Example Of Essay About A Modest Proposal

According to a modest proposal by Jonathan Swift, there are many beggars of the female sex with children who are asking for alms from passengers In Ireland. The mothers use their time strolling and begging so that they can sustain themselves and their infants. These children grow up not having any life skills, and some even end up as thieves. These children should be able to have a way of being members of society who are useful instead of ending up making bad choices. The writer of this proposal looks for ways that parents and children can support themselves with as little help as possible.
He proposes a way that children can contribute to the society that they can get food and clothing for thousands of individuals. According to the writer, instead of depending on their parents or parish on raiment and food for as long as they live, children can start being helpful from when they are a year old. His proposal would prevent voluntary abortions and prevent women from murdering their illegitimate children. The writer of the proposal suggests with a hint of humor that the children should be sold to avoid debts as both the parents and the children would benefit from this. He concludes his proposal adding that it is for the public good as it would provide for infants, advance trade in the country, relieve the poor, and be a sense of pleasure for the rich.
Instead of agreeing with the proposal, what could be changed would be improving the system of education so that students acquire life skills that would benefit them and the society as a whole. Currently, the school system is failing as most students end up finishing school without having any knowledge or skills on how to deal with the world or what to do with their lives.
Life skills are skills, which result to people having better quality life by enabling individuals to manage their lives. The skills help people live to their full potential and guide them to accomplish their dreams. There are no specific skills that are said to be life skills as it varies with cultures, beliefs, life circumstances, geographical location, age, and several other factors.
Life skills are important as they can get an individual further when compared to knowledge skills. This is because an individual can know much about a certain topic or have good grades but without life skills, it would be hard to survive. An example is when looking for a job; first impression would count; hence this would be a useful life skill for an individual. Skills like being good to other people like workmates and employers would be important too.
Critical thinking and problem solving is another important life skill that should be taught in class. A good example is in the company, which needs workers who are knowledgeable to be able to compete with the global economy. A worker with critical thinking and problem solving skills would be able to improve products, services, or processes continuously. A technique to test this life skill in school would be by asking questions that a student has reason and come up with an answer that is suitable. This is a fundamental skill as markets and environments in the business world are always changing fast hence making this skill a necessary life skill.
Teamwork is another important life skill that is useful to students. Individuals should know how to work with other people as businesses today are made up of very many branches that work for a common goal hence at one point, an individual would have to work with other people. As a manager too, teamwork would be important as employees would have to be governed, and the team spirit kept up so that they feel equally important so that they can produce the best results. Most projects in business have to be completed by teamwork. This skill can be practiced by encouraging group work in schools so that students could know how to work with other people as well as acquiring leadership skills.
Adaptability and agility are other skills that are important and should be included in the school curricula as a life skills. People needed work need to be adaptive, flexible and have ability to change in terms of growing with the company. The skill of adapting is important as the business world is always changing. This makes being adaptable and being able to learn new skills more important than just having technical skills. Agility would make a student persevering, which is a good quality for survival, as it would make them flexible to the changing business environment.
Entrepreneurialism and initiative are also life skills, which are important. These skills are seen in leadership as it helps in making initiative as well as trusting oneself in terms of creativity. These life skills are important because when the economy changes, people end up losing jobs as some markets become less attractive. Having the mind of an entrepreneur can be beneficial as an individual would not only be dependent on an employer, but would also be able to come up with his or her own ideas and establish himself or herself in the business world. There are many great ideas that have not been discovered yet that need people who have the initiative to discover them. An entrepreneur culture would be created if this life skill would be taught in schools.
Effective, written and oral communication is another life skill, which is important. Many young people have an issue with their communication. Some do not have the right verbal skills, presentation skills and business skills that are normally part of the business world. Good communication should be clear and concise so that the main points are understood for effective communication. Non-verbal communication is also important, as many executives would appreciate a speaker who expresses energy, focus, and passion when they communicate. Good communication skills also foster understanding hence resulting to effective communication.
One example of a test that would be useful in testing whether the students have acquired the knowledge on life skills is the Torrance test of creative thinking, which judges emotional expressiveness, ability to elaborate and synthesize ideas, intellectual vitality, humor, and other things. Self-tests can also be done by individuals mostly at higher levels of study to ensure that they have the necessary skills. This would particularly be useful as all the life skills that have been discussed can be analyzed using this method. These life skills can be taught from various levels of education, Elementary, middle school, high school and even in colleges. This is a better way of dealing with the issue of poverty in the country as individuals would be equipped with skills for personal development.