The Purpose of Education

[FlorenceHamilton]

In the most classical sense, the prupose of education is to become a good citizen. Part of that is being able to sustain oneself financially and to provide for your loved ones. Part of that is to contribute to the society in which you live. Contribution to the society can mean making it more beautiful to see, to smell, to hear and to touch. It can mean writing grat works, sharing thoughts and ideas, contributing to enlightenment, providing comfort, safety entertainment and health. It can mean adding to the knowledge pool of your society, holding onto its history, predicting and protecting its future.

Somewhere along the way, American culture perverted it all to mean only money. But the fact is that understanding great literature helps society understand its very nature. This understanding is absolutely required to help society continue to perpetuate itself. In addition, without beauty there is no purpose at all. Even in America, the best entertainers are highly prized.

There is a difference between education and training. You train to become proficient at a skill. You become educated when you understand where your skill fits into the greater picture. It is again the difference between rote memorization and true knowledge. Memorization of basics should be complete by the third grade. Everything else builds on these basics. Yes, humans continue to memorize things throughout their lives, but they do this best through understanding.

[flojo]

5. There is no school choice.

These are just some points from the article. It is too involved to detail them all here. In my view, it is well worth the read and also addresses the homogeneity argument that is often made.

We (the USA) think in fundamentally different ways and value different things than the Finnish. More than anything, those are the reasons why we probably could never have the type of success the Finnish have had.

I found it interesting in watching an interview with the Finnish Minister of education (a different title - cant remember what it was). He basically said that as an education system, you can have choice, or you can have equity. That they are not one in the same.

[GolightlyGrrl]

It says a lot when you are less likely to get a job with a university education.

It infuriates me when people tell me my job is worthless. I didn't go to university to get a job and even if I did, that doesn't make studying literature defunct. With my degree I learnt to analyse, study things from different points of view, organise my time and all sorts of other things. Just because I didn't do something 'useful' doesn't make it worthless.

Hey, maybe our degrees aren't so useless afterall?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/1 ... 22144.html

And fuck you Full of Shit, Seasoned With Bile.

http://fullofgraceseasonedwithsalt.blog ... depts.html

[Kitty]

I'm a Political Science major. The only jobs I'm "guaranteed" are government/political jobs and teaching. I chose teaching, and that would have worked out had I been able to afford to keep going to my university and not have to transfer. I could still, probably, get a teaching certificate...

Of course, it's my fault that I had to transfer due to monetary issues, since if I'd just gone to the local CC and become a CNA or a hairstylist I wouldn't be in this situation. When did a university degree become something worthy of ridicule? When did people start considering it pointless?

[GolightlyGrrl]

As a society, we seem to look at intelligence, curiosity, education (both formally and informally) and an interest in culture and ideas with suspicion and derision. Hence, the rise of Sarah Palin, the Kardashians, the Duggars, Donald Trump, etc.

[emmiedahl]

I found it interesting in watching an interview with the Finnish Minister of education (a different title - cant remember what it was). He basically said that as an education system, you can have choice, or you can have equity. That they are not one in the same.

At first I kind of recoiled in horror because Americans are all about choice (unless you are talking about a stranger's uterus, of course).

But if politicians and the wealthy had to put their children in public school, the system would be cleared up quickly. Like, in weeks. It does come off weird when a politician talks about the school system being just fine when they have their kids in Sidwell Friends or a similar expensive private institution.