what is real education essay

What Is Education? Insights from the World's Greatest Minds

Forty thought-provoking quotes about education..

Posted May 12, 2014 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

As we seek to refine and reform today’s system of education , we would do well to ask, “What is education?” Our answers may provide insights that get to the heart of what matters for 21st century children and adults alike.

It is important to step back from divisive debates on grades, standardized testing, and teacher evaluation—and really look at the meaning of education. So I decided to do just that—to research the answer to this straightforward, yet complex question.

Looking for wisdom from some of the greatest philosophers, poets, educators, historians, theologians, politicians, and world leaders, I found answers that should not only exist in our history books, but also remain at the core of current education dialogue.

In my work as a developmental psychologist, I constantly struggle to balance the goals of formal education with the goals of raising healthy, happy children who grow to become contributing members of families and society. Along with academic skills, the educational journey from kindergarten through college is a time when young people develop many interconnected abilities.

As you read through the following quotes, you’ll discover common threads that unite the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical aspects of education. For me, good education facilitates the development of an internal compass that guides us through life.

Which quotes resonate most with you? What images of education come to your mind? How can we best integrate the wisdom of the ages to address today’s most pressing education challenges?

If you are a middle or high school teacher, I invite you to have your students write an essay entitled, “What is Education?” After reviewing the famous quotes below and the images they evoke, ask students to develop their very own quote that answers this question. With their unique quote highlighted at the top of their essay, ask them to write about what helps or hinders them from getting the kind of education they seek. I’d love to publish some student quotes, essays, and images in future articles, so please contact me if students are willing to share!

What Is Education? Answers from 5th Century BC to the 21 st Century

• The principle goal of education in the schools should be creating men and women who are capable of doing new things, not simply repeating what other generations have done. — Jean Piaget, 1896-1980, Swiss developmental psychologist, philosopher
• An education isn't how much you have committed to memory , or even how much you know. It's being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don't. — Anatole France, 1844-1924, French poet, novelist
• Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. — Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013, South African President, philanthropist
• The object of education is to teach us to love beauty. — Plato, 424-348 BC, philosopher mathematician
• The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education — Martin Luther King, Jr., 1929-1968, pastor, activist, humanitarian
• Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school. Albert Einstein, 1879-1955, physicist
• It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. — Aristotle, 384-322 BC, Greek philosopher, scientist
• Education is the power to think clearly, the power to act well in the world’s work, and the power to appreciate life. — Brigham Young, 1801-1877, religious leader
• Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer – into a selflessness which links us with all humanity. — Nancy Astor, 1879-1964, American-born English politician and socialite
• Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats, 1865-1939, Irish poet
• Education is freedom . — Paulo Freire, 1921-1997, Brazilian educator, philosopher
• Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself. — John Dewey, 1859-1952, philosopher, psychologist, education reformer
• Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom. — George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, scientist, botanist, educator
• Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught. — Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900, Irish writer, poet
• The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows. — Sydney J. Harris, 1917-1986, journalist
• Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. — Malcolm Forbes, 1919-1990, publisher, politician
• No one has yet realized the wealth of sympathy, the kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure. — Emma Goldman, 1869 – 1940, political activist, writer
• Much education today is monumentally ineffective. All too often we are giving young people cut flowers when we should be teaching them to grow their own plants. — John W. Gardner, 1912-2002, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson
• Education is simply the soul of a society as it passes from one generation to another. — Gilbert K. Chesterton, 1874-1936, English writer, theologian, poet, philosopher
• Education is the movement from darkness to light. — Allan Bloom, 1930-1992, philosopher, classicist, and academician
• Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know. -- Daniel J. Boorstin, 1914-2004, historian, professor, attorney
• The aim of education is the knowledge, not of facts, but of values. — William S. Burroughs, 1914-1997, novelist, essayist, painter
• The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives. -- Robert M. Hutchins, 1899-1977, educational philosopher
• Education is all a matter of building bridges. — Ralph Ellison, 1914-1994, novelist, literary critic, scholar
• What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul. — Joseph Addison, 1672-1719, English essayist, poet, playwright, politician
• Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. — Malcolm X, 1925-1965, minister and human rights activist
• Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact in the lives of their students. — Solomon Ortiz, 1937-, former U.S. Representative-TX
• The very spring and root of honesty and virtue lie in good education. — Plutarch, 46-120AD, Greek historian, biographer, essayist
• Education is a shared commitment between dedicated teachers, motivated students and enthusiastic parents with high expectations. — Bob Beauprez, 1948-, former member of U.S. House of Representatives-CO
• The most influential of all educational factors is the conversation in a child’s home. — William Temple, 1881-1944, English bishop, teacher
• Education is the leading of human souls to what is best, and making what is best out of them. — John Ruskin, 1819-1900, English writer, art critic, philanthropist
• Education levels the playing field, allowing everyone to compete. — Joyce Meyer, 1943-, Christian author and speaker
• Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. — B.F. Skinner , 1904-1990, psychologist, behaviorist, social philosopher
• The great end of education is to discipline rather than to furnish the mind; to train it to the use of its own powers rather than to fill it with the accumulation of others. — Tyron Edwards, 1809-1894, theologian
• Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength of the nation. — John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963, 35 th President of the United States
• Education is like a lantern which lights your way in a dark alley. — Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, 1918-2004, President of the United Arab Emirates for 33 years
• When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts. — Dalai Lama, spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism
• Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence . — Robert Frost, 1874-1963, poet
• The secret in education lies in respecting the student. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882, essayist, lecturer, and poet
• My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance, but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors. — Maya Angelou, 1928-, author, poet

©2014 Marilyn Price-Mitchell. All rights reserved. Please contact for permission to reprint.

Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D., is an Institute for Social Innovation Fellow at Fielding Graduate University and author of Tomorrow’s Change Makers.

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Review: Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing America’s Schools Back to Reality, by Charles Murray

Wight Martindale Jr.

• Academic Questions
• Spring 2009
• Education Reform

Real Education is not so much a systematic study as a collection of essays presenting four truths about American education today. First, Charles Murray argues that while academic ability varies, few students are really exceptional in one area but not in another; so a child who knows the answers in math class is probably reading above grade level as well. Thus, aco-babble about “multiple intelligences” and the like are costly and misleading—they make elementary and high school education more complicated than it really is.

Second, he asserts that many children cannot learn more than rudimentary math and reading, that our educational system must recognize this, and—rather than spend millions of dollars to push a math score up a few points—that we should instead prepare these students for trades in which they can prosper. Here he is advocating the European model.

In his most controversial essay, Murray asserts that too many students are going to college. This, of course, is a direct attack on the education industry, whose state budgets depend on their ability to balloon both their enrollment and their course offerings. Universities always want more, and in an economy that is no longer flush with cash, this argument should get a good hearing. Murray’s off-set for the mania to get a college degree is to encourage a CPA-style examination for various trades, which, in addition to being much cheaper, would focus on knowledge and achievement rather than the vague status of a BA. In addition, the testing alternative allows outsiders—the employers of students—to register their vote in the educational battles.

Murray’s fourth chapter “America’s Future Depends on How We Educate the Academically Gifted,” addresses a serious issue, but I find his argument here to be his weakest.

People generally mean one of two things when they talk about education. One is the practical education for a trade and the other is a humanistic, classical, or moral education. The first of these can be traced back to Francis Bacon (“The Advancement of Learning”), who did not want formal education to deal with “those books of personal improvement that men can read at their leisure,” but instead “really to instruct and suborn action and active life, these Georgics of the mind, concerning the husbandry and tillage thereof.” Bacon believed that learning should perfect the technical skills a person needs for his professed vocation. And since such individuals by definition must lead an active life, he believed that too much concern with contemplation would have a negative influence. Bacon is scolding when he writes, “most of the doctrines of the philosophers are more fearful and cautionary than the nature of things requireth.”

At the extreme opposite end of the spectrum we have John Milton (“Of Education”), who concludes simply and bluntly, “The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright...” Both men were superb Latinists, scholars of the highest order, so I suspect they both would be horrified by what now passes as a liberal education.

American education today is fighting two battles; the first is between trade schools and the humanities. Within the trade school universe the objective is to be better prepared for a profession, and this takes up most of the money and energy on most university campuses today. Humanities are losing ground, so they have joined the trend by pointing their students toward graduate schools and the law.

The second battle is being fought within the humanities—a very large tempest in a rapidly shrinking teapot—and it pits the prevailing politically liberal anti-religion majority against a tiny band of traditionalists and classicists, most of whom are sympathetic toward what is generally called a “core curriculum,” as well as toward other standbys like the study of foreign and classical languages, or an unapologetic respect for America and its history. Most of their allies are outside the university system, but there are precious few of these too.

American education’s greatest failure is that our schools have not been able to make good citizens out of ordinary students . This has happened because the educational establishment does not hold the same values regarding good citizenship as most of mainstream America. William Buckley described all this in God and Man at Yale , published over fifty years ago. Most educators assume they are taking the moral high road, and this requires that they seek reform, not reinforcement of what the political Right considers to be traditional values. In this sense, professional educators are similar to judges who legislate from the bench.

Another problem is that these reforming educators regularly change their objectives—to keep up with the times, they would say. New math, whole word recognition reading and spelling, and directing students away from books to visual images, the computer, and the Internet have all corroded simple reading, writing, and problem solving skills. The devaluation of books and long reading assignments reduces the need for a student to develop a longer attention span, without which no real learning can take place.

Murray’s way to attack this problem is to identify those academically gifted students with IQs of around 120 or higher, and train them to be wise, not just smart. These ubiquitous elite include captains of industry, lawyers and judges, national journalists, Hollywood filmmakers, and university faculties, as well as a large number of housewives who lead philanthropic and political activities in their communities. But why is this program for the academic elite alone?

Wisdom is at the grasp of all sane men—it has nothing to do with IQ. Many a humble person does not know how to write for this publication but is yet wise. Beyond wisdom there is virtue, which is a habitual disposition to do good. Wisdom contributes to virtue, but it is virtue that leads to the good life and, ultimately, to happiness, which is the greatest good.

With all Murray’s writhing about Great Books and the important questions of life, he, and most other educational reformers, fails to recognize that these questions have already been met most widely and satisfactorily by the major organized religions. Why, when he mentions the four cardinal virtues, does Murray omit the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity? Why is the Hebrew Bible off-limits for him? Proverbs addresses Murray’s issue quite clearly: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” There’s one answer for you. Even the Greeks that Murray so admires knew that lesson: Odysseus was constantly making sacrifices to the gods to protect and shelter him.

Colleges and high schools are not proselytizing when they teach The Divine Comedy , Augustine’s Confessions , Paradise Lost , or the book of Exodus. These works have been studied, translated, and admired by thousands of believers and nonbelievers for centuries. Further, we must not forget that religion is uniquely democratic—it offers the highest intellects the greatest mental challenges, while at the same time it can satisfy the needs of the poor and illiterate. Nonetheless, to hope for a classical, intellectual, and cultural revival without some religious impetus is not realistic; it is just one more elitist dream.

