Importance of Education

Nobody can deny the importance of education. But are we educating our young people properly? Current education systems seem to mainly focus on academic, university, type of knowledge. While this is necessary to some degree, I feel that more emphasis should be placed on an understanding of life. Recently I was looking at Yahoo Answers in the mental health category, I was amazed and appalled at the number of posts from depressed young people. This can not be placed entirely on the education system, there are many other factors, however a large part of a young persons life revolves around their schooling.

Please do not think that I am knocking the teaching profession here. For the most part teachers are dedicated people who went into the profession because they wanted to work with and help children. Teaching should be a rewarding career but many teachers get frustrated and overworked trying to handle large classes and outdated curriculums.

The importance of education can not be overstressed, the survival of the human race depends on it. Education does not all come from school, we all need to get involved.

I Hate School!

Does that title sound familiar? It has been many years since I completed my schooling and probably a lot has changed, but I still hear about young people hating school.

I remember my early school years, I loved it, even as a young child I understood the importance of education. I really enjoyed learning new things, and still do. By the time I finished middle school it had become a necessary chore. I hated high school to the point where suicide seemed like a real option, obviously I did not take that step or you would not be reading this.

In the second to last year of high school I had skipped so many days that my marks were all below 10%. The principle (headmaster in England) came to see my mother and I knew I was in trouble. He made the ultimate threat, they would put me back a year. In England at that time you had to finish school before you were allowed to get a job, serve your time.

The thought of another year was terrifying. For the remainder of that year, and my final year, all of my marks in every subject was in the high 80s and 90s.They even gave me an award for being the greatest improved, I was not improved, I was beaten into submission! For years afterwards I had nightmares about being forced to go back to school.

Education is important, I wanted to learn and understand so what went wrong....

Education Purpose

In one of his talks Sir Ken Robinson mentions that education now is 'a protracted version of university entrance', see the link below. Alright, but how many people actually need or want a university education? I will point out that the majority of jobs available do not require it. If you want to become a doctor, lawyer, university professor or something similar then yes go to university. A person does not need a university education to be successful or rich, do a google search on millionaire dropouts.

The world is changing and the philosophy of education needs to change. It was acceptable for the industrial age when people were needed to work in factories, with computers and automation fewer people are needed there. The importance of education should now be focused on teaching young people how to create and think, how to be successful. Being successful is NOT about getting a job and making money, that is only a small part of it. Being successful is about living a full and enjoyable life, please see my page Meaning of Success.

Why is Education Important

We know the importance of education, math, literacy and the sciences will always be needed. It is becoming more apparent that humans are having a negative impact on our planet and I believe that future generations are going to face some very difficult problems. It is time to start teaching people to think outside of the normal, not force them to follow conventional ideas. I have faith in the human ability to reason and create solutions to the upcoming problems. But only if we allow children to keep their imaginations, even nurture that imagination.

To see what I feel some of the problems with current education are, and my thoughts on it, please read Education Issues.

For the very informative, and humorous, video by Sir Ken Robinson go to this link, it is one of the best videos on the internet. A definite must see for any parent.

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