The Value of an Education

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” (Ghandi), “The only time you should look down at someone, is when you are helping them up.” (Jesse Jackson), “A life lived for others, is the only life worth living.” (Albert Einstein). What, per say, do all of these people have in common; for one, education. Ghandi was educated from a young age in a public schooling environment; Jesse Jackson attended Sterling High School and was notably a very accomplished student; Albert Einstein attended Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, majoring as a teacher in physics and mathematics, and graduated with his diploma. All of these people, like many others, believed that they should live their lives for others. Education is a privilege; too many people, especially in this country view it as right or even an obligation. In the American society today, most people must obtain a college degree in order to pursue a reasonable career; as a result of this, today’s youth as a vast majority are expected to attend a college of some form. The decision now a days is not weather of not to go to college but what type of college and for how long. This social paradigm causes people to view education as somehow less valuable and therefor ignore the responsibilities implied by achieving the completion of their education.

Conversely to the collaborative social illusion mascaraed before the eyes of today’s youth, not every person has the same educational opportunities as we do. In reality only one out of every four Americans today has a college degree; that’s only 25%. An even lower percentage of the world’s population has been so lucky. Only 1% of the people living on this planet have earned their college degree. When a student earns their degree they becom...

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...d learn to work with their fellow instrumentalists in order to achieve harmony both socially and musically. Each student pushes each other to achieve their very best because a ensemble is only as good as each and every sound that it makes. As a music teacher I hope to use my education in that field to touch the lives of my students so that they might learn to value and use their education to its full purpose as well.

Conclusively I believe that the responsibilities of an educated person are to value and make use of their education in the best way they see fit in order to benefit the world, their lives and the lives of others around them. We were all born with the potential to achieve great things; it is through education that we gain the tools to pursue our full potential; however it is still our choice to seize the opportunity as it presents itself in our lives.