What Education Means to Me

How can you explain education in just mere words? Education is anything and everything. It is singularly the most important thing we can do for ourselves.

As we near the 21st century, life continues to grow more advanced and complex. The only thing that separates us from complete insanity and utter poverty is the fact that because we can read and because we can write, we can handle and persevere in our jobs, our families, and in our everyday lives.

As a fourteen-year-old, I have yet to fully experience these responsibilities and obligations, but because I do live in a competitive world, and because I am constantly fighting to be the best and the brightest, I must go above and beyond all barriers and expectations if I want to achieve my goals.

No sports scholarship or funding will get me into Harvard or a successful law firm. If I want to reach these goals, it is all up to me. When I do achieve my goals, it will be because of the opportunity and determination that a good education has provided me.

To plan and achieve your goals in life is the best lesson you can learn and the most rewarding gift to yourself. Achieving life-long goals is the most gratifying and utterly satisfying thing any one person can accomplish.

Quotes on Education

The educational process has been the subject of much comment by academics and writers. Their observations range from praise to cynicism, mostly the latter. Education is an easy target for criticism because its stated aims are often so nobly ambitious that they have little chance of being realized. It should give us pause that so many people who have made their mark in the world of ideas, who have been acknowledged leaders and innovators, have held formal education and educational institutions in low regard. We have collected here a variety of thought-provoking observations on education.

First, some definitions of education.

Education is...

One of the few things a person is willing to pay for and not get.

William Lowe Bryan

Hanging around until you've caught on.

Robert Frost

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought.

Bertrand A. Russell (1872-1970) English philosopher, mathematician, and writer.

Man's going forward from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.

Kenneth G. Johnson

A form of self-delusion.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American author, editor and printer.

[A process] which makes one rogue cleverer than another.