Education is by far the most important activity in a person’s lifetime. It is said that education never ends and a person’s capacity to learn is only limited to his or her belief of the knowledge they possess. Educational institutions all over the world impart knowledge to young minds in various fields established by human kind throughout its existence. However, education is not only about gaining knowledge and certifying oneself (Hacker). It is about increasing one’s awareness, one’s own personality and one’s one perspective of the world around them. However, each individual has a different take on what education is and what it means to be educated. There can be many variations to the system of higher education from country to country and methods of imparting education may be different from region to region. However the basic function of education remains the same, to hone the knowledge and skills of an individual and create aware, responsible and independent citizens.
Higher education is the last phase in which an individual opts to learn about the career path he or she has set their mind upon. It is indeed that phase of education where a student transitions into a professional (Dearlove). However, higher education has always faced criticism for the sheer diversity of problems it faces. Many scholars have tried to understand and suggest ways to rectify problems related higher education (Haley, Hephner & Koutas). The following paper is a discussion of three essays on education written by scholars of their time and the personal views on higher education as it stands today.
Higher education is one of the last phases of formal education, although one must acknowledge the fact that education never ends. The current system of education is divided it into three major categories known as the primary, middle and higher education (Haley, Hephner & Koutas). Higher education is the phase in which a student makes the final preparations to enter into his or her choice of career. Indeed the years of higher education are depicted as the final years of preparation for an individual’s career ahead (Altbach). But education, especially much more than that. Many influential people have understood and conveyed the significance that higher education holds in the life of a student and some of them are put down in writing for the reader to experience and get inspired from. The following paragraphs describe the essays from educationists and notable personalities who try to explain what higher education may mean to a student other than just preparing a student for their professional life.
The first of the essays chosen to describe and analyze the state of higher education is a write up “What is College for?” by Garry Gutting for the Stone tabloid of the New York Times. The author has shared his views on what higher education at a college campus means and what are the perspectives and misconceptions of people and students in particular about higher education and methods of teaching. Gutting has treated the essay in a way to justify the fact that education benefits the students in more ways than just building up an academic record. He used results from surveys and researches to show that students who conclude their studies after gaining education accept that they have benefitted from it at the psychological level other than the increase of knowledge. Gutting also explains the popular misconceptions that students and parents have about teaching practices and the ways in which education is imparted to the student. It is a common misconception that education means to make a student cram facts into their minds and produce them onto a test. Gutting emphasizes on the fact that a teacher is not present to provide education in a way that the student may easily digest it. In fact doing so is only a way making a student increase his or her capacity of remembering and not learning, leaving any scope for cognitive development. Although education requires a student to have good memory it is not the only necessary factor for being educated.
A teacher is meant to instruct a student and help them build up concepts rather than spending efforts on making elaborate methods to make the educational process entertaining to the students. In other words he explains that colleges and the teachers are meant to nurture the intellectual level of a student and not just help them to cram up subjects and vomit them on test papers to score good grades. Gutting also explains that education is not meant to be imparted to students just because it is a norm, a student must have the hunger and curiosity to learn the subject with full fervor. He also points out the significance that education holds in terms of disciplines, like art, poetry and such other vocational fields, which are not counted as conventional educational streams.
“Give a beggar a money and he shall remain a beggar forever. Teach him to earn instead and he shall never need to beg again”
~anonymous
However, Gutting also points out to the prevailing practices in campuses that make it difficult for students to understand the key function of education. Colleges and universities wrap up educational practices with glamor like academic curriculum. He emphasizes on the need to view education as a means to nurture and hone the intellect and identity of a person and produce professionals who have the drive to gain knowledge even after their schooling years have ended.
The second essay “Learning to Read” is a personal account of the experiences of self-tutoring. The author of this essay Malcolm X was considered one of the most influential and well versed leader of African Americans during the years of 1960’s. Malcolm did not receive any formal schooling after his eighth grade and “acquired” most of his learning during the spent years in prison for a conviction of robbery. He explains that how difficult it was for him to convey his feelings in writing to people he wished to be in touch with.
He expressed his capability of gaining influence through speech and his inability to do the same in writing to the people who mattered to him the most, especially to his religious guru Elijah Mohammed. He conveyed his agony at failing to write simple letters and how it drove him to read books on various subjects. Even with the difficulties he faced while serving in prison Malcolm would read as much as possible with the single purpose of educating himself about the English language and the world around him. Even though an autobiography of his years of self-education, Malcolm tried convey the importance of education in a person’s life and pointed out that no matter how skilled or great a person may be, education only makes them better. His essay also inspires the reader to instil the hunger for learning as much as possible, even in the times of hardships, as learning would benefit in more ways than just earning a degree of sorts. However the contrasting fact about this essay was the perspective it took in comparison to the one depicted by Gutting.
