Meaning of Education Essay

Recently, a university professor wrote a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. He commented that people shouldnt put to a fault much weight on the recently released trends in SRA scores of the responsibilitys high school students. The professor went on to describe round of the unanswered questions well-nigh the nature and value of mind. He mentioned that one of the problems with assessment was the ongoing disagreement on the very settle of grooming. A fewer days later, a scathing response was printed from a community sh be who questioned whether the University really wanted roughone on their staff who didnt even offing know the purpose of gentility.Clearly, this soul assumed that his definition of program line was divided by all. What is the core of education? Webster defines education as the process of educating or teaching (now thats really lend oneselfful, isnt it? ) Educate is advertize delimitate as to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of Thu s, from these definitions, we might assume that the purpose of education is to develop the knowledge, skill, or character of students. Unfortunately, this definition offers little unless we further define words such as develop, knowledge, and character. What is meant by knowledge?Is it a body of information that exists out thereapart from the human idea processes that developed it? If we look at the standards and benchmarks that accept been developed by umteen statesor at E. D. Hirschs list of information needed for ethnic Literacy (1), we might assume this to be the definition of knowledge. However, there is considerable investigate leading some others to believe that knowledge arises in the mind of an individual when that person interacts with an idea or experience. This is hardly a new argument. In ancient Greece, Socrates argued that education was virtually drawing out what was already within the student.(As many of you know, the word education comes from the Latin e-duce re meaning to lead out. ) At the alike time, the Sophists, a group of itinerant teachers, promised to give students the necessary knowledge and skills to dispatch positions with the city-state. There is a dangerous tendency to assume that when people use the selfsame(prenominal) words, they perceive a situation in the same way. This is seldom the case. Once one gets beyond a dictionary definitiona meaning that is practically of little practical valuethe meaning we allot to a word is a belief, not an absolute fact. Here be a couple of examples.The central task of education is to implant a go forth and facility for learning it should produce not learned save learning people. The truly human alliance is a learning society, where grandp arnts, parents, and children are students together. Eric Hoffer No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and charity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every accepted education should be to unlock that treasure. Emma Goldman The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his living-by developing his mind and equipping him to swop with reality.The training he needs is theoretical, i. e. , conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to sustain further knowledge by his own effort. Ayn Rand The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to thinkrather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men. Bill Beattie The one real object of education is to leave a man in the condition of continually asking questions. Bishop Creighton The central chisel of schools is to maximize the capacity of each student. Carol Ann Tomlinson These quotations demonstrate the diversity of beliefs about the purpose of education. How would you complete the state ment, The purpose of education is ? If you ask five of your sonny boy teachers to complete that sentence, it is likely that youll have five different statements. Some will place the focus on knowledge, some on the teacher, and others on the student. notwithstanding peoples beliefs in the purpose of education lie at the heart of their teaching behaviors.Despite what the letter writer might have wished, there is no definition of education that is agreed upon by all, or even most, educators. The meanings they attach to the word are complex beliefs arising from their own determine and experiences. To the extent that those beliefs differ, the experience of students in todays classrooms can neer be the same. Worse, many educators have never been asked to state their beliefsor even to reflect on what they believe. At the very least, teachers owe it to their students to bring their definitions into soul and examine them for validity. Purposes and Functions.To make matters more complica ted, theorists have made a note between the purpose of education and the functions of education. (2) A purpose is the fundamental remainder of the processan end to be achieved. Functions are other outcomes that may slip by as a natural result of the process byproducts or consequences of schooling. For example, some teachers believe that the transmission of knowledge is the chief(a) purpose of education, while the exchange of knowledge from school to the real world is something that happens naturally as a consequence of possessing that knowledgea function of education.Because a purpose is an verbalised goal, more effort is put into attaining it. Functions are assumed to occur without order effort. For this reason its valuable to figure out which outcomes you consider a fundamental purpose of education. Which of the following do you actually include in your planning? Acquisition of information about the past and present includes traditional disciplines such as literature, histo ry, science, mathematics Formation of healthy social and/or formal relationships among and between students, teachers, others Capacity/ability to pronounce information and to presage future outcomes (decision-making)Capacity/ability to seek out alternative solutions and evaluate them (problem solving) Development of mental and physical skills motor, thinking, communication, social, aesthetic Knowledge of moral practices and estimable standards acceptable by society/culture Capacity/ability to acknowledge and evaluate different points of view Respect giving and receiving recognition as human beings Indoctrination into the culture Capacity/ability to live a fulfilling life Capacity/ability to earn a living career education Sense of well-being mental and physical health.Capacity/ability to be a good citizen Capacity/ability to think creatively ethnic appreciation art, music, humanities Understanding of human relations and motivations Acquisition/ illumination of values related to the physical environment Acquisition/clarification of personalised values Self-realization/self-reflection awareness of ones abilities and goals Self-esteem/self-efficacy As Tom Peters reminds us, What gets measured, gets done. Regardless of the high sounding rhetoric about the knowledge of the total child, it is the content of assessments that largely drives education.How is the capacity/ability to think creatively assessed in todays schools? To what extent is the typical student know and given respect? How often are students given the opportunity to tell and evaluate different points of view when multiple choice tests require a single correct answer? Teachers who hold a more humanitarian view of the purpose of education often experience stress because the meaning they assign to education differs greatly from the meaning assigned by society or their institution.It is clear in listening to the language of education that its primary focus is on knowledge and teaching rather tha n on the learner. Students are expected to conform to schools rather than schools serving the needs of students. Stopping to site and agree upon a fundamental purpose or purposes of education is rare. virtuoso sees nebulous statements in school mission statements, but they are often of the Mom, baseball, and apple pie variety that offer little substance on which to pretend a school culture. Creating meaningful and lasting change in education is unlikely without revisiting this basic definition.At the very least, educators must be challenged to rate and reexamine their beliefs in the light of present knowledge. It is time for the focus of education to shift from whats out therethe curriculum, assessments, classroom arrangement, books, computersto the fundamental assumptions about and definitions of education held by educators and policymakers. NASA did not send men to the moon by building on the chassis of a model T. In the same way, education cannot hope to move beyond its presen t state on the chassis of 18th century education.