The Power Of Education

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The Power Of Education

The Power of education is overwhelming. It develops and enhances the minds of young children into young adults. Education serves as a tool for society to raise its youth to serve society. This process has been a never ending cycle since as long as anyone can remember. Children maturing into proper adults has been the goal of education in the past. However, there is a major controversy over the effects and power of the educational system. Throughout the past the educational system has been the focus over the development of society's youth. All parents, teachers, and concerned individuals ponder the notion of the role and effects of the system in question. Is the purpose of our educational system to teach just the cold hard facts and information, or should it exist to also serve to supply our juveniles with ethics and morals? One such person who confronts today's system is an author, Jonathan Kozol. His thoughts over this concerned area have brought him to write a book entitled, The Night is Dark and I am Far From Home. In his writing he argues that Public schools in the U.S. do not exist to educate an ethical being, but rather educate unprovocative, conforming American citizens. (133) I agree. The function of our educational system should be in existence to serve our growing children with not only the knowledge of information, but the wisdom of morality as well.

However, in order to further argue the importance of morality, a formal definition is needed. Just what is meant by morality? Any number of people can look at it and perceive its identity differently. Two writers Barry L.Chazan and Jonas F.Soltis talk define the significance of a moral situation in education as follows,

It is, rather, a si...

... middle of paper ...

...th kindness, touched with

irony, decorated with compassion, is a reasonable goal

for moral paralytics in a land of drought. (168)

Morality is needed in the schools for these very reasons. One who opposes this view is only presenting an obstacle to the future growth of our society. As I stated before, the power of education is overwhelming. Morality is needed to provide students with a new emotion of eagerness to learn, able to confront each others ideas, and hold their own beliefs. It is our responsibility to mold our children of clay into powerful, individual, concrete statues, that can last forever.

Works Cited

Bereiter, Carl.. Must we Educate. Prentice Hall; N.J. 1973

Chazan, Barry I. and Soltis, Jonas F. Moral Education.Columbia; NY and London, 1973.

Kozol, Jonathan. The Night is Dark and I am Far From Home.

Houghton Mifflin: Boston, 1975.

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