Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

pbr90 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:25:36 GMT

Viewing education as a healthful habit for childhood or for a lifetime presumes that all education is valuable. That presumption has not yet been proven to be true and depends upon the quality of the education and its success rates after clarifying its purpose. It's possible that routinized mass education can do as much harm (to the individual# as it does good #for society) - by virtue of its funneling and channeling students into preconceived forms and formats - that may actually dumb down the individual rather than motivate him/her. Have these studies ever been made?

RE: Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

msssdeee — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:28:59 GMT

how can you get a valid opion if you tell me what to say or how to act during the study inwhich this is done and deemed as preparing. who needs to be prepared for honest answers either you know or you dont.

RE: Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

kristina — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:39:24 GMT

you should be clear what you want.There are another options too like online college degree .

RE: Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

ren — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 02:26:25 GMT

some people believe that education cannot be learned from books but from valuable experiences we encounter in our life.

RE: Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

Rob — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 12:34:25 GMT

YOUR COMMENT in your QUESTION: "Viewing education as a healthful habit for childhood or for a lifetime presumes that all education is valuable. That presumption has not yet been proven to be true and depends upon the quality of the education and its success rates after clarifying its purpose"

I RESPECTFULLY DISAGREE WITH THAT PREMISE ...

You might have meant not all forms of education are good but you seem to implicitly question the value of traditional education, the classroom mode. I think that most any education is helpful in general. I suppose you could argue that education on how to make bombs is not "valuable" but even that alone is not an accurate statement. That would only be bad education if it was intented and used to do illegal or destructive acts of violence. It could be valuable if it was for designing weapons for military or scientific purposes (i.e. even that is not inherently "bad" education).

Now, I would distinguish "education" from "endoctrination" (or similar propoganda perpetuation). Obviously the latter would not be good and it is more like "programming" a person and removing independent thought and analysis and consideraton of alternate views; whereas education in the general sense means learning facts, information, theories and methods of analysis which the learner can further use indepentent evaluation and thought about what they learn should mean to them and how to use it or how to disregard it.

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Now, as to the FORM (methodology) of providing education, that's a different matter and I agree it can be good or bad.

I don't think anyone has ever graduated from college without experiencing at least one horrible or incompetent professor (and likely a few of them). This is true in pre college levels too. Weeding out those who should not be teaching is something we need to work on in America (where they have unions and tenure to help keep bad teachers/professors around forever). Sure, cirriculum design and scope of subject matter and reading materals use can vary from excellent to bad (with relevancy and degree of focu8 and depth of coverage) is always open to question (and can range excellent to bad also).

However, lest it be said that a students education in such a course is so bad (when bad) that this education "dumbs the student down" that is a stretch. It might not be overly helpful to be in such a bad course or with a bad professor, but while it might be wasteful of time or funding, its doubtful that it results in dumbing down; it should be noted than with such bad professors and courses, many such students will resort to "self teaching" (reading on their own or forming study groups to learn among their group ... what they do not get out of the professor or course). Is that bad; its a shame they have to resort to that and that the course or professor is bad. However, it does not result in "dumbing down".

When I hear people with a negative perspective about education or college in general, I usually try to learn more about THEM (which we can't do much in this form of communicatio). It seems that that most who think college is a waste of time, did not attend college; those who think "book learnin ain't what it all about" they don't read much. Alternatively, it seems that their is another hidden agenda, that the critic of education has a strong bias for a particular viewpoint they would like to see taught as the "only right viewpoint; (such as: those who stake out closed minded ideas about evolution, on either side, or those who think an anti abortion or a pro-life position should be taught) ... this is when you move from general "education" to seeking "programming" or "propagandizing the teaching".

Rob

RE: Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

zen — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:22:35 GMT

Read How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education by Mr. David F. Labaree. "David F. Labaree hits the issue right on the money: students today are more concerned about filling their resumes while in college than they are about filling their minds. It isn't entirely their fault, but it is the focus of a commodity-driven society that on the one hand calls for "employees who can express themselves well in their writing" and on the other hand hires the tall guy with the connections or the good-looking young woman who was student government vice-president. This paradox adds to the dilemma of a vanishing tradition in liberal arts, a lack of ability to think creatively, and a push to acquire technical skills not only over, but instead of, critical skills. This road may lead to a gradual extinction of culture as a living element and relegate it to commodified and cheaply reproduced "artifacts."

RE: Scope of Education and its Value to the Individual

kastenova — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 04:28:08 GMT

I'm sure these studies have been made. one of the biggest problems with truly broad subjects being taught is the moral shaping issue. There is an inherent problem with schools telling students right and wrong. Also, does school teaching box the student in preconceived notions, maybe. But hey, textbooks will always be seen as gospel.