What Education Means to Me

4866 Words10 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: importance of education in our present day society

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.

Show More
Related

  • Brave New World Soma Quotes

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    There seems to always be a time and place for Soma, since the book had mentioned varieties of places of it being used. People used it in their helicopters, meetings, reunions/gatherings, or whenever the situation or mind was troubled, all with ease of access. This abundance became a single tool in the people’s minds. Stability is one of the reasons for abundance, an example is when “Three men with spraying machines buckled to their shoulders pumped thick clouds of soma vapour”(147) at a mob to tranquilize them, the World State would use this as a tool for control. The characters had never mentioned about being scarce of Soma, they treated Soma like our Television, because it was always

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Being An American

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    This isn’t just for our personal beliefs, but for what others believe in as well. America is a huge melting pot. For some, standing up for what they believe in is as simple as changing the way they do things (freedom of expression). For others it is something more than that. In recent news, the government is trying to restrict gun rights. For some, they believe in owning guns. So they just refuse to let that freedom die. Everyone has something they don’t want to lose, it’s just having that one thing almost taken away for most to realize it Secondly, most Americans are not afraid to stand out in a crowd. Let me ask you this, have you ever seen an American be ashamed of being an American? I don’t think so. Americans are some, if not the, loudest and proudest people there are. You ask if someone is an American, most will not say yea. They will say hell yea, and damn proud of it. Americans are not afraid to be the one that does things differently. Just look at our measurements, we are the only ones that do not use the metric system. Also, we are the most random

    Read More

  • Communism and Capitalism During The Cold War

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    Communism was the ideology followed by the Soviet Union. Originally founded by Karl Marx, it said that everything should be owned by the government and then divided up equally among the people who would then all work for it. For the communist party in Russia, their political system was always in danger. From the start of the Russian Revolution there have been dangers to communism. Before World War II most of the western nations ignored Russia simply because it was a communist state and the western nations actually supported Hitler because they believed that Germany would provided a buffer against Communism. The permanent threat against Russia gave the incentive to expand and spread communist influence as much as possible to keep their way of life intact, it was very much Russia against the world. However not only was the Soviet Union communist, they were totalitarian, meaning all the power was with the rulers. While this was effective for keeping the standard average of living the same for everyone and preventing poverty, it also led to a poor work ethic among the working population...

    Read More

  • William James The Will To Believe Analysis

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human beings decide our own uncertainty and fate. In The Will to Believe, James discusses choice and questions genuine choice. He categorizes these choices as ones that are lived, force and the ones he calls “momentous”. For the first option, we have the choice on whether we conceptualize a thought in which we agree with opposed to being against. Second, the option of either being forced to choose something or doing the exact opposite and deny the belief by not choosing at all. Lastly, we have this “momentous” understanding that affects us and can be one occurrence in a lifetime. Based on these selections, we can shape what we believe in. There are different situations that play out when it comes to believing in something. In other words, whether we want to admit it or not, there are many outside factors that influence our own beliefs. James considers the notion that we sometimes look to leaders and people in power and shape our beliefs through them. Also, occasionally when have a choice that can’t be answered logically, we have to make the choice whether it’s ok to believe that is true or not and live with the fact that we may have been wrong. William James states “Do not decide, just like “yes” or “no” and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth” (James WTB 334). The two things that dictate how we form our beliefs are the desire to know it and the

    Read More

  • The Ethics of Belief by William Clifford: The Moral Obligation to Justify Your Beliefs

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is crucial that every belief must be thoroughly explored and justified to avoid any future repercussions. Clifford provides two examples in which, regardless of the outcome, the party that creates a belief without comprehensive justification ends up at fault. It is possible to apply the situations in The Ethics of Belief to any cases of belief and end up with the conclusion that justification is of utmost importance. Justifying beliefs is so important because even the smallest beliefs affect others in the community, add to the global belief system, and alter the believer moral compass in future decisions.

    Read More

  • The Nature of Faith

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    In many aspects of our lives, the use of faith as a basis for knowledge can be found. Whether it is faith in the advice of your teacher, faith in a God or faith in a scientific theory, it is present. But what is faith? A definition of faith in a theory of knowledge context is the confident belief or trust in a knowledge claim by a knower, without the knower having conclusive evidence. This is because if a knowledge claim is backed up by evidence, then we would use reason rather than faith as a basis for knowledge . If we define knowledge as ‘justified true belief’, it can be seen that faith, being without justification, can never fulfill this definition, and so cannot be used as a reliable basis for knowledge. However, the question arises, what if a certain knowledge claim lies outside of the realm of reason? What if a knowledge claim cannot be justified by empirical evidence and reasoning alone, such as a religious knowledge claim? It is then that faith allows the knower to decide what is knowledge and what is not, when something cannot be definitively proved through the use of evidence. When assessing faith as a basis for knowledge in the natural sciences, the fact arises that without faith in the research done before us, it is impossible to develop further knowledge on top of it. Yet at the same time, if we have unwavering faith in existing theories, they would never be challenged, and so our progress of knowledge in the natural sciences would come to a standstill. Although I intend to approach this essay in a balanced manner, this essay may be subject to a small degree of bias, due to my own non-religious viewpoint.