This essay showed the importance of education from the point of view of a street-hustler turned scholar. But the striking fact was that both of these essays emphasized on the power of education in building ones intellect and gaining awareness. Malcolm’s example depicts how learning can change one’s life, giving them a second chance to live and to become great in what a person does best. The essay inspires and urges one to understand the significance of self-study and why every student should make it a part of his or her routine. It also shows how beneficial efforts at self-study can be in the long run
The third essay “Higher Education is More Than a Corporate Logo” by Henry Giroux is a discussion of the commercialization of education in the modern day. Giroux points out to the changing higher education system and how it has become more of a corporate affair instead of a pious service of imparting education. College and universities these days try to provide services to people who can pay them more. Giroux also points out how higher education has slowly turned into a form of privilege rather than being a right for the student.
With utilitarianism gripping the working culture of college campuses and profiteering becoming a part and parcel of the educational structure, education in colleges seems to turn more and more into job training sessions instead of being an enlightening practice for the young minds. As universities and college campuses add more labels to their curriculum and provide decorated premises to students to make them feel more privileged, higher education is being turned more and more into a branding business instead of imparting knowledge to students. Such practices only lead to lop sided benefits, higher drop out ratios and the increased burden of loan on the student and their families. Giroux declares that such practices are only undermining the true purpose of higher education and discouraging students from pursuing higher education. But Giroux also points out to the fact that such practices are always open to criticism as the values propagated from noteworthy people throughout history define higher education as a necessity to produce individuals who are pro-active, well informed and ready to take up responsibility that works for the democratic social system.
The final opinion Giroux gives about education, and higher education in particular is the significance it holds in building a nation and how democracy and education are intertwined. Democracies all over the world face difficult times and with deteriorating conditions ahead it would require the strength that can only be delivered by learned, well informed and intellectually strong people, not by the sheer strength of numbers. In fact, Giroux tries to explain that the present higher educational culture is undemocratic in nature and it must change, if students are to be benefitted by it.
Reading the three essays provide three different types of inspiration. The first essay tells how education is a medium to enlighten rather than to just mug up or score, the second one inspires to make humble efforts to educate oneself no matter what the past and the future may be situation, while the third gives hope that higher education is meant to produce responsible citizens and not just money minded professionals. However all the three essays point out the fact that higher education is very important and is beneficial for the student in many ways. Higher education not only produce better trained individuals but when imparted properly and to the right candidate in the right fashion, produces more knowledgeable human beings who understand the significance of all the issues that life may throw at them
At a personal level, education has been a driving force for gaining knowledge and applying it to gain experiences and enrich one’s personality. One thing is for sure that education is much more than just earning higher grades. It is about increasing one’s awareness. Therefore it is imminent that a student understand the significance of the mental exercise that studies give them instead of fretting and complaining of the lack of spiced up antics in it.
A student’s life has become more complicated with the never ending changes in the modern world. There are tons of distractions and factors that deviate a student’s mind from studying. These factors include the media, information technology, etc. apart from the existing diversions for students like peer pressure, uncertainty of the future, disinterest, rapid and deep impacting changes in one’s physiology, deviant mindsets, misconceptions and pressure to perform better at grades (Haley, Hephner & Koutas).
The present day education system requires a student to get higher grades in their chosen subjects so that they can pursue the stream of their choice (Green). However, this system completely forgets that a young mind may not be able to ascertain choice that may best suit his or her life ahead and therefore cannot ascertain as to which course or which study can help him or her to achieve success in the professional years. Career Counseling can only provide suggestions for methods to get into a good college of one’s choice but rarely can such counseling help ascertain the true potential of a student (Haley, Hephner & Koutas). Added to this problem is the ever increasing cost of higher education that acts as a deterring factor for students.
It seems as if higher education has shifted from a necessity to a privilege enjoyed mostly by the individuals who can afford it. As for students who are not as fortunate have to bear the brunt of loans and crushing burdens of working while studying to make ends meet as the acquire higher education after school (Halls & Symes). The system needs to change and so does the outlook of the student towards education, teachers and the rest of the educational system. Then and only then a student can benefit from higher education. The exercise of writing this paper has also solved the very same purpose, of igniting the urge to learn and become better as a human before becoming a better professional.
Works cited
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Dearlove, J. “The academic labour process: from collegiality and professionalism to managerialism and proletarianisation?” Higher Education Review, vol. 30, no. 1: 56-75. 1997.
Green, M. F., ed.. Leaders for a New Era: Strategies for Higher Education. New York: Macmillan. 1988.
Hacker, A. "Is Algebra Necessary?" The New York Times. 28 Jul. 2012 Web. 26 Nov.2014. Accessed from <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html>
Haley, K., Hephner L.B., & Koutas, P. New school, new job, new life: Transitions of graduate assistants in student affairs. Journal of College Orientation and Transition, 18(2), 5 - 19. 2011.
Hall, M & Symes, A.“South African higher education in the first decade of democracy: from cooperative governance to conditional autonomy.” Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 30, Issue 2, pp. 199–212. 2005.
