01 Joyce Alexis Joyce English 101 Northrop April 8 2008
What constitutes a good education?
Education is essential in the job market of The United States, where it is especially difficult to acquire a high paying job without a college degree, which is co notated with having an education. To provide their loved ones with as many job opportunities possible, families save up large amounts of money so their children can someday be a college student. These college students then seek good grades, since good grades are most of the time directly correlated with an employer's judgment of intelligence. The reality is good grades do not always signify intelligence or a good education, being that most students withdraw from classes where they are challenged to think. Most college students would rather pay for good grades rather than of pay to learn. Thus, the focus of college has shifted to grades versus knowledge. I disagree with the college system of grading and the weight the U.S. society puts on it, since it disguises the purpose of class as getting a good grade, and minimizes
Joyce 02 the motivation for a student to actually learn. John Henry Newman would most likely disagree as well since Newman views knowledge as a goal in itself, which is demonstrated in his writings from Knowledge in its own End which states, " I admit, rather I maintain, what they have been urging, for I consider Knowledge to have its end in itself."(Reading the World, page 518 paragraph 1, line 1). I interpret Newman's theory as us not knowing what true knowledge is so we can not attain it, and seeking knowledge is the closest humans can come to knowledge. Having this perspective on Newman's theory, I regard a true education as an education that empowers the individual with the critical thinking skills and the confidence necessary in an individual's own search for knowledge. Mental freedom, experience, and progression, are all means of empowering and individual in his or her own goal for achieving knowledge. Mental freedom is important in both developing critical thinking skills and building confidence. Paulo Freire, perhaps the best known advocate in mental freedom states in The Banking Concept of Education "The teacher's thinking is authenticated only by the authenticity of the students' thinking. The teacher cannot think for her students, nor can she impose her thought on them." (Reading the World, page 532, paragraph 6) Freire felt that in education students must have the freedom to think for themselves. I agree with Freire because without mental freedom an individual is forced to accept what he or she is taught as being real. The individual is not free to question the validity of the facts he or she is making told, him or her worthless in judging what true knowledge is. Mental freedom exercises judgment and also provides a student with the confidence to think on his or her own instead of being told what to think.
Joyce 03 Experiences are one of the most powerful tools in education, being that they are only real truth we know. In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, there are prisoners locked in a dark cave who are only exposed to shadows projected on a cave wall by the little light behind the shapes casting these shadows. Several prisoners are freed and are able to experience life outside of the cave, and become enlightened. The freed prisoners know not to return to the cave, because they are aware that the only way the chained prisoners would believe them is if the prisoners experienced life outside of the cave for themselves. Experiences are what we use to base our logic off of and without our own experiences, we would be trapped in someone else's experiences, we would be in mental bondage. Experiences also give people a sense of confidence; since we base our every decision on the last experience we had making that particular decision. In The Allegory of the Cave , the progression of the freed prisoners when they decided not to return played a major role in demonstrating their willingness to move forward and not risk being brought down by their fellow inmates. The freed prisoners' progression forward demonstrated their personal quench for knowledge. A quench for knowledge is important since a person can not be forced to learn. Progression forward is also a demonstration of confidence in what you believe to be true, which is important when you seek your own knowledge. I embrace a liberal arts education, which is an education that brushes the surfaces across an array of subjects. I think a liberal education is beneficial in helping an individual decide what subject he or she wants to focus on by giving a brief illustration of what each subject means. Liberal arts
Joyce 04 education completely satisfies what my requirements for a good education, which is to provoke an individual to seek further knowledge. Currently, I find that people view education as having a degree, or thinking they know facts. I disagree with the current views on education since I find it more powerful to question knowledge, rather than accept it, but the power is minimized if the person who possesses the power does not have the confidence to present their knowledge. However, whether a person with knowledge presents their knowledge or not, he or she is still more educated than someone who negates their critical thinking abilities all together, since we do not know what knowledge truly is, the best we can do is seek it.