    Read More

  • The Metropolis And The Mental Life By Georg Simmel Summary

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the “Metropolis and the Mental Life”, Georg Simmel aims to explicate the confines and conventions of modern life. Simmel accomplishes this as he compares modern life in a metropolis with that of the countryside, noting the behaviours and characteristics of people in response to external factors. Simmel explains this by explicitly detailing how social structures affect certain personal connections. Several prominent themes of urban living are investigated and considered by Simmel in his article, the main points, harshness of the metropolis, modernity and subjective and objective cultures, are discussed in this essay.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of William James's 'The Will To Believe'

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the article, "The Will to Believe", William James responds to W.K. Clifford who argued

    Read More

  • To What Extent Does Personality Predict Employee Performance?

    2217 Words  | 5 Pages

    Cognitively, these behaviors may influence how individuals understand the characteristics of their jobs, as is the situation when individuals with optimistic core self-evaluation understand intrinsic job features more completely, even controlling for real job complexity. Affectively, these personalities might stimulate job satisfaction through their outcome on mood or mood at the organization. Lastly, employees who are emotionally steady, extroverted and conscientious may be better-off at work because they are more possible to achieve sustaining results at work. Part of this outcome may operate through job presentation, such that conscientious employees achieve better and are more content with their jobs because of the intrinsic ...

    Read More

  • My College Scholarship

    1007 Words  | 3 Pages

    Education means a variety of things to any individual because it is the route to fulfilling dreams that one would not have otherwise been able to believe was possible. Just as food provides nourishment to the stomach, happiness satisfaction to the soul, education is the dietary supplement to the brain. Education endows one with the strength and motivation to have a dream, as a consequence one is able to lead a life filled with happiness. One is able to have contentment because with the attainment of an educated mind they are cognizant that they can achieve all of what they have ever imagined. As children we are taught to dream what we want to become and as an adolescent, we are able to live to become just as what we have imagined. The very essence of what we seek to become is educated in a sense because we can only become a step closer to making our reality come into existence without beginning with education.

    Read More

  • Psychology: Personality Theories

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    Allport defines personality as ‘the dynamic organisation within the individual of those psychological systems that determine his unique adjustment to his environment’ (Allport, 1937). An individual’s unique personality traits and attributes are a powerful indicator of how he/she will interact with the work environment. The difference between average and outstanding employees can often be solely personality related. As the employee is the most valuable asset to the company, ‘selecting the right employee during the process is critical’ (Carbery and Cross, 2013, pp. 41-53)

    Read More

  • What My Education Means to Me

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.” ― Malcolm X. (http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/education?page=2) Education, to me, was a passport that I had almost missed. Education was a plane that was ready to take off and leave me behind. This is my story of how much my education means to me.

    Read More

  • To what extend personality predicts employee performance?

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    Discussed below are different researchers’ arguments and explanations on how personality predicts employee performance. This essay will explore both negative and positive ways in which personality can predict the performance, as well as explaining what personality is. Past research has “demonstrated that personality constructs are associated with work performance, with some traits like conscientiousness predicting success around jobs. Other linked with specific occupations e.g. extraversion correlates with success in sales and management as well as training performance supporting”, (Barrick et al., 2002, 87: p.43).

    Read More

  • The Benefits of Education

    441 Words  | 1 Pages

    Education is as important as the air we breathe. It is the most important possession a person must have. Education is beneficial in many aspect of life especially, personal and social it is the only possession that cannot be taken away from you. Education is important because it will open up the windows of opportunities. In this competitive world having a good education is as important as the air we breathe because it is our weapon to conquer the world.

    Read More

  • Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligence Theory

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    As long as man has been alive education has been an important part of everyday life. Education has allowed man to evolve and continue the treacherous journey of life. Education started just as a means of survival, a way for families to make it day by day, as years progressed education became a luxury most could not afford to have. Education then became the center of life for all. Today education is considered the glue that holds life together, without education a person is simply a paycheck to paycheck victim however with an education a person has to extraordinary chance to become something great. While the status of education transformed over time so did the content that was deemed most urgent and important, education first stood as information

    Read More

More about What Education Means to Me

Open Document