish this may be very tricky in light of the fact that the jobs of the future don’t exist yet. The known however, is what employers are looking for now and what they feel is needed in the future. According to Tiffany Shlain, filmmaker and founder of the Webby Awards, “The skills needed to succeed in today’s world and the future are curiosity, creativity, taking initiative, multi-disciplinary thinking and empathy. These skills, interestingly, are the skills specific to human beings that machines and robots cannot do” (Rainie). The work world is changing at an ever-increasing pace and society and future workers need to keep up. The educational system however is stagnant with few real innovations or shifts within the past one hundred and fifty years. Individual assessments, isolated curriculum and mundane facts will not produce the creative, collaborative workforce needed for the future. The current system is designed to create a large number of obedient factory type workers with a small number of special and specifically educated elite at the top to control them. With a shift to technology and globalization, the stagnation within education leaves a dearth of workers for the jobs of the future. Educational systems are producing workers for yesterday, not the present or the future. In order to create students ready of the demands of the 21st century, educational

Today’s education systems are deeply flawed. Schools attempt to conform the way students think, which then limits creativity and student’s ability to think for themselves. Schools are falling away from the true focus of education by replacing effective teaching with irrelevant assignments, only to overwork and severely stress the students. Since many students are focusing more on homework than real-life, they are losing precious time to explore passions and learn important life lessons. Schools today are not preparing students to be lifelong learners and successful participants in the real world at an adequate level.

Education is a basic human right (“Primary and Secondary Education”). It is crucial for alleviating poverty, creating equality between different genders and races, improving health, maintaining peace, producing stability (Primary and Secondary Education). Every single person has the right and the responsibility to be educated so our world can grow and become more successful. The skills and knowledge learned in the classroom are not only helpful for counting and reading, but also in personal growth, people skills, and common sense. Education is crucial for a country's economy and poverty rate. In developed and developing nations, education has many differences in attendance, quality of teaching, content of curriculum, and post-primary education.

When a child does not receive adequate education from a young age, more times than not it traps him or her in a cycle of poverty that they are unable to escape. This is the paramount social issue of our generation. While other issues relating to hunger, homelessness, and healthcare are also important, they are short-term in nature. One can feed an individual; one can provide shelter to an individual; one can cure an individual. What one can not do as easily is educate an individual to a level where they can secure a stable future for oneself and for their progeny. There are too many variables to ensure success with short-term solutions and the time horizon is too long.

With more education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, children will be better prepared for challenges they will face in their lives. If kids are more educated in STEM, then they become outstanding citizens in their communities, and across their countries. Researchers have conducted many experiments about people interested and educated in STEM, and compared them to people not as intrigued or experienced. The data collected leads to numerous amounts of behavioral and intellectual skills, however, one stands out in particular that all citizens should be aware of. People who excel in STEM, those who make things, and those that are inspired by science, typically are better at problem solving, they have better social skills, and they are more likely to make a difference in the world.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt once put, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” There has been a noticeable change in the way empires ruled since the times when the “divine right” dominated society. When the French moved towards enlightenment thought, they had slowly dismantled the concept of “maintaining the status quo,” which cannot be sustained if an empowered mind is educated. Proper schooling has been instrumental for ensuring that useful, beneficial knowledge and skills are acquired by people who will, in turn, use these tools to form a progressive society. Without education, developing a strong sense of nationalism would be impossible as schooling allows patriotic beliefs to be transmitted from a state to its pupil. Similarly, education illuminates the past and promote nationalistic actions though developing an understanding of a great nation’s history. In the years before 1799, intellectual history has had its moments of eminence but it was lacking in many minds of the French. This push towards an educated mind had been undercut at every turn by the nobility, the church, and prominent political figures who utilised religion to “keep the common people occupied.” In the late 1790s’ France was still waging wars across the globe , the Directory abused its power to keep opposition at bay , and French pride was bleak. The stream of intellectual ideas, at the

Education is a diverse subject that is crucial working part in our society machine. We can thank our education system for what our world looks like today. Without education all our advances in technology, medicine, and critical thinking wouldn't be possible. Our teachers of the past, present, and future were and are some of the most important people to have walk this earth. They have touched the lives of many, and will continue to shape the minds of tomorrow. Yet, as well as our education system has done, their are still many issues that we must address as a whole. Issues such as Bilingual education and the hiring of unqualified teachers plague our education system.

