Understanding The Purpose Of Education
What is the Purpose of Education? Often, when a person hears this phrase, they cannot give a straight answer. It is often just assumed that education is how high a degree a person can obtain. It can be defined as a specific set of skills to help someone in a way that not everyone can. It is an enjoyable way to spend one’s day, because they are pursuing a passion of theirs. It is giving 100% to anything and everything that must be done in one’s scope of practice. Being an educated person does not have to be strictly about obtaining a degree, because an educated person is someone who has a specific set of skills that helps someone in a special way, and someone who loves their job and pursues their passion.
Higher Education Leads to Success
Often, people are told that higher education is the only key to success in one’s life. Kim Jones, CEO of Curriki stated in her article a debate as to if education was to only prepare students for a certain career, or to teach them lifelong values, discipline, and the ability to explore new ideas and independently think. Jones makes a statement that education serves multiple objectives, and those objectives can be very personal. Events that have occurred in a person’s childhood greatly impact their desired educational outcomes later in their life.
Making Money
In Seneca’s text, “On Liberal and Vocational Studies”, he makes it clear to his readers that he has “No respect for any study whatsoever if its end is the making of money”. Seneca’s underlying meaning is that a person can only stay at a job for so long before they will get burnt out, because there is no longer a desire to be there anymore. This goes back the point of if a person is not pursuing their passion, they are not going to enjoy their job. This all reverts to what said person purses an education in. Seneca stating that he has no respect for people who just do something for the money alone is agreeable because if a person is only doing something for the money alone, they will not have the motivation or the desire to keep pushing forward and work harder when times get tough. Also, this makes a person have a bad attitude during their work hours, and that is never enjoyable nor beneficial to the person they are helping. It makes the other person feel awkward, upset, and embarrassed and that person will probably not return to that place of business.
7 Reasons to Give Your Very Best
There are many reasons why a person should give their very best at their place of work. Michaela Gabriel, Head of Marketing at Pargo states a few of them in her article, “7 Reasons Why You Should Give Your Best at Work (Even if You Hate Your Job)”. She starts out by stating that, “Big brother is watching”. By this she means that someone is always watching. It is extremely important to live by this, because we never know the relation of those people that are watching us will turn out to be to us. Also, people talk even when we aren’t around them, and most people don’t want only negative things to be said about them when they not around. Gabriel also states, “Your self-worth suffers”. By this, she basically means that someone could get away with not doing their best, but later they will have a guilty conscience because they will know that they could have done a better job. “You will be looking back”. This is simple statement meaning that when someone looks back over their job performance, whether it be over the shift, the month, or the year, they want to look back and be proud of their job performance. “You have social responsibility”. People should be giving their very best to their job, because not only their performance suffers, but they also will have their boss or supervisor, and their patients or clients upset with them. “Someone has to take over your mess”.
When someone doesn’t give their all to their job, or the task they are assigned to, someone else will have to come in behind them and fix what they didn’t do or do right. That isn’t fair to that person, because they have tasks and duties that they are assigned to, and they shouldn’t have to do two peoples’ job. “Actions become habits”. If someone is continuously performing their job or task poorly, this is going to rub off on how they do other things in their life. Finally, Gabriel states, “Interviews and references”. She talks about how this one “bad” job can reflect someone getting another job because most of the time when going to a job interview, the potential employer will ask for job references, so they can ask what kind of a worker someone is. If someone doesn’t try their best, and is not a very good worker, they are not going to get a very good review and will probably not get that job.
Building Uniqueness at a Young Age
One of the points that Tagore makes in his text, “To Teachers”, is he is saying that when we are sent to school as children, we are in a sense like robots. He states, “When we are sent to school, the doors of natural information are closed to us; our eyes see the letters, our ears hear the abstract lessons, but our mind misses the perpetual stream of ideas from nature, because the teachers in their wisdom, think these bring distraction, and have no purpose behind them. When we accept any discipline for ourselves, we try to avoid everything except which is necessary for out purpose; it is this purposefulness, which belongs to the adult mind, that we enforce upon children”. By stating this, Tagore is trying to get across that young children’s minds are not designed to see the intricate purpose of education, and all its importance. He states his opinion in that he thinks teachers have the attitude that anything regarding nature and creativity is wrong and distracting. Tagore’s ideal teaching setting would be one where the children (or people being taught) could be surrounded by things of nature that he believes have an educational value. He believes that children’s minds should be free to wonder and think without having rules and regulations drilled into their heads. Tagores metaphor of, “The minds of children are usually shut inside prison houses, so that they become incapable of understanding people who have different languages and customs”, is relevant because children are having no room to grow and experience life as a child. This relates back to a purpose of education, because when children aren’t given room to experience nature and creativity, they grow up not being able to have their own uniqueness. This ends in them not having anything that sets them apart and makes them special.
Conclusion
Education does not have to be about strictly obtaining a degree in some form or fashion. Education can be learning about lifelong values, discipline, exploring new ideas, and thinking independently. Education can be pointless if there is no passion behind wanting to pursue something you feel strongly about. Someone’s best should also be applied to all tasks because one never knows who is watching them, and that could affect their employment elsewhere in the future. A great sense of self worth is also given when someone gives their all to their job or schoolwork because it is so rewarding. It was stated we need to give children an opportunity to grow and be creative in their own time, or else they will grow up to not be unique in their own way. Essentially, the purpose of education is to provide the opportunity for people to grow, learn and practice self-discipline, and help other people in a way not everybody can; but that does not mean said person has to obtain a fancy degree to make that happen.