Further, Murray seems unaware of the power of the forces opposed to him. He hopes that a core curriculum will simply appear one day, because “the stuff of a liberal education is truly wonderful.”

I don’t believe him. Shakespeare will endure forever, but Harold Bloom’s prediction of a decade ago is proving correct: in most colleges Shakespeare has been relegated to a rare elective in a literature department given over to cultural studies. Shakespeare’s goodness alone—his judgment, his conventional piety combined with his realistic understanding of mankind—has not been enough. He has survived, but not in the university.

Murray must realize that he will have a battle on his hands. If he wants a sample of what kind of passion and intellectual intensity it will take, I recommend that he read Camile Paglia, perhaps her eighty-page diatribe, “Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders.” She closes this essay by comparing the educational establishment with Penelope’s suitors, all of whom were slaughtered by Odysseus. That’s calling for one hell of a house cleaning.

I would have been much happier with Murray if he had shown a bit more moral outrage over the death of reading. It is indeed tragic that teachers have come to expect so little from their students. Murray might have reminded us that the practice of real virtues, let’s start with courage—scarce amid our many spoiled elites—will be necessary to change educational policies. Lobbing beautiful theories from think tanks won’t do the trick.

I return to Harold Bloom, who in Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? expresses the frustration so many of us feel: “Reading alone will not save us or make us wise, but without it we will lapse into the death-in-life of the dumbing down in which America now leads the world, as in all other matters.”

On a much lighter note, much of Real Education is just plain fun; Murray does get his licks in. For example, while he has noticed that college education is not all that it’s cracked up to be, he is annoyed that the parents of today’s students are still buying the party line. “When it comes to shopping for colleges,” Murray writes, “many parents of America’s brightest students—disproportionately affluent and well-educated themselves—act like drugged-up pop stars on Rodeo Drive. They buy brand name without checking quality...” I think he got a kick out of writing that.

To return to serious issues, Murray points out that the school choice movement is the most important force for good in K–12 education. He is on solid ground here, because most Americans agree with him. Indeed, syndicated columnist Juan Williams believes that school choice is the civil rights issue of our day. The trick here is not saying this, because most of us know it, but figuring out how to bring it about.

Finally, I would argue that Murray’s battle against the prestige-granting status of universities—while noble in theory—seems to be wildly quixotic. Tom Wolfe, a great authority on the power of status, wrote a blurb promoting Murray’s book and was the subject of a lengthy interview with Academic Questions . Status, Wolfe said in that interview, “is everything. It’s the key to understanding everything humans do....Even in The Right Stuff... .The real subject is status competition within the small, enclosed world of military flying. That is what drove the first seven astronauts and most of the first seventy-two astronauts.”

Universities will not surrender their position easily. Generous alumni need Princeton’s recognition more than Princeton needs them. The poor scholarship student who can leapfrog from the ghetto to this modern version of the Garden of Eden sees no reason to change things now. The degree-granting industry—what we call universities—has billions of dollars to defend its claims as America’s most elite club.

Universities are about status, and it is a game they are winning. Reordering the curriculum and saving the humanities will be difficult enough. Perhaps fighting the status battle can be put off for another day.

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What is Real Education?

Education has been a long-standing tradition in our society which has been an essential part of human life from the early days of civilization. It is one of the most important pillars of any nation’s culture and social fabric.

It is a system that teaches people how to do things, think, and live. It is one of the most influential and vital things in our society. It is the bedrock of any successful society. It is not just about a ladder to success; it is about developing the whole person and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to help them reach their full potential. It has an enormous impact on society. It shapes the future, helps build communities, and improves life chances.

However, over time we have seen that education has become more about ranking, grades and academic excellence than it has been about providing students with skills they will need to survive in the future. It is also worth noting that many young people still struggle to navigate the system. Some people, though, make their living out of the education they receive; the question is, are they leading a healthy lifestyle? In this article, let us explore What real education is and the importance of real education outside academia.

What is education in today’s society? Simply put, education transfers knowledge and skills from one person to another. The method of teaching may be formal, informal, or both.

But, education is a long process that begins from birth and lasts until death. It may be formal, informal, or both. Formal education is when a person attends an institution of higher learning, such as a university. Informal education is when someone learns something through observation or exploration. To know whether we are getting the proper education, we should see the purpose of our education; why one needs to get an Education.

Kinds of Education:

The modern system of education we adopted from western countries was formal education in schools and universities. Formal education was based on the idea that students were passive recipients of knowledge given by teachers or professors who are experts in their field.

In recent years there has been a movement towards alternative models for education, such as unschooling, homeschooling and democratic schools, where students have more control over what they are learning and when they are learning it.

What is the purpose of education?

Education should be about something other than getting good grades, securing a rank in a hierarchy, earning academic excellence, or providing students with a certificate or degree they might not need. It should be about more than securing ranks, grades or academic excellence. It is to make them capable of life by providing the necessary knowledge and skills for students to be successful in their future occupations.

The purpose of education is to make us better people, not just academically. We must learn how to live and be good to the people around us. A good education teaches us more than just academics; it teaches about life. It should be seen as a process of developing oneself in all aspects, viz

· To prepare students for the future and not just for exams.

· To prepare people for a world where they will live and work.

· To provide people with skills that will allow them to earn a living and provide for themselves and their families.

·  To prepare students for lifelong learning, development, and social well-being.

· It should also be about developing one’s character and self-knowledge to work in any profession with dignity.

· To make individuals more productive members of society.

But are we achieving what we deserve?

Problem with our education system:

Education is an integral part of society. It is the foundation of all other things. However, some problems need to be addressed and reformed at the earliest. Let us explore some of the problems associated with our education system:

· Unemployment: Increased unemployment is one of the major problems faced by the country. The unemployment rate for people with college degrees has been increasing. This means that more people are graduating from college and unable to find work. There are many reasons for this increase in unemployment rates, but they can all be traced back to the education system.

· Low employability skills: We have a problem with how we educate our children. We need to teach them the skills that are required in the workplace. But the problem is that we need to teach them how to think critically and creatively enough.

To fix this, we need to teach our students about employability skills and how they can use them for their future careers.

· Stressful Education: The current education system is very stressful. We are constantly under pressure to improve, leading to anxiety and stress. The problem with the education system is that it doesn’t prepare us for the real world. We are taught how to write essays, essays, essays and more essays but not how to face failures in life.

· Late marriages: Late marriages are becoming a major issue today. There are various reasons for this – one being that educated people are getting married later in life. The problem is that these people need more time to plan for their future as they will juggle a career and a family simultaneously.

· No real-life exposure: The problem with our education system is that it is not giving students any real-life exposure. They are only taught in the classroom, and what if they want to learn something outside of the curriculum?

Students need to get more exposure to real-life scenarios, but they are being taught very rigidly, with a lot of focus on grades. They are not exposed to the real world, so they cannot understand it.

The solution to this problem is to provide a more realistic environment for students. We need to provide them with opportunities that will allow them to explore the world and get hands-on experience in their field of interest.

· The life-long struggle for many students: Many people in our society struggle with the education system. They are struggling to get a good education, they are struggling to get a degree, and they are struggling to find a job that will make them happy.

The problem is that we have an education system that needs to meet the needs of the people who need it most. We have a system where students can’t afford college, don’t learn anything useful in high school, and graduate without skills or knowledge.

This causes problems for many people throughout their life – they struggle with getting into college, finding a fulfilling job that pays well enough to live on their own, and many other struggles.

· Focus on bookish knowledge: The current education system is outdated. It focuses on bookish knowledge and fails to provide students with the skills they need for the future.

Students need to be able to think critically, analyze, and synthesize information. They also need a solid understanding of the world around them to make informed decisions about their future.

· No physical activity: The problem with the education system is that it does not provide students with any physical activity. This leads to a sedentary lifestyle, which has a negative impact on health.

· Eyesight issues: One of the biggest problems our education system faces today is eyesight issues. This is not only a problem in schools, but also in offices and at home. Many people are struggling with eyesight issues every day.

In our society, there is always something going on in the day. Some commitments find themselves time-consuming. And schedules which have minutes at a time carved out for sleep. Because of this, many children suffer from eyesight problems that can affect their education and career opportunities later in life. Children not getting the rest they need throughout their school years can also struggle with eyesight issues or other disabilities later in life.

· No good social relations: One of the most pressing issues is the lack of good social relations. Students need more time to socialize and learn how to interact with others. There is a lot of evidence that supports this claim. For example, students who are more socially competent have better grades and higher self-esteem than those who don’t have good social skills.

·  Heavy competition: The education system we have today is not working as it should be. The problems are many, and the solutions are few.

Students who don’t have the same opportunities or resources as others often struggle to keep up with their peers. This leads to them being underprepared for adulthood and higher education challenges.

To solve these problems, we must ensure that every child has equal opportunity and access to learning resources.

· Stressful jobs: The biggest problem in our education system is that it does not provide students with the skills needed for today’s workforce. The education system fails to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need when they graduate. This is because their teaching methods need to align with what is required in the workforce.

State of present Education:

The education system is broken and needs to be fixed. We live in a day and age where the value of an education is measured by how many jobs one can get. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money, but we must remember that we need to be educated for more than just success in the workplace. What is real education is not academic; instead, it’s practical. Real education teaches us to earn our bread and butter, keep a healthy lifestyle and do good in the world by improving it. With the commitment to understanding what real education is, we can help create a workforce that will not lose in the future by adopting some changes in our education system.

The word ‘education’ is often associated with academia. However, what is real education is not limited to academic pursuits. It is a process of understanding the world and how we can make the best of it. So, it is not about the school or college you are educated in. It is about how well and with what kind of knowledge you manage to understand life. So, what is real education? To answer that, we need to understand what it means to be educated.

One has to be trained to meet the demands of life. It is about understanding how one’s world works and using that knowledge to benefit society. The fact that education can encompass so much has made it challenging to define real education.

A wide variety of experiences can be educational for the student, such as joining extracurricular clubs, being involved with community projects or hobbies and doing social service. These activities help us to discover our potential and find our passion.

What is real education? It is not just securing ranks or grades or academic excellence.

·  It is about preparing the students for what is to come by gaining skills and knowledge to help them in the future.

·  It is the one that provides you with an opportunity to learn and grow.

·  It should give us the possibility to earn bread and butter and helps us lead a healthy lifestyle.

·  Whatever we learn and do, the ultimate goal is to earn bread and butter for survival.

It is useful if the education we have or the certificates we achieved can earn the required bread and butter.

We all know how hard it is to find a job nowadays. With the rapid advancement of technology, many industries face a shortage of skilled workers, which means you need more education to find a job. This is why we need to ensure that our children get a real education that will help them earn bread and butter and lead healthy lifestyles.

Importance of Real Education in the present scenario:

The world is changing, and so is our educational system. Education was about getting a degree in the old days, but more is needed nowadays.