Throughout my educational years, I have always had a competitive mindset due to soccer which I believe has played a role in my struggles with literacy. I always had to be the first person in my class to finish my assignments. Whether it was a test, a quiz, or just a daily assignment, I was always the first to finish. By doing this, it caused me to rush through my assignments and not give the time and effort needed to do it right or even figure out if I really liked a book or story. This was most prevalent in my english classes. English was never my strongest subject. I found that I had not been particularly passionate about reading or writing, so the papers I produced were never at their full potential. I would rush through those assignments even faster, making sure I would not have to endure the pain of reading and writing for any longer time than I had to. I would much rather have been outside playing soccer with my teammates.

I entered education with the intent to use my life to make a difference for my city, state and country. I was flagged early in my elementary education as student that was struggling academically. My parents were fortunate enough to be financially able to send me to a specialist working in a private school. I spent much of my time from grade three to eight in a special education setting where I made great strides academically. Upon entering high school I returned to a public high school, tested out of my IEP and entered the advanced track.

Teachers analogous to every other human desire for integration, collaboration and kinship, yet, encounter confinement and segregation. Ingersoll stated in 2012, “although elementary and secondary teaching involves intensive interaction with youngsters, the work of teachers is done largely in isolation from colleagues. This isolation can be especially difficult for newcomers, who, upon accepting a position in a school, are frequently left to succeed or fail on their own within the confines of their classrooms—often likened to a “lost at sea” or “sink or swim” experience”.(http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/05/16/kappan_ingersoll.h31.html). Veteran teachers consistently promulgated to me early in my career that I needed to earn my stripes to acquire credibility in the education profession. Morosely, those words pushed me towards isolation rather than collaboration. Wong states, “ New teachers want more than a job. They want to experience success. They want to contribute to a group. They want to make a difference. The best induction programs provide connection because they are structured within learning communities where new and veteran teachers interact and treat each other with respect and are valued for their respective contributions”. (p. 47) Similar to students, teachers need their administration to provide a working environment that includes structure, safety, compassion and trust from the onset.

The education system has been established in order for all members of the communities to receive a fair and equal education opportunity. However, there are many variables that take place and all students receive the same opportunities. The students who live in poor areas tend to struggle more in school because it carries on to the school grounds. Those schools seem to have more difficulty keeping students engaged and on track. For some reason, the students at a low performing school are usually minorities and the school environment is not considered a place for them to thrive. Many teachers may find it difficult to teach in those schools because there is a lot of chaos at times. Therefore, keeping competent teachers is not always possible and that negatively affects the students education as well. Trying to close the gap between low performing schools and those that do well is not an easy task. The effort of school administrators to bring programs to help low performing schools and educating those families who’s children are affected is important because it can help enhance their opportunity to succeed educationally.

Why do you want to go into special ed. / inclusive/ general ed./ teach in your content area?

If you look back in history the Asians worked as slaves, and laborers and became targets of discrimination by the Americans. However, through persistence and self-determination, they have succeeded in turning tables to become the most successful group in the American society. Hard work through education, along with good social and moral behavior is part of the Asian’s philosophy. Currently they are the highest income generators and rapid growing ethnic group in the United States (Pew Social & Demographic Trends, 2012). The report (Pew Social & Demographic Trends, 2012) further states that they tend to be more satisfied economically than the rest of the American population. Additionally, they also value wedlock, parenting, productiveness, and their career success. Their continuous economic and social success has been a result of various factors in American society.

Do schools meet the needs of the students that come out of our current system? It has been a question in debate for a very long time. As the pace of change in society excellerates it is imperative to reexamine if we are meeting the needs of students of the 21st century and it has become increasingly clear that we are not. Critics of the system write scathing accounts of how schooling is harming children and society by teaching conformity instead of the critical thinking skills they purport to teach. In response to the criticism, some schools in Canada have worked hard at reforms and have reexamined their basic practices in order to try and bridge the gap between what 21st century learners need and what is being currently offered in