Education

(College English Assignment)

Education is defined as the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life; the act or process of imparting or acquiring particular skills or knowledge, as for a profession.  Education has become important to human society. The United States and many other countries require people to receive an education, and have set up schools in the 3^rd world countries to help educate the children of those countries. Education is now an integral part of everyday life. To acquire a job people must acquire an education of some degree.

                In biblical times, education was becoming more important to the reigning societies. The Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas all taught their youth the knowledge they had. Most Ancient Greek city-states required an education of some form. For example, Sparta was well renowned for its warriors.  At a young age the males were taken from their families and taught how to fight. Spartan females were important to the Spartan society, and were well educated. As I’ve shown, education has been important for a long time to many differing cultures.

                Though, not all people can adapt to specific styles of learning that newer educational systems require. Thus, many new issues have arisen. One such issue is the case of drop-outs. Many people in modern society frown upon drop-outs and have many differing opinions of them. People who drop-out of the educational systems of modern societies have many different reasons for doing so. I dropped out after transferring to a new school when I moved in with my mom. I would easily get bored of school, because it was usually easy for me to pick up on what was being taught. So I began to do other stuff while doing the schoolwork to keep me focused on the schoolwork at hand. This led to me getting in trouble for “not paying attention.” But what ultimately made me drop out is after transferring schools; the counselors had screwed up transferring my credits. When I confronted my counselor about it, he wouldn’t fix it. So I asked my mom if I could drop out (would have just switched schools, but none were close enough), and she let me.  Now I’m a part of the Army National Guard in the Patriot Academy Pilot program, earning my high school diploma. I had mostly joined to help take care of my siblings, and so that I’d be able to go to college down the road. So, not all drop outs lead unsuccessful lives because of their decision. There are those who do, but there are also quite a few who are successful.

One well known person who had dropped out to pursue a dream is co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates. He had dropped out his junior year at Harvard University to get Microsoft up and running. The other co-founder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, dropped out of Washington State University after only attending two years there. They are both wealthy men now.  Another well known drop out is Richard Branson, best known for his Virgin brand. He had left school at the age of 16. Michael Dell dropped out of school to operate his company. Mike Hudack left high school and is the founder and CEO of blip.tv.  David Karp dropped out at the age of 15 and went on to found Tumblr, a blog hosting and social network company. Kirk Kerkorian dropped out in the 8^th grade, and has been one of the most important shapers of Las Vegas. He currently has the largest stake in some of the hotels in Vegas. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard when he created a social networking site in his dorm. The site he founded the the popular Facebook. These are just a few of the drop outs that have made themselves successful.

So I believe that while the education system helps a lot of people, not everyone can realize their potential while they’re in the prison of the educational system. Most of the schools now focus purely on making themselves look good, especially since the establishment of the “No Child Left Behind” act of 2001. The act requires states to develop assessments in the basic skills to all students in specific grades, if the schools of that state are to receive federal funding. It is productive to an extent. Its benefits are limited because of the schools scooting students through school instead of failing them if their grades aren’t where they should be. I’ve seen students that have no clue what they are working on scoot through junior high school on horrendous grades. Then when they get to high school they don’t have the knowledge to complete the work set before them. This causes them to fail the courses and fall behind their classmates.

Overall education is important. But how the populace is educated, and which way they should be taught are up for debate. People have been homeschooled, self taught, or actually gone through the educational systems. It depends on the person to which route of becoming educated is best for them. Some just work better by themselves, and some of these people have shown just how much innovation can happen outside of the educational system.  Others work better with other students, being taught in a class room with a faculty teaching them. Either way works, it’s up to the students themselves to become educated, the schools are there to help them along the path to becoming a well educated individual.  As I mention becoming a well educated person, it doesn’t mean that they have to have some fancy degree or certificate. Many well educated people don’t have the resources to gain those things, yet they still innovate in the ways they are able too. Many great innovations have happened this way, paving the way for more to follow. Education comes in many forms. People are ultimately responsible for making their own choices on how to become educated.