Education is not just confined to classrooms. We learn from the moment we are born. Every day is a learning opportunity. It does not matter how much education we have attained. What matters more is the knowledge and skills we possess and how it helps us contribute to our society.

To get into detail, what is real education? It is the opposite of what we see in schools today. It is not academic education but practical knowledge. Earn a living, and be wise and healthy.

How does one earn a living?

To earn a living, you must sell something you already have or something you can create. It could be physical items such as food and clothing or skills like music and writing. If someone can only produce their own food/clothing/skills, then they are not selling anything to earn a living because they are not making money. The process of making something, whether physical or intangible (like music), is selling the product. When someone sells something, they are making money. And are then able to spend it on something else.

Path to real education:

The main goal of this approach is to make education more practical so that students can apply what they have learned in their future careers. These are some ways in which Real Education can be understood and applied well. The education system should provide for learning real-life skills, viz.

Students should provide students with an opportunity to develop skills relevant to real life, such as cooking, sewing or driving a car.

They should also get an opportunity to work on social projects like helping an older person with his groceries or working with children in need.

The school calendar should allow students to take part-time jobs or encourage them to do voluntary service during periods when they don’t have classes, such as summer.

Life-long learning process:

Learning is a lifelong process. The education system should change its approach to learning, focusing on practical applications and developing skills that can use in everyday life.

It is better to invest our time elsewhere where we can have our bread and butter and lead a healthy lifestyle.

Is education necessary for society?

Education is a long-standing tradition that has been around for centuries. It is necessary for society, as it keeps the population informed and educated. This is why education should not be seen as a privilege, but a right everyone deserves.

Role of education in success?

Education is the key to success. It is the foundation of any society. It is what defines a country’s culture and its people. Education is about knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes.

The purpose of education should be to develop the potential of each individual in an environment that encourages curiosity and creativity, where students are challenged and supported to achieve their best.

Can education bring wealth?

Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and values. It is an essential part of the development of human capital. Yes, it can bring wealth to individuals, communities and nations in many ways, but only if it is real education.

Conclusion:

What is Real Education? It is not academic education. It is about developing our latent potential and honing our skills and knowledge for our world. It is about everything that truly matters to us and ultimately determines the quality of our lives.

Anything that makes us better, earns our bread and butter and leads a healthy lifestyle is regarded as Real Education. The purpose of education is to make us better people, not just academically. We must learn how to live and be good to the people around us. A good education teaches us more than just academics; it teaches about life. What is Real Education? It is not the same as academic education. It examines what should be taught in schools to help students prepare for life after school. Education should focus on self-education and skills training. Understanding what real education is in the true sense is the only hope for the future of this country.

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Essay on The Real Education

The thoughts and knowledge of one generation pass to another and they pass through the child. What is education for? Why do we build schools and take much trouble to examine children in what they have learned? The child goes to school to learn the true riches of life like love for the humanity, thinking or reasoning and acting according to the situation. Education is the growth of human mind. A workman of ivory spends a long time in learning the skill of carving ivory. Educating a child is carving thoughts and feelings in his mind. It is a great art to contact the heart of child and build good character with lasting effect.

To my mind, real education is to make a child live for others, always acting just and lindly. He should grow into a good citizen, with a great admiration for everything good in life. He should know how to preserve his ancient glories and treasure them as national pride. He should be taught to think before he acts, to be prudent and useful to his society. He should develop values of heart, like courage, patriotism, sympathy, service mindedness, loyalty, cooperation and tolerance to make his country noble. Education should teach the young minds to do useful service in their trade or profession to manifest the power or work in the human brain and the human hand.

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What Is Education For?

Read an excerpt from a new book by Sir Ken Robinson and Kate Robinson, which calls for redesigning education for the future.

What is education for? As it happens, people differ sharply on this question. It is what is known as an “essentially contested concept.” Like “democracy” and “justice,” “education” means different things to different people. Various factors can contribute to a person’s understanding of the purpose of education, including their background and circumstances. It is also inflected by how they view related issues such as ethnicity, gender, and social class. Still, not having an agreed-upon definition of education doesn’t mean we can’t discuss it or do anything about it.

We just need to be clear on terms. There are a few terms that are often confused or used interchangeably—“learning,” “education,” “training,” and “school”—but there are important differences between them. Learning is the process of acquiring new skills and understanding. Education is an organized system of learning. Training is a type of education that is focused on learning specific skills. A school is a community of learners: a group that comes together to learn with and from each other. It is vital that we differentiate these terms: children love to learn, they do it naturally; many have a hard time with education, and some have big problems with school.

There are many assumptions of compulsory education. One is that young people need to know, understand, and be able to do certain things that they most likely would not if they were left to their own devices. What these things are and how best to ensure students learn them are complicated and often controversial issues. Another assumption is that compulsory education is a preparation for what will come afterward, like getting a good job or going on to higher education.

So, what does it mean to be educated now? Well, I believe that education should expand our consciousness, capabilities, sensitivities, and cultural understanding. It should enlarge our worldview. As we all live in two worlds—the world within you that exists only because you do, and the world around you—the core purpose of education is to enable students to understand both worlds. In today’s climate, there is also a new and urgent challenge: to provide forms of education that engage young people with the global-economic issues of environmental well-being.

This core purpose of education can be broken down into four basic purposes.

Education should enable young people to engage with the world within them as well as the world around them. In Western cultures, there is a firm distinction between the two worlds, between thinking and feeling, objectivity and subjectivity. This distinction is misguided. There is a deep correlation between our experience of the world around us and how we feel. As we explored in the previous chapters, all individuals have unique strengths and weaknesses, outlooks and personalities. Students do not come in standard physical shapes, nor do their abilities and personalities. They all have their own aptitudes and dispositions and different ways of understanding things. Education is therefore deeply personal. It is about cultivating the minds and hearts of living people. Engaging them as individuals is at the heart of raising achievement.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights emphasizes that “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” and that “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Many of the deepest problems in current systems of education result from losing sight of this basic principle.

Schools should enable students to understand their own cultures and to respect the diversity of others. There are various definitions of culture, but in this context the most appropriate is “the values and forms of behavior that characterize different social groups.” To put it more bluntly, it is “the way we do things around here.” Education is one of the ways that communities pass on their values from one generation to the next. For some, education is a way of preserving a culture against outside influences. For others, it is a way of promoting cultural tolerance. As the world becomes more crowded and connected, it is becoming more complex culturally. Living respectfully with diversity is not just an ethical choice, it is a practical imperative.

There should be three cultural priorities for schools: to help students understand their own cultures, to understand other cultures, and to promote a sense of cultural tolerance and coexistence. The lives of all communities can be hugely enriched by celebrating their own cultures and the practices and traditions of other cultures.

Education should enable students to become economically responsible and independent. This is one of the reasons governments take such a keen interest in education: they know that an educated workforce is essential to creating economic prosperity. Leaders of the Industrial Revolution knew that education was critical to creating the types of workforce they required, too. But the world of work has changed so profoundly since then, and continues to do so at an ever-quickening pace. We know that many of the jobs of previous decades are disappearing and being rapidly replaced by contemporary counterparts. It is almost impossible to predict the direction of advancing technologies, and where they will take us.

How can schools prepare students to navigate this ever-changing economic landscape? They must connect students with their unique talents and interests, dissolve the division between academic and vocational programs, and foster practical partnerships between schools and the world of work, so that young people can experience working environments as part of their education, not simply when it is time for them to enter the labor market.

Education should enable young people to become active and compassionate citizens. We live in densely woven social systems. The benefits we derive from them depend on our working together to sustain them. The empowerment of individuals has to be balanced by practicing the values and responsibilities of collective life, and of democracy in particular. Our freedoms in democratic societies are not automatic. They come from centuries of struggle against tyranny and autocracy and those who foment sectarianism, hatred, and fear. Those struggles are far from over. As John Dewey observed, “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.”

For a democratic society to function, it depends upon the majority of its people to be active within the democratic process. In many democracies, this is increasingly not the case. Schools should engage students in becoming active, and proactive, democratic participants. An academic civics course will scratch the surface, but to nurture a deeply rooted respect for democracy, it is essential to give young people real-life democratic experiences long before they come of age to vote.

Eight Core Competencies

The conventional curriculum is based on a collection of separate subjects. These are prioritized according to beliefs around the limited understanding of intelligence we discussed in the previous chapter, as well as what is deemed to be important later in life. The idea of “subjects” suggests that each subject, whether mathematics, science, art, or language, stands completely separate from all the other subjects. This is problematic. Mathematics, for example, is not defined only by propositional knowledge; it is a combination of types of knowledge, including concepts, processes, and methods as well as propositional knowledge. This is also true of science, art, and languages, and of all other subjects. It is therefore much more useful to focus on the concept of disciplines rather than subjects.

Disciplines are fluid; they constantly merge and collaborate. In focusing on disciplines rather than subjects we can also explore the concept of interdisciplinary learning. This is a much more holistic approach that mirrors real life more closely—it is rare that activities outside of school are as clearly segregated as conventional curriculums suggest. A journalist writing an article, for example, must be able to call upon skills of conversation, deductive reasoning, literacy, and social sciences. A surgeon must understand the academic concept of the patient’s condition, as well as the practical application of the appropriate procedure. At least, we would certainly hope this is the case should we find ourselves being wheeled into surgery.

The concept of disciplines brings us to a better starting point when planning the curriculum, which is to ask what students should know and be able to do as a result of their education. The four purposes above suggest eight core competencies that, if properly integrated into education, will equip students who leave school to engage in the economic, cultural, social, and personal challenges they will inevitably face in their lives. These competencies are curiosity, creativity, criticism, communication, collaboration, compassion, composure, and citizenship. Rather than be triggered by age, they should be interwoven from the beginning of a student’s educational journey and nurtured throughout.

From Imagine If: Creating a Future for Us All by Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D and Kate Robinson, published by Penguin Books, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2022 by the Estate of Sir Kenneth Robinson and Kate Robinson.

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How Four Years Can (and Should) Transform You

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By Michael S. Roth

• Aug. 20, 2013

When young people starting their college careers ask me what they should look for when they get to campus, I tell them: find out who the great teachers are. It doesn’t matter much what the subject is. Find a real teacher, and you may open yourself to transformation — to discovering who you might become. This can be the great gift of a liberal education.

Yes, I sometimes get puzzled looks. Or eye rolls.

If I meet any students heading to the University of Virginia, I will tell them to seek out Mark Edmundson, an English professor and the author of a new collection of essays called “Why Teach?” For Mr. Edmundson, teaching is a calling, an urgent endeavor in which the lives — he says the souls — of students are at stake.

Mr. Edmundson loves to teach, but he hates the conditions under which much teaching takes place today, even at an elite university like Virginia. These conditions — the consumer mentality of students and their families, the efforts of administrators to provide a full spa experience and the rush of faculty to escape from the classroom into esoteric research — make real teachers an endangered species in the academic ecosystem. In this context, Mr. Edmundson reminds us of the power strong teachers have to make students rethink who they are and who they might become. This is what a real education is all about.

