Higher Education

Higher Education

Education is one of the key ingredients to building a strong foundation for a successful future; there is not enough emphasis put on education at a young age. Another question arises though, how hard should we push our children? They are children after all. On the other hand an absence of interaction between student and teacher may cause our children to grow up to become mindless drones. There needs to be a student-teacher relationship, not a dictatorship. Students are not just vessels to be filled with knowledge; they are alive, and must be allowed to grow on their own. Without interaction and life experiences, the materials that are taught is stored, but not understood. We would do without thinking, feeling, and reacting without thought. The question to ask is not whether we are educated, it is: do we know how to educate?

In "The Banking Concept of Education" Paulo Freir states that "[e]ducation [has] become an act of depositing(319)." The banking concept is used to lead children to a pre-ordained destiny. That is, not a destiny that they themselves chose. The problem with education today is that teachers have lost sight of what is important. Many teachers have become more and more political; making sure that the material is covered and the students can regurgitate the information. Even if the student can recite the material, the problem is that, often they do not understand it. Standardized test such as the SAT(standardized aptitude test) and CIM's (certificate of initial mastery) only promote this type of "teaching". These tests only test in a single dimension it only shows what a student knows not what a student has learned. Life is not is not an equation that can be equated. There is not ...

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...cher must adapt accordingly to each student. Every student is different just as every teacher's teaching style is different. It is not just up to the teacher, it is also up to the student to be educated.

Work Cited

Dewey, John. "On Education" A World of ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 234-243.

Emerson Waldo, Ralph . "Thinking In Education" A World of ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston:Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 300-310.

Freire, Paolo. "The Banking Concept of Education" A World of ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2006. 318-331.

Montaigne Eyguem de, Michel. "Of the Education of Children" A World of ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston:Bedford/St. Martins, 2006. 234-243.

Montessori, Maria. "The Montessori Method" A World of ideas. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2006. 284-294.