A true education can be defined as “enough knowledge given to a student to be successful in life after completing school.” The purpose of school is to give students this true education, but as time passes, so must the old ways of accomplishing this. Reformists have made an effort to adjust the education system to accompany the changing economy and surpass competition, and in doing so, have lost sight of a true education. The schools of today’s society attempt to prepare students for the future by providing them with basic academic skills; although these skills are handy for doing well on standardized tests, they are nearly ineffectual for thriving in daily life.
The first time the education of children became serious was in the Age of Enlightenment. During this time, the quality of education was based on the economy, thus it was a primitive basis of education. The current education system still runs on some of these old ideas, but in truth, the validity of these principles has expired (RSA). However, the education system has developed somewhat, and some aspects of the information taught to students have advanced. Nevertheless, it is advancing in the wrong direction. The education students receive prepare them for college; it doesn’t prepare them for any other pathway. “When we went to school, we were kept there with a story which is if you worked hard and did well and got a college degree, you would have a job” (RSA).
Education has come a long way in the history of man, but has it come far enough? Education now days is getting more generalized and robotic; it is just memorizing specific facts for test questions. Although many believe students are getting a true and valuable education, many students would argue that America’s education system is profoundly lacking.
Education has and will always be an issue because; it is consistently shifting with the needs of students. A true education involves more than the core classes of reading, writing, math, and science. It is learning about the world we live in and how to live in it. A true education is also pursuing what you want to do in life and finding what you are personally interested in. Education should be something that we strive for and something that “prevents both the revenge and the madness.” (Mann).
In our society now education is in a state of distress. It has become increasingly difficult to find a way for the education system to work for a variety of students; therefore it has been geared for the masses. It is stunningly clear that very few people have stopped and thought that maybe education should not be for the masses but instead for the students individually.
Testing is one of the big issues in our education system. The idea that the whole school curriculum should be planned around tests is a foolish one, if we want to get a quality education that we can actually learn something valuable from.