Mr. Edmundson made this discovery himself just before graduating from high school. In his working-class family, college was not something taken for granted. When he told his father that he probably “should be prelaw,” his old man warned him not to waste his life studying something he thought he was supposed to be interested in. Unless he was sure about reincarnation, his father thundered, he had better make the most out of this opportunity to pursue subjects that were meaningful to him. Mr. Edmundson found his inspiration in Malcolm X, and in Emerson, Blake, Dickinson and Freud.

According to “Why Teach?,” inspiration is in short supply these days on campus. In the book’s first section, Mr. Edmundson describes the growth since the mid-1990s of a more commercial, profit-oriented university culture. Like many other contemporary commentators, he sees a confluence of forces in higher education leading to greater conformity and consumerism at the expense of inquiry, inspiration and challenge. Mr. Edmundson’s critique is both personal and idealistic, drawing on his deep belief in the democratic mission of liberal education and on his practical experience as a teacher.

He knows the studies showing that students spend less time than ever on their classwork, and he writes of an implicit pact between undergraduates and professors in which teachers give high grades and thin assignments, and students reward them with positive evaluations. After all, given all the other amenities available through the university, the idea that “the courses you take should be the primary objective of going to college is tacitly considered absurd.”

After describing this unhappy shift, Mr. Edmundson’s remaining essays are devoted to “fellow students” and “fellow teachers.” He’s hard on both groups, but underneath the curmudgeonly rhetoric he is desperate to remind them of why real learning and teaching aren’t so much luxuries as necessities.

Mr. Edmundson strives to read and teach the authors who inspire him with what he calls “humane sensitivity.” “The battle is to make such writers one’s own, to winnow them out and to find their essential truths,” he says. He went to college to see if there were possibilities beyond what others had defined as his limits. You sense that he still goes to the classroom each semester seeking new possibilities — for his students and for himself.

Much of “Why Teach?” concerns the impediments to this search. Under the guise of practicality, universities and their “customers” now stress that education should provide a return on investment. They speak of excellence and innovation, and what they really mean is money and notoriety. They talk of a well-rounded learning experience, and what they really mean is checking off boxes denoting that you’ve taken required courses that weren’t too challenging. Mr. Edmundson contends that the “corporate university” has abdicated its mission to confront our prejudices and conventions while inspiring our passions and talents.

He fervently advocates for the transformative power of a true education because he experienced it firsthand. In high school, he cared about football and rock ’n’ roll more than about literature until he was stirred by great teaching and “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” “I think that the highest objective for someone trying to provide a literary education to students is to make such moments of transformation possible,” he writes.

This “highest objective” is also extraordinarily fulfilling. “Teachers who have been moved by great works have been moved to pass the gift on,” he says, with a nod to Wordsworth and Coleridge — and to all professors who introduce students to books that have changed their own lives. Art inspires us; teaching changes us.

Mr. Edmundson worries that too many professors have lost the courage of their own passions, depriving their students of the fire of inspiration. Why teach? Because great professors can “crack the shell of convention,” shining a light on a life’s different prospects. They never aim at conversion, only at what Emerson called “aversion” — bucking conformity so as to discover possibility.

Despite the forces arrayed against them, in the next few weeks, students across the country will find their way to professors like Mr. Edmundson, teachers eager to continue the fight for real education. I wouldn’t bet against them.

In Defense of a Real Education

By Mark Edmundson

222 pages. Bloomsbury. $24.

Michael S. Roth is the president of Wesleyan University. His new book, “Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters,” will be published by Yale University Press next year.

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Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education

Mark Edmundson. Bloomsbury, 2013. 222 pages. $24.00.

By Doug Phillips

In time for a fresh semester comes Mark Edmundson’s Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education , a smart collection of occasional pieces and provocative essays, many of them first published in venues such as Harper’s , The Chronicle of Higher Education , and The New York Times , and all of them in some way concerned with education—or rather, a real education —about which Edmundson remains a passionate and public voice. 

To understand just what Edmundson means by a “real education” is to know something about the capital-r Romantics who, for more than a quarter century, have featured regularly in his lit courses at the University of Virginia, and who, by the evidence of Why Teach? , inform his scholarship while fueling his own revolutionary spirit. One feels, for example, the force of Shelley at the close of Edmundson’s troop-rallying introduction:

“I’d like us to blow a hole through the university’s ethos of entertainment and training for success and to bury its wearisome work-hard, play-hard frat-boy ideology. We should blast away the customer-coddling deans and student service hacks…Blast university presidents so afraid of offending a potential donor that they won’t raise a word in behalf of social justice or political sanity. Blow away the trustees who think that they’re a corporate board of directors and will not rest until their schools resemble Walmarts. Blast them all.”

Until, that is, his Shelleyan insistency warms into a kind of tempered ease and balanced act that characterizes his best writing: 

“And while you’re doing it, have a good time. Because knowledge is joy. Creativity is ultimate freedom. Real thought is bliss…Dare to Know; Dare to Be Wise!”

But where, one wonders, is a real education—which is to say, wisdom —to be found? Toward answering this Jobian question is what Why Teach? is all about, and Edmundson will invoke the spirit of a good many other Romantics along the way to help make his case. 

Wisdom, suggests Edmundson, may be successfully sought and taught at the university, but only to the extent that both seeker and teacher are able to resist the notion of education as an easy-to-swallow sweetbite between keggers and social-climbing. Without this resistance, much of university life today is but a rehearsal of Wordsworth’s “getting and spending,” a laying waste of powers in preparation for a life of dull conformity and unhappy consumerism, something Edmundson presciently diagnosed nearly twenty years ago in a piece for Harper’s called “Liberal Arts & Lite Entertainment,” now the new book’s lead-off essay. “University culture, like American culture writ large,” he writes, “is, to put it crudely, ever more devoted to consumption and entertainment, to the using and using up of goods and images.” Edmundson, though, is well-aware of his own complicity in wanting to play it cool (a point he’ll address in a later essay titled “The Uncoolness of Good Teachers”), to step at least occasionally into the frame of “goods and images,” if not for the sake of those pesky end-of-the-semester evaluations then for sake of what David Foster Wallace somewhere described as the need to be “maximally likeable.” We live, after all, in the age of Facebook where the pursuit of being “liked” is not only a means to shoring up one’s ego, but a late capitalistic way of life. Professors seeking tenure and promotion are as conditioned to this fact as the students whom they presume to teach. And yet if that is the culture as-is , then the point of real learning has everything to do with real alternatives, with what Edmundson, drawing upon Emerson (the high priest of American Romanticism and Edmundson’s hero), calls second chances. 

Edmundson makes plain—early and throughout Why Teach? —that the principal value of a liberal arts education (and a literary education in particular) is a chance to revise who we are, an opportunity to understand and experience life differently, to open up new vistas and other ways of seeing, to experience, in the words of Keats, Soul-making . In a wonderfully persuasive plug for the field titled simply “The English Major,” Edmundson posits that such a person “reads because as rich as the one life he has may be, one life is not enough. He reads not to see the world through the eyes of other people but effectively to become other people….to the English major the questions of life are never closed. There’s always another book to read; there’s always another perspective to add.” If a better argument has been made on the subject, I have yet to find it.

Essay collections are a bit like old record albums. Among the hits there will be the usual smattering of B-sides, listenable perhaps but not in league with the A’s. In Why Teach? , the one or two B-sides I encountered are those that feel dated, less in the groove of what’s going on now or down the hall from where I myself teach. When for example Edmundson argues in “Against Readings” (a piece I’m pretty sure is drawn from his mid-nineties, university press imprimatur: Literature Against Philosophy, Plato to Derrida ) that theoretical meat-grindings in the form of Deconstruction, Marxism, New Historicism, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, et al., blunt our appreciation for whatever news a literary work might offer about Life , I take his point, though I’m not convinced these practices are quite so widespread as his essay would have us believe. Not long ago a “lens”-based approach to reading, say, Frankenstein may have been all the rage, but not so much anymore. 

My guess is that far more teachers than Edmundson seems to allow have come around to his way of doing things, to having been shaped and influenced and bettered by his tireless push for more meaningful teaching, and to focusing on the fundamental question that he insists is crucial to any worthwhile reading experience, which is: Can you live it?  

Doug Phillips teaches English and American literature at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

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Home » News » Author Mark Edmundson Speaks in Defense of ‘Real’ Education

Author Mark Edmundson Speaks in Defense of ‘Real’ Education

In a lecture at Elmhurst College on May 15, scholar Mark Edmundson presented a vigorous defense of what he calls a “real” education.

Speaking to a lively audience of students, faculty and community members, Edmundson described a real education as one that takes up the question of ideals, especially those of compassion, courage and contemplation.

A professor of English at the University of Virginia, Edmundson sees teaching as a vital endeavor in which the very souls of his students are at stake. In his recent book,  Why Teach? Edmundson “reminds us of the power strong teachers have to make students rethink who they are and who they might become,” wrote Michael S. Roth, president of Wesleyan University, in a  New York Times  review. “This is what a real education is all about.”

In his Elmhurst lecture, Edmundson said that students today are driven to seek careers grounded in security and stability—and to pursue those “at all costs”—rather than to be guided by ideals.

That pursuit to feed the self, with money and security, takes over everything and becomes a vain, lifelong attempt to fill the emptiness caused by ignoring a basic human need—that of wanting one’s life to matter, of upholding ideals through bravery, sacrifice and selflessness.

Edmundson said his goal in the classroom is to expose his students to the great thinkers and playwrights and poets—to expose them to ideals.

He urged the students in the audience, especially the seniors about to graduate, “to take this moment to consider pursuing ideals versus security, before plunging in.”

“Rather than choose a profession, choose an ideal, choose a virtue, and then find a job.”

In an interview last year with Inside Higher Ed , Edmundson defined a real education and why it needs defending. “It’s an education in which the student follows the Platonic injunction: Know Thyself … and also seeks to know the world. It’s not about career planning or preparation for success. When you know yourself, career and success can follow with ease—if you want them.”

Why Teach?, a collection of Edmundson’s essays on the subject, draws on his belief in the “democratic mission of liberal education” and his years of experience in the classroom. “He’s hard on both [students and teachers],” Roth writes in his New York Times review, “but underneath the curmudgeonly rhetoric he is desperate to remind them of why real learning and teaching aren’t so much luxuries as necessities.”

Edmundson, who holds a Ph.D. from Yale University, is the author of a number of other books, including The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll (HarperCollins, 2010); Why Read? (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2004) and Teacher: The One Who Made the Difference (Random House, 2002). He also has written for numerous publications, including The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine , and The Nation , and is a contributing editor to Harper’s .

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• Education Essay

Essay on Education

Nelson Mandela rightly said, “Education is the most important weapon to change the world.” Education plays an important role in the development of an individual and making him a knowledgeable citizen. It is the education that makes an individual self-reliant, helps to suppress the social evils and contribute towards the development of the society and nation as a whole.

