Notable Education Essay Sample

Since the goal of education is to learn knowledge and apply it in life situations, education does need to be improved. It should be redefined especially the basic curriculums to be in agreement with the students needs. Instead of letting students learn specific knowledge subjects, such as physics, geography, education should allow students to decide what to learn and provide them with fundamental skills of learning, such as how to think logically and design a research.
The students who do not understand the meaning of their education are obviously not learning what they ought to be learning. This leads to the question, why should the education system let the students continue learning? From elementary school to college or higher educational organizations, students are familiar with plenty of subjects, such as chemistry, biology, political science, and so on. Some of these subjects are compulsory to take depending on different countries’ policies, and the students are supposed to finish the required compulsory courses before proceeding to the next level.
During this period, students may have no choice and are faced with difficulties of making their education relevant to them according to their desires and life goals. John Dewey asserts in Thinking in Education, that “The pupil studies, but unconsciously to himself the objects of his study are the conventions and standards of the school system and school authority, not the nominal ‘studies.’” Dewey points out that learning without the awareness of the reason of learning cannot be attributed to study. For example, when learning mathematics, lots of students get stuck when they confront the problems that need them to imagine in three dimensions. Some students merely cannot do that (think in three dimensions). However, it is terrible if the students, who are not able to think in three dimensions, are English major and all mathematics they need to be concerned with in future may probably not exceed fundamental algebra. In such situation, the students are not studying for their academic goal, but for the school’s approval.
Based on the goals of education discussed earlier, learning knowledge that one will not apply is unreasonable. The problem then can be concluded by the general education requirement assigned to students as a threshold toward graduation or next level education. Therefore, education should allow students to decide the subjects to learn; those that shall be helpful to them in future. This is because the students shall be able to apply the knowledge obtained from school.
The way that students achieve their academic success today is inefficient. Students should decide what to learn and be able to learn it themselves as early as possible. After joining college, students find that they have to spend more time on reading instead of learning all by themselves. This involves paying attention to teachers’ lessons in order to achieve a good performance in the classes. This is because of the broader scope that college level courses cover, and the professors are not able to involve all of the contents in their lessons. Therefore, college students are required to learn independently; moreover, as the students’ academic degrees get higher, the percentages of their time spent to learn independently become bigger, and finally the students happen to be able learn a subject completely by themselves with all sources related to it. After over ten years, students who have been through all the subjects that they do not know where to actually apply finally understand how to learn and discover what they are keen on. Apparently, this is inefficient. In Designing Education for Understanding, Howard Gardner suggests, “students should probe with sufficient depth a manageable set of examples so that they come to see how one thinks and acts” therefore, students should pay more attention on what they really need to know to work on their own topic, it is unreasonable to require a physics student to get an A in sociology class.
Education should allow students to decide what to learn so that they can apply the knowledge gained on certain things with their own thought. This will save students’ time and partially prevent student from getting frustrated on certain subjects that they are not good at. When students know what they want to acquire, they have the enthusiasm to work and learn because they struggle not for others, but for themselves. Therefore, the only thing education need to do is to teach students how to learn, research, and other skills that can enhance their education as whole and be relevant in future.