Education helps in unravelling the mystery of nature. It enables us to understand and improve the working of our society. It creates conditions for a better life. Education brings out the capabilities to fight injustice happening in society. Every individual has the right to education.

Introduction

Education is a significant tool that provides knowledge, skill, technique, information and enables people to know their rights and duties towards their family, society and the nation. You can expand your vision and outlook to see the world around us. It changes our perception of life. Education builds up the ability to explore new things to enhance your creativity. Your creativity is a tool to develop the nation.

Importance of Education

People still don't realise what role education and being educated plays in our lives and society. So, before making people aware of education and working for their access, it is very important to understand the need and importance of education. Education includes traditional learning methods that include theories and modern methods that include practical implementation of the subjects.

In schools, education is categorised into four stages, and each stage is important for each student:

Primary 

Secondary 

Senior secondary

Education can be classified into Various Forms:

Formal education: teaches us the academic part of any course or class, skills, or theory.

Non Formal education: We learn from our community, culture, nation-based programs, and the society that we live in

Informal education: We learn from our life lessons, experiences, other people, their experiences, nature, surroundings, etc.

Education empowers everyone. It is an important aspect that shapes the modern and industrialised world. People need education to be able to cope up with the advancements in this competitive world. Following are some areas where education is needed:

Removing Poverty: Education helps in eradicating poverty from our society.  An educated person can secure a good job and take care of all the basic needs and requirements of his family.

Safety and Security against Crime: A well-educated person cannot be easily duped or become a victim of any crime. They can develop the ability to stand against injustice. 

Increases Productivity: Educated people are more productive. With the help of knowledge and skills, they can explore new ideas. 

Confidence: A good education doesn’t mean to go to schools and colleges only. Education helps to become self-dependent and build great confidence within them so that they are able to accomplish difficult tasks.

Improved Standard of Life: On getting an education, quality of life gets improved. Education helps you to secure good jobs by which you can fulfil your dreams of buying a house or car or other luxury things. 

Women Empowerment: Education helps in empowering women. Women can voice out themselves in the society against the injustice done to them. They can be self-reliant and need not be dependent on anyone. Women empowerment will bring a lot of development in society as well as in the nation.

Upliftment of the Economically Weaker Section: Education is the most significant ingredient to change the world. Illiterate people suffer the hardships of discrimination, untouchability and injustice prevailing in the society. With the advancement of education, the weaker section can improve their quality of life. 

Communication: Communication is related to education. Good education helps to communicate better with others. It also improves our skills such as speech, body language, etc. 

Development of a nation: The countries that focus on educating their citizens and have a higher education level are considered more developed nations in every aspect of their lives.

  Individual growth: An educated individual always stands out in a crowd of uneducated people. They will be able to make better life decisions because with education comes knowledge. When an individual knows something, they will be able to understand things in a better manner.

 Independent: Education acts as a catalyst for a human being to be independent. If an individual is educated enough, they can manage their own life without being dependent on anybody.

  Success: Education helps in framing our mindset in a positive direction, and with this mindset, people can make their lives better. With education comes a degree, and with a degree comes a lot of opportunities. You just have to make a better choice for yourself, and everything will fall in place.

Talking particularly about India, education is a constitutional right of every citizen irrespective of caste, creed, race, religion, gender, etc. That’s the status given to education in India because educated people are always treated well and are well respected everywhere in the world.

Role of Education in Society

Education is the social institution through which the society provides its members with knowledge, facts, job skills and values. One of the most important roles of education is that it improves personal lives and helps society to run smoothly. As mentioned above, poverty can be eradicated and every individual can contribute towards the development of the country.

Education Creates a Better Society: An educated person is more likely to develop better moral and ethical values as compared to an uneducated person. Education brings equal opportunity for everyone and educated people will be able to create a better society. 

Education is the Backbone of Society: Education is an integral part of human society. Lack of education gives birth to numerous social problems like poor health, conflicts, and poor living standards. Education helps people overcome all problems by finding better solutions. 

Education Encourages Innovation and Creativity: Education leads to innovation. Innovation and creativity can only occur when skilled people know how to advance with different technologies. Educated people always can solve problems with the help of better techniques. 

Education Creates a Better Human Being: Education is the most powerful weapon by which the entire perspective of the world can be changed. Through education, a person can develop good moral values. It helps us to become a better person in life. 

Understanding the Responsibilities: As a social being, it becomes the responsibility of every individual to give something back to society and make it a better place for our next generation. An educated person is aware of his personal and social responsibilities.

Education helps in shaping the values of an individual. It helps individuals develop their moral values, humbleness, sympathy and empathy towards society, etc.

Students or any individual learn to express their viewpoints by reading, writing, learning. And these qualities or skills are taught with the help of education and nothing else.

Steps Taken to promote Education:

After discussing the importance of education, awareness is the next big step. People, especially those living in remote areas, should be aware and should have access to a better education system. The government has taken several steps for this purpose. It has started various initiatives to make education accessible to all and improve the quality of education for the betterment of every student. 

Some of the Prominent Steps:

The formation of the Right to Education Act, 2009 made education a fundamental right for every child belonging to 6-14 years.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Adult education and national development scheme

Beti bachao, beti padhao

Midday meal scheme and many more.

Various other initiatives that the government has taken are Udaan, Saksham, Pragati, etc., to make education accessible to every part of the county.

Conclusion:

Education is the pathway for a nation’s progress. Education is the backbone of society. The government should take all measures to provide education to every individual of the country. This will bring equality among people and when people improvise their way of living, they become more responsible towards society.

The literacy rate of more developed nations is also high, and the literacy of every nation depends upon its education system. The government undoubtedly has made laws and formulated schemes, but implementing those schemes is a major task. 

The government, along with co-operation with the citizens, should make the society and nation a better place to live in. The growth of every nation depends upon the kind of population it has. A well-educated population will make a well-developed nation.

FAQs on Education Essay

1) Why is education important?

Education is important for the development of an individual. It is the most powerful weapon by which a person can contribute towards the development of the society and nation as a whole.

2) How is education a pathway to success?

Education provides job opportunities and also helps to expand your vision and change your outlook to see the world around us.

3) How can education help the economically backward people?

Uneducated or illiterate people do not have the ability to overcome hardships like discrimination, untouchability, and injustice. When these people get basic education, then they can become self-reliant and stand for their rights. With the advancement of education, they can improve their standard of living and poverty can be eradicated from the face of the Earth.

4) How are women empowered through education?

Education helps in empowering women. Women can voice out themselves in the society against the injustice done to them. They can be self-dependent. Women empowerment will bring a lot of development in society as well as in the nation.

5) What are the roles that education plays?

Education is vital in shaping the world and society. An educated society forms an educated nation. It is essential in creating a positive mindset and positive skills in an individual.

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Teaching What Is “Real” About Science

Critical Realism as a Framework for Science Education

• SI: Why Trust Science and Science Education
• Published: 14 January 2022
• Volume 31 , pages 1651–1669, ( 2022 )

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• Sarah L. Ferguson   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4382-2309 1 , 2  

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Discourse about public perception of science is often positioned as a dichotomy between trust in scientific evidence and scientists as experts, versus critiques of the limitations of scientific knowledge and a mistrust in scientists as biased professionals and political agents. However, this dichotomy becomes something of a false argument, as our tendency to look for the “right” answer in these arguments often gets in the way of finding a balancing point in which both of these positions could be held in productive tension. The purpose of the present article is to lay out the argument that society can both trust in scientific evidence and question scientific bias in the same space, holding these two seemingly opposite positions in productive tension, and that we should teach students to do the same. Critical realism is presented as an ontology and epistemology to frame science education, and focus on the development of critical scientific literacy by teaching students what is real and what is arbitrary about science. Recommendations for science education are outlined, grounded in critical realism and connected to current education research and principles of the nature of science.

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1 Introduction

In his 2015 focus article “Can we Teach People what Science is Really Like?”, Collins ends his essay with the statement “Thank heaven my job is not to teach.” The article offers a framework for science and science education grouped around three epistemological waves of thought about science (Collins & Evans, 2002 ; named simply wave one, wave two, and wave three) and discusses the challenges of teaching students about scientific knowledge and scientific practice in the classroom setting through these waves. The metaphor of waves provides a starting point in this conversation, but for those whose job it is to teach, there is a need to address the identified challenges of modern science education and support the work that science educators take up in trying to teach what science is really like.

In Collins and Evans ( 2002 ), wave one science was historically focused in the early 1900s up to the 1970s, though elements of this paradigm linger into present thinking. Wave one was grounded in positivism and saw scientists as experts, or seekers of truth in the natural world. For science education in this wave, curriculum was written and directed by scientists and professors, focusing on broad science methods and knowledge and not local contexts or ways of knowing. Science in the classroom was designed as a microcosm of real science, intended to train students to be scientists in the future. Wave two science was presented as occurring from the 1970s to the present, grounded in postmodernism and emphasizing constructivist approaches to science education. Expertise of scientists becomes increasingly questioned, understood more and more as biased individuals or agents of politics and industry. Science education in this period is driven by standardized testing and policy requirements, hold overs from a positivist framing. Conversely, science education increasingly allows and prioritizes critiques of science and scientists, while classroom labs and experiments were less focused on training scientists and more on developing practical science knowledge. Finally, wave three science was presented as a more recent shift, starting in the last decade and seeking a balancing point between scientists as experts and a need for accountability and transparency in the professional work of science. While Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) do not identify a specific paradigm for wave three, much of their argument can be aligned within the paradigm of Critical Realism, and this framing is presented here with particular focus on the practical application to science education. I argue that science education understood within a framework of Critical Realism should focus on critical scientific literacy as a goal, balancing both non-arbitrary scientific knowledge and arbitrary skills such as critical thinking in the curriculum.

In discussing these epistemological waves of science study, the discourse about public perception of science is positioned as a dichotomy between trust in scientific evidence and scientists as experts versus acknowledging the limitations of scientific knowledge and a mistrust in scientists as biased professionals and political agents (Collins, 2015 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ). Modern understandings of expertise have shifted, as argued in Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) but more extensively in the work of Watson ( 2020 ). Changes in communication due to technology, and the impact of social status and positionality on perception, have all impacted how expertise is perceived and subsequently how individuals trust and do not trust “experts” (Watson, 2020 ). In some ways, this comparison mirrors the epistemological argument between positivism and empiricism on the one hand with a search for universal truth and objectivity (wave one), and postmodernism and transcendental idealism on the other hand with a focus on experiences and an understanding that “truth” is all interpretation (wave two) (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ; López & Potter, 2005 ). Of course, this progression in thought is not unique to Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) or even science as a field. The concept of scientific revolution was famously argued in Kuhn ( 1970 ), and while the metaphor of revolution has been debated extensively, the concept of paradigm shift has carried forward. Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) are using the metaphor of waves instead of revolutions to discuss paradigm shifts in science study, and Collins ( 2015 ) then applies this metaphor and conception of paradigm shift to science education. From a broad epistemology standpoint, the first two waves in Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) and Collins ( 2015 ) are positioned as the shift from positivism to postmodernism, and this same shift has been discussed and argued repeatedly in many fields of study (e.g., Good, 1993 ; Houghton, 2008 ; Mackenzie et al., 2014 ). However, this dichotomy becomes something of a false argument, as our tendency to look for the “right” answer in these approaches to science and philosophy often gets in the way of searching for a balancing point, in which both of these positions could be held in productive tension. Collins and Evans’ ( 2002 ) argument for a third wave provides a space for this balancing point, a somewhat newer conception that is still being explored in many fields and what others have classified as dialecticism (Marsden & Littler, 1999 ; Mumby, 2004 ) or critical realism (Bhaskar, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ; Pratt, 1995 ; Steinmetz, 1998 ; Reed, 2011 ).

The same epistemological argument could be applied to science education, giving context to changes in science education over time that align with, and would arguably by precursors to, the waves of change in public perception of science over time. Positivism as an early paradigm for science education did not allow for an understanding of bias and the social impacts on knowledge, limiting our ability to do and teach science in real and meaningful ways. However, if we argue, as wave two science study largely did, that science education should be positioned in a postmodern epistemology, what is our reasoning as to why one individual’s claim and experience are any less valid than another individual’s? Even if one individual making a claim is a scientist with developed expertise in the topic, and the other is a student in high school developing their foundational knowledge of the topic, postmodernism does not give allowance for hierarchies of expertise or the existence of clearly right and wrong answers, which are essential for developing trust in and understanding of science. If we argue that modern science education practice has moved too far away from a grounding in scientifically supported evidence in the shift towards postmodernism, what follows can therefore provide a framework for the science denial and mistrust we see increasingly in public perceptions of science and scientists (Mackenzie et al., 2014 ). Connecting an epistemology of science to that of science education is not a direct line, as science education operates as its own field with unique characteristics different from science as a field (Gil-Pérez et al., 2002 ). Of note, the paradigm shift waves of Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) do not easily account for constructivism, an example of a paradigm shift in education and learning that is not as clearly linked to other applied epistemologies (Gil-Pérez et al., 2002 ; Matthews, 1998 ). A clear distinction needs to be made here, that constructivism as a theory of learning is not the same thing as an epistemology of constructivism applied to other fields (Gil-Pérez et al., 2002 ). To clarify, the argument here is that science education curriculum and teaching practices are developed and implemented within the concurrent epistemology of science study; the focus in this article is therefore on the epistemologies of science study and their connection to science education.

The purpose of the present article is to lay out the argument that society can both trust in scientific evidence and question scientific bias in the same space, holding these two seemingly opposite positions in productive tension and teaching students to do the same. Critical realism is specifically presented as an epistemological stance that allows us to function in this tension, giving space for both the empirical reality (what we directly experience of the natural world in any one situation) and the actual reality (the sum total of collective empirical experiences across time and across people) of science in science education (Bhaskar, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ; Scott, 2010 ). In this work, I will first discuss the shifting paradigms of science and science education and how these might contribute to social trust and mistrust of science. Then, I will present critical realism as an ontological and epistemological lens that gives space to both areas of tension in science education, and discuss how this lens differs from positivism and postmodernism in concept and in application to teaching science. Finally, I will explore the practice of science education that would be possible under a critical realist lens, connecting to recommendations from science education research and the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) to begin to position this approach in current science education practice.

2 Three Paradigmatic Waves of Science Studies

Though a broad generalization, the three paradigm shifts of science study argued by Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) and later connected to science education in Collins ( 2015 ) provide a useful framing for an understanding of current perception of science. Like critiques of Kuhn’s scientific revolutions, there are clear problems with any metaphor trying to encapsulate the whole of social perception and teaching of a field of study like science. However, in general terms, the metaphor of waves as paradigm shifts is used to discuss the epistemologies of the time in understandings about science and science education, and to capture the changes in how science and scientists have been perceived. One specific challenge with this metaphor is the idea that these waves are non-overlapping or linear in progression, where in reality they are overlapping and create more of an additive progression of ideas as the epistemology of wave one has not disappeared in subsequent waves, but rather been overtaken and intermingled with the new epistemologies of later waves.

The discussion is provided here as context and groundwork for the foundational argument of this paper that critical realism can serve as ontology (what can be known) and epistemology (how humans come to know) for what would be understood as wave three science. The intention is not to provide a complete overview of the history of science or science education in these waves, but rather to use this framing from Collins and Evans ( 2002 ) as a model for framing paradigms shifts in science study and science education. Additionally, this is not an argument for what constitutes the nature of science, nor is it a review of the literature on the philosophy of science. Others have engaged extensively in that work, and readers are referred to the works of David Bloor, Ian Hacking, Bruno Latour, and Ilkka Niiniluoto as philosophers of science. Other resources are recommended for readers interested in further exploration of the history of science (see Kuhn, 1970 ; Marks, 1984 ; Pyenson & Sheets-Pyenson, 1997 ), history of science education (see Brush, 1989 ; DeBoer, 1991 ), and the three waves of science (see Collins & Evans, 2002 , 2003 ; Owens, 2011 ; Wynne, 2003 ).

2.1 Positivism in Science Study

In Collins and Evans ( 2002 ), wave one perceptions of science were presented as grounded in empiricism and positivism, searching for objective and universal truth. Scientists were positioned as experts in their field due to their training, and no real question or thought was systematically given to outside pressures or biases that would have impacted the scientist and their exploration (Collins, 2015 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ). Theorists derived explanations for the natural world, experimentalists tested these theories with data, and lines were rarely crossed between these types and/or between disciplines of science (Collins, 2015 ). This paradigm is positioned at a peak around the 1950s–1960s, a time of substantial scientific development including the commercial computer and spacecraft, but also the hydrogen bomb and nuclear weaponry. The search for objective truth and advances in science sometimes overshadowed ethics and moral decision making, giving continued space to the eugenics movements and unethical human experimentation like what was seen in the Tuskegee experiments (1932–1972) or on a smaller scale the Stanford Prison experiment (1971). Empirical data was the goal of experimentation and the groundwork of scientific inquiry and discovery, and little focus was given to implications of scientific choices or the possibilities of error and bias in interpretations.

2.2 Postmodernism in Science Study

Wave two science was presented as a paradigmatic shift in academic thought and experimentation around the early 1970s continuing on to recent years, with understandings of science moving away from positivism and towards postmodernism (Collins, 2015 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ). In this shift, the role of humans and society in science gained attention, and increasingly empirical evidence alone was not sufficient for decision making without also accounting for context, social implications, human biases, and external pressures. Scientists as experts in applied contexts such as the courtroom, politics, and business or industry increased, and with that came new questioning of the scientists themselves as unbiased experts (Bloor, 2000 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ; Jasanoff, 2009 ).

While the advances of science into more applied and practical spaces were sometimes positive, examples of biased scientific reporting, such as a pharmaceutical company paying for positive results, or a tobacco company encouraging scientists to not publish negative results that would impact their business, created distrust in science and scientists (Collins, 2014 , 2015 ). With this distrust came an understanding that empirical evidence was susceptible to interpretation, and interpretations could differ between people. As a result, the lines between experts and non-experts became blurred, and concepts of the citizen scientist, or more dramatically YouTube experts, appeared in popular discourse about scientific issues (Brown, 2015 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ; Funke, 2017 ; Gauchat, 2015 ). Climate change research became subject to climate denial, medical science about vaccinations saw an increase in anti-vaxxer opponents, and most recently in the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts and epidemiologists are positioned against anti-maskers and “China virus” conspiracy theorists (Collins, 2014 ; Sarathchandra & Haltinner, 2020 ; Weinstock et al., 2017 ).

2.3 Critical Realism and Dialecticism in Science Study

Wave three science is presented as a more recent and ongoing paradigm shift in research on science and science education, as society and scientists both attempt to reconcile the value of scientific knowledge and expertise with accountability for the social implications of science and the external pressures that impact scientific work (Collins, 2015 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ). The ideal presented in this paradigm of science is to support the expertise of scientists in their specializations, while also holding scientists to a high standard of ethics and professional practice (Collins & Evans, 2002 ; Watson, 2020 ). After decades of debate between positivism and postmodernism, critical realism presents an approach to hold these two perspectives in tension with each other. In much the same way that mixed-methods research approaches have gained ground in connecting positivist or post-positivist quantitative methods and constructivist or postmodern qualitative findings, critical realism as a paradigm for science study can be seen as a space to link these understandings into a cohesive and more complex understanding.

In science itself this could include an emphasis on the expertise of scientists in their fields, and recognition of the role of scientific expertise in both scientific discovery and as a social good (Grundmann, 2017 ). Scientists are called to engage in collaborative discourse with social and political agents, not creating a space where science is inherently political but rather acknowledging that science is a site of politics (Brown, 2015 ). Recognition in this paradigm of science must also be given to non-scientist expertise and the value of practical knowledge in discovery and problem solving (Grundmann, 2017 ; Watson, 2020 ). Instead of viewing scientists as either removed, unquestioned experts or biased, untrustworthy agents, I argue that critical realism as a paradigm of science positions scientists as experts in theoretical knowledge that can work together with others in service to the public as well as engaging in basic scientific research.

The public non-expert role in science becomes one of consumer and stakeholder, keeping scientists accountable and maintaining integrity, while also defining who is an expert and who is not (Collins, 2015 ; Collins & Evans, 2002 ; Watson, 2020 ). Research, especially when it is funded by public dollars, is understood as a form of social or public good (Beebeejaun et al., 2015 ). Given this understanding, scientists need to account for the social implications and ethical impacts of their research and discussions of their findings (Weinstock et al., 2017 ). Instead of considering science as doing research on the natural processes or environments in communities, wave three science could ask scientists to do research with communities and share power and decision making in that process (Beebeejaun et al., 2015 ; Weinstock et al., 2017 ). Additionally, the non-expert public is called to have a foundational knowledge about science in what is often termed “critical scientific literacy” so they can function as an informed consumer of scientific research and processes (Weinstock et al., 2017 ).

3 Critical Realism as Framework

Critical realism is relatively new to the field of philosophy and is often presented as a response to postmodernism and a critique of positivism (Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ). Presented as both ontology and epistemology, critical realism argues for an ontology of transcendental realism and an epistemology of relativism and rationality in an understanding of the multiple strata of reality and how we as humans interact with and experience the empirical world (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Scott, 2010 ). Transcendental realism is a key tenet of critical realism that gives recognition to the tension that exists between objective positivism and postmodernism. Specifically, transcendental realism argues that there is a natural reality, with its own laws and systems that exist regardless of human interaction. Science and empirical experimentation are understood as the human activity that allows us to explore this natural reality. However, human activity in science and exploration should not be understood as a way to know all of natural reality, as we both interrupt nature due to the activities of science, and can only experience one portion of the natural reality in any given empirical activity (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ). In this way, human activities and explorations in the natural world can be seen from two directions: the intransitive view of reality and the transitive view of human experience (López & Potter, 2005 ). The intransitive view of reality understands that things are what they are, and reality exists with its own characteristics and natural laws, whether we as humans have discovered them or not (Bhaskar, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ). However, the transitive view of human experience also acknowledges that our understanding and knowledge of the natural world are fallible and relative to our experiences, and therefore reality transcends human experience, thus transcendental realism (Bhaskar, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ).

In critical realism, “reality” is understood to be made up of multiple strata: the domain of the real, the domain of the actual , and the domain of the empirical (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ). The domain of the real is the strata of natural reality, made up of the causal mechanisms and natural laws that provide the foundation and underpinning of the world. The domain of the actual is the full scope of human events and experiences of reality, both what a specific individual has experienced and all the experiences of other humans that any one individual would not necessarily be aware of. Finally, the domain of the empirical contains the specific experiences one individual has; the lived reality of a human where empirical data can be collected, but which is limited to only that one individual’s interpretation and context.

There are two important points to make here in connecting this understanding of reality in critical realism to science and ultimately science education. One, this understanding of reality and human experience makes true that events which humans experience are not the full measure of reality. Things that have not been experienced and causal mechanisms that have not yet been discovered are still a key part of this understanding of reality (López & Potter, 2005 ). Gravity does not exist because humans discovered this natural law, and the imperfect human understanding of gravity is not the sum of the real mechanism itself. Human understanding gives us ways to discuss and understand the natural world, but it is not exhaustive of all reality. Two, scientific exploration and experimentation in critical realism can be seen as both a search for the causal mechanisms and natural laws that make up lived reality, and an imperfect understanding of reality limited by human experience and social systems (Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ). Reality can be understood as a closed system, in that all the natural laws and causal mechanisms that make up the world, whether we know them or not, exist and interact in a system with each other. However, humans operate in an open social system, and scientific experimentation is an attempt to close that system to explore natural laws, but this is by nature susceptible to human and social interference.

Critical realism can then be seen as a philosophy that holds in tension the positivist assertion that there is a reality, the post-positivist stance that humans can attempt to uncover this reality but also acknowledge that human understanding will be flawed and contain both truth and error, and the postmodern understanding that experiences of reality are relative and must be considered within the social and physical context (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ). Like postmodern understandings of science, critical realism supports that scientific knowledge is a social process that is influenced by social pressures and is relative to the humans involved (López & Potter, 2005 ; Yucel, 2018 ). However, critical realism also argues that this understanding of cultural and historical context in science does not also mean there is no shared reality or natural law to be discovered, an idea from wave one science study (Yucel, 2018 ). Humans engaging in scientific experimentation and exploration will sometimes be wrong, but empirical knowledge compiled across multiple human experiences, both in formal science settings and informal community settings, creates a collaborative accumulation of human knowledge of the domain of the real (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Forsyth, 2005 ; López & Potter, 2005 ). Formal science can thus be seen as a rational and rigorous exploration of empirical experiences, refining our collective knowledge and human experiences of the domain of the actual (López & Potter, 2005 ). Science educators are then tasked with both teaching what is believed to be true currently about the domain of the real and providing space for understanding the rational and critical aspects of human impact on science from the domains of the actual and the empirical . In this way, critical realism can operate as an ontology and epistemology of science education.

4 Science Education Across the Paradigms of Science Study

4.1 positivistic science education.

Science education grounded in the positivist paradigm mirrors the wave one science study conception, focusing predominantly on teaching empirical science and logical inference. Students in this paradigm were taught that all science is a search for truth and objective fact, and no real discussion was given to the reality of scientists as humans with biases in their interpretations and decisions (Collins, 2015 ). School science was seen as a small-scale experience of real science, with significant investment from the federal government to see science curriculum written and implemented to teach students how to do “real” science (Yee & Kirst, 1994 ). In the USA, the National Science Foundation was founded during this period of thought, and over $100 million dollars were funneled through colleges and universities to develop science education curriculum and train teachers in providing these lessons to K–12 students. Scientists in higher education were positioned as the experts of science curriculum development, and science education shifted from local and student interest driven curriculum to focus on a broader understanding of scientific principles and processes (Collins, 2015 ; Yee & Kirst, 1994 ).

4.2 Postmodern Science Education

The paradigm shift from positivism to postmodernism in science education, like wave two science study, also showed a shift away from a search for objective “truth” and towards an emphasis on interpretation, as well as more negative views of scientists and their work. However, it could be argued that this shift in paradigm for science education, and possibly science study itself, would be better positioned in the ongoing argument between positivism and postmodernism, instead of as being a movement explicitly to postmodernism (Makenzie, et al., 2014). A focus on scientific processes and content knowledge does not disappear, and in fact the increase in standardized assessment during wave two seems to further emphasize these elements of science education.

4.2.1 Lingering Positivist Ideals

In American education policy, the 1983 report “A Nation at Risk” highlights early concerns in this period as positivist grounding for science education was fading and the focus was shifting to a fear of the USA falling behind other countries in areas of science and technology. In education there was a concern that overemphasis on “elite” students had resulted in an overall reduction of scientific knowledge, and a call was made for science education to refocus on the needs of all students (Kormondy, 1985 ). Additionally, there was a shift in perspective on the science teacher, with a call for more “qualified” teachers to teach math and science curriculum, asking teachers to be science experts themselves before teaching others (Kormondy, 1985 ; NSBC, 1983 ). Later legislation in this paradigm shift, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 ( 2002 ), continued this focus on “qualified” teachers, though the definition has shifted or been undefined at different points in time. Oversight and accountability moved increasingly to the federal government, with less local and state control of standards for education and qualifications of teachers. In many ways, education policy continues to focus on positivist ideas such as shared standards for curriculum, objective assessments of knowledge, and judgments of quality for teaching based on credentials and performance.

In science education broadly, continued positivist practices that were the foundation of wave one science study can be seen in the focus on preparation for assessment due to educational policy requirements. Preparing students for testing impacts the types of content teachers focus on as well as the classroom practices they use (Hollingworth, 2007 ; Pedulla et al., 2003 ; Solley, 2007 ), and in science specifically this often results in a focus on objective science facts that can be easily assessed. Content knowledge focused on laws of science or evidence pulled from data takes precedence in this focus, though the goal is not so much discovery and understanding of scientific principles as it is memorization of key points and identification of ideas (Gilbert, 2013 ; Pedulla et al., 2003 ; Solley, 2007 ). Some aspects of science teaching align with this focus, such as pre-packaged lab experiment kits (sometimes known as lab-in-a-box) that set students up to “find” the already known “right” answer (Collins, 2015 ; Furtak, 2006 ; Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004 ). Inquiry and experimentation in the classroom are therefore not a micro experience of real science, but rather a mimicry of real science that often fails to meaningfully engage students in true exploration and decision making (Bevins & Price, 2016 ; Gilbert, 2013 ).

4.2.2 Increasing Postmodern Ideals

However, science teaching practice did not always follow this focus on standardization and positivist or post-positivist conceptions of “truth” and instead can be seen to shift further to postmodern techniques, the changes implied in wave two understandings of science. The US National Research Council ( 1992 ) published a summary on their perception of science education standards that claimed a postmodern view of the nature of science. This same orientation can be seen in much of the research and curriculum development scholarship since that time (Mackenzie et al., 2014 ; Mansour, 2009 ). Science education was refocused on the interests of students and local populations, while still engaging in the broader understandings of science content and inquiry processes. Students were taught the understood evidence of science, but new emphasis was given to bias and interpretation in science, and “facts” were now presented as questionable depending on how they were originally supported (Mansour, 2009 ).

A shift in pedagogy and instructional practice in science education to align with the postmodern approach can also be seen in specific instructional strategies emphasizing reasoning to support scientific claims such as Claims-Evidence-Reasoning assignments (CERs; Meacham, 2017 ; McNeill & Martin, 2011 ), or emphasizing critical discourse in Socratic seminars and debates (Chowning, 2009 ; Griswold et al., 2017 ). These two strategies in particular are of interest in this conversation due to their close alignment with postmodern teaching strategies, emphasizing student development of their own knowledge and their ability to share this knowledge with others. However, these two are also of interest as they highlight one of the limitations of a strong postmodernist approach to education, in that there is little focus on being factually correct in the way these activities are typically implemented in the classroom.

For example, CERs ask students to make a claim, support their claim with evidence, and provide their reasoning or thought process (Meacham, 2017 ; McNeill & Martin, 2011 ). However, the way these assignments and associated rubrics are usually designed, it is absolutely possible for a student to make a claim that is actually false scientifically, present evidence that supports their particular claim (and ignore other evidence or accepted scientific facts), and provide their reasoning on why this evidence supports their claim. While a science teacher can catch this error and make corrections about misconceptions, the form of the assignment itself emphasizes personal perceptions of evidence and reasoning over developed and accepted scientific evidence and fact. Often no instructions are given to cite scientific sources in the assignment, and no space on the rubrics for these assignments provides any evaluation of the actual scientific facts associated with the topic. Socratic seminars in science sometimes fall to a similar failing, especially when rubrics for grading students in Socratic seminars are focused only on participation and students asking or answering questions (Chowning, 2009 ; Griswold et al., 2017 ), not on being factually accurate or correct in their answers, or providing evidence connected to known scientific knowledge. Well-designed Socratic seminars can help students build their argumentation skills and build consensus among the class on a topic of discussion, but often this is not the way these activities are being implemented in science classrooms.

The de-emphasis on positivist conceptions of science education has arguably gone too far in these examples, setting up the situations discussed in postmodern paradigm science denial where each individual’s opinion and evidence are rated as being equally valid in comparison to scientific evidence supported by best practices in scientific inquiry. That is not to say these particular assignments have created the anti-science problem in modern society. Rather, as said earlier, the argument here is that these assignments are developed and implemented within the broader epistemology of postmodern science education, which has arguably moved away from a grounding in scientifically supported evidence and therefore provides the framework for science denial and mistrust (Mackenzie et al., 2014 ).

4.3 Shifting to Critical Realist Science Education

My discussion so far implies further work for science education in the current paradigm shift: developing a foundational critical scientific literacy in all students, while also allowing for those interested in science as a profession to develop their knowledge towards post-secondary goals. Modern science education benefits from an epistemological frame that allows for both a focus on objective truths and knowledge of science (traditionally wave one positivism) and a realization of the human impacts and influences on scientists and the social role of science (traditionally postmodernism in wave two science). In developing an understanding of this paradigm of science education, I argue that critical realism can serve as a framework for what and how educators can teach science. Critical realism is uniquely designed to provide grounding for the existence of multiple experiences of reality in science, while still holding the premise that there are causal mechanism and natural order that underlie our human experience that is the ultimate goal of scientific exploration (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Yucel, 2018 ). Modern science education needs to hold true that empirical evidence and logical reasoning matter, while also acknowledging interpretation of evidence and reasoning is human dependent and not neutral by nature. Critical realism as a paradigm shift is one way of supporting these two seemingly contradictory statements that may provide a meaningful framing for those engaged in the work of science education, especially when arguing for changes in policy or seeking support from administration.

5 Critical Realism Applied to Science Education

In discussing wave three science education, Collins ( 2015 ) argues that science educators should teach students to value scientific expertise while also holding it accountable. He positions science as a calling that must be understood as a collective process of inquiry and exploration, with professional standards and transparent practices. Unethical or biased science is presented as “bad” science, and the focus in education is understanding what “good” science is and how the field of science at large works together to pursue discovery and achieve consensus (Collins, 2015 ). Weinstock et al. ( 2017 ) argue that science education is currently not effectively teaching students how to do science, but rather mimes science. Science education, in their thinking, should instead focus on critical scientific literacy: teaching students about collaboration and the search for knowledge that is connected to real world problems and decision making. For instance, instead of presenting canned lab assignments as if they are a model of real science and inquiry, I posit that science education grounded in critical realism asks teachers to provide students a better understanding of what the work of science really is in professional practice, and allow students to experience failure, unknown answers, requirements for critical thinking, and collaborative engagement with science. The challenge in a lab assignment often becomes one of time, as the need to move quickly through a lab and the related written report has to be balanced with time for reflection and critical thinking. Science educators should consider creating at least one lab experience in a class that gives students permission to ask questions and not know answers, without resulting in a “failing” grade. Unlike prior conceptions of science education, this framing of science education would be positioned as a systematic process of discovery and inquiry that relies on professional collaboration and transparent practices in working with and in society, instead of a search of objective “truth” (Collins, 2015 ; Weinstock et al., 2017 ).

This paradigm shift in science education focuses on the balance between a search for positivist objective truth or scientific knowledge on one side, and an understanding of postmodern human lived experiences and social impact of scientific discovery on the other side. However, critical realism as a framework for science education can also guide the conversation beyond the push and pull of positivism and postmodernism, and provide grounds for important ongoing conversations about scientific knowledge and expertise, and how students should value and recognize different forms of knowledge (Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ; López & Potter, 2005 ; Yucel, 2018 ). Understanding that humans all live in the domain of the empirical in any given moment, and that the domain of the actual can be understood as collective experiences of the world that are connected to but not exhaustive of the domain of the real , science is positioned as a process and profession that seeks to understand the natural world in the domain of the real, though always imperfectly as we are only able to pull from our collective empirical experiences in the domain of the actual (Bhaskar, 1998 ).

Beyond the imperfect nature of human knowledge and experience, critical realism also provides grounding for the understanding that human experiences in the domain of the empirical are going to be different due to context and place in time and space. Science that is driven only by one perspective or understanding of reality is therefore by nature going to be flawed. Science education in a framing of critical realism must provide an understanding for students that empirical exploration of science is always limited by human context and impacted by human behavior, but the underpinning of the domain of the real with natural laws and causal mechanisms still exists and functions with or without our human knowledge and discovery (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Forsyth, 2005 ).

Science grounded in critical realism engages in both empirical and lived experience research, collecting data on our own empirical experiences of reality as an individual and collecting data from across human experience of empirical events where possible to capture other lived experiences of reality (Forsyth, 2005 ). This clearly connects to the modern science perspective on collaborative inquiry and consensus building (Collins, 2015 ; Weinstock et al., 2017 ), but also goes beyond that initial argument to highlight community and cultural knowledge that should be a part of developing scientific knowledge in a critical realist conception of science (Forsyth, 2005 ; McKittrick, 2021 ). While inquiry-based learning and science inquiry broadly have become hallmarks of modern science education, there have been varying levels of success in implementation (Bevins & Price, 2016 ; National Research Council, 2000 ). Critical realism as a framework for science education requires an understanding that the natural and social sciences are connected as spaces of human knowledge and experience, all of which represent imperfect but meaningful experiences of the natural world and mechanisms of reality (Bhaskar, 1998 ; McKittrick, 2021 ). Separating these aspects of human experience into silos and treating natural science as somehow more objective or removed from human experience than social science is a false dichotomy that no longer makes sense in a science education paradigm defined by critical realism. The understanding of experimentalism that humans can replicate a closed system in controlled study is not realistic, and critical realism provides a clear argument that human interaction will always impact understandings of the domain of the real (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Bhaskar & Lawson, 1998 ).

Instead of seeking to teach students about science as objective truth or a systematic process of inquiry removed from the social world, science education now needs to engage in what Forsyth ( 2005 ) calls “hybrid science,” an essential connection between formal scientific experimentation and the historical knowledge of communities and individuals that has been ignored or oppressed in the search for objective scientific truth (McKittrick, 2021 ). But in this often-postmodern presentation of the contextual nature of science and knowledge, critical realism also reminds us to not lose sight of the natural reality that does underpin all of human experience. As argued previously, humans did not create gravity when they put a name to it and reached consensus on its nature. And conversely, gravity in the current flawed human understanding of the natural principle is not the sum total of its real function and causal mechanisms. Our understanding of gravity neither makes it real or means it does not exist; our understanding is the collective consensus of human experience and empirical data, but gravity itself is not dependent on our understanding nor limited to what we know of it. Science educators can teach students what science currently believes to be true about gravity and its function, while acknowledging what we do not yet know about gravity and clarifying that this principle will be updated when the field knows more. In application, this could mean that when science educators are developing lessons on topics that relate to the local community (i.e., environmental concerns, public health, city infrastructure and development), they should consider inviting contributions from keepers of historical and community knowledge in addition to formal science experts. By diversifying who is considered an expert on a topic, science educators can guide their students in developing modern understandings of what it means to be an expert (Watson, 2020 ).

5.1 Teaching Science Grounded in Critical Realism

Critical realist science education therefore needs to provide space for teaching both arbitrary and non-arbitrary science knowledge: what is currently known about the domain of the real from experiences and empirical data, and an understanding of experiences in the domain of the actual and human impacts on developed knowledge (Matthews, 1998 , 2012 ; Scott, 2010 ). Our modern scientific practices and processes for inquiry and the understanding of the natural world reached through professional study and consensus should be presented as non-arbitrary knowledge (Collins, 2015 ; Scott, 2010 ). Human impact on science and the process of discovery and developing or new understandings of the natural and social world should be presented as arbitrary knowledge, subject to update and critique as knowledge is developed and adjusted over time and across experts and contexts (Forsyth, 2005 ; Scott, 2010 ). Non-arbitrary knowledge would be seen as the foundational component of the science education curriculum, while arbitrary knowledge is taught with an understanding of the changing and social nature of science impacted by human decisions and social systems (Scott, 2010 ).

As the argument is for critical realism to function as a framework for modern science education, it follows that this understanding should align with the current understanding of the nature of science. Therefore, I am connecting critical realism as a framing for scienced education to the National Science Teaching Association (NSTA, n.d. and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS, 2014 ) both position the nature of science around eight principles or beliefs:

“Scientific Investigations Use a Variety of Methods;

Scientific Knowledge Is Based on Empirical Evidence;

Scientific Knowledge Is Open to Revision in Light of New Evidence;

Science Models, Laws, Mechanisms, and Theories Explain Natural Phenomena;

Science Is a Way of Knowing;

Scientific Knowledge Assumes an Order and Consistency in Natural Systems;

Science Is a Human Endeavor; and

Science Addresses Questions About the Natural and Material World.”

Some of these principles can be understood as elements of the non-arbitrary science curriculum, while some might be better argued as components of the arbitrary science curriculum, though this distinction is not perfect (see Table 1 ). For instance, elements of principle 8 might be considered non-arbitrary, in addressing inquiry about the natural world. However, my primary argument is that these accepted principles of the nature of science in current science education practice can align with critical realism as an epistemology of science education in prioritizing the teaching of non-arbitrary scientific knowledge and processes, and the arbitrary human impact and changing understandings of science.

5.2 Non-Arbitrary Knowledge: Seeking the Domain of the Real through the Empirical

Non-arbitrary knowledge in science education is historically the foundation of the science curriculum, especially in positivist paradigm science education. This knowledge includes both the processes of inquiry and experimentation in science, and the foundational laws, mechanisms, models, etc. that underpin our current understanding of the natural world. Teaching non-arbitrary knowledge under critical realism paradigm science might be best understood as teaching critical scientific literacy, as students should have an understanding of the work of science including experimentation and research, writing about scientific inquiry, reading and referencing scientific texts, presenting on developing understandings and results of inquiry, and collaborating with others to reach consensus and share knowledge (Bevins & Price, 2016 ; Gilbert, 2013 ; Mody, 2015 ). While inquiry in science education is by no means a new conception, recent critiques of inquiry in the science classroom have pointed out the tendency to reduce inquiry to linear rules and processes divorced from critical thinking and creativity (Bevins & Price, 2016 ; Gilbert, 2013 ). This reduces the true nature of scientific inquiry in ‘real’ science to a mimicry of science, a critique of postmodern science education that we are trying to move past in a critical realism framing (Collins, 2015 ; Weinstock et al., 2017 ). There is value in helping students understand the content knowledge of science, including the current understanding of natural laws and causal mechanisms that make up the domain of the real (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Scott, 2010 ), but positioning this with more connections to the real work of science in inquiry driven by creative and critical thinking is an important shift in teaching practice.

Instead of always engaging students in an inquiry project or lab where the end result is already known, consider what would change if science educators designed inquiry projects around questions that are not yet answered in science. How could students use current understandings of science and the natural world to explore and imagine what might be possible in an undefined problem, and how could students explore or test these unknowns in a true scientific inquiry process (some resources on these unknowns in science: Cahn, 2020  ; Gottlieb-Cohen, 2019 ; Haloupek, 2019 ). To be clear, I am not arguing this approach should replace all inquiry projects in science, but instead that this could be included as a single project or module on “the search for the unknown in science,” or an extension activity added on to other well-defined projects. Additionally, how could the science and inquiry curriculum be more directly connected to the work of science in tasks like acquiring needed materials, collaborating and networking with experts, or dealing with failure or rejection and looking for new avenues or resources for next steps (Mody, 2015 ). Developing authentic inquiry in science classrooms is not easy, and it is not particularly supportive of the traditional models of education delivery and assessment (Bevins & Price, 2016 ; Gilbert, 2013 ), but I argue engaging in authentic inquiry is needed for students to truly develop critical scientific literacy and an understanding of non-arbitrary science in pursuit of the domain of the real .

5.3 Arbitrary Knowledge: Understanding the Domain of the Actual

In considering how to best teach non-arbitrary science in the classroom, science educators must also consider how to infuse arbitrary knowledge and thinking into this same curriculum; not as a side component or extension of a lesson, but as an integral part of developing critical scientific literacy and an understanding of the nature of science grounded in critical realism (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Scott, 2010 ). While science has a series of tools and processes that are generally used in inquiry, science is also by nature messy and embraces uncertainty (Mody, 2015 ). Students need to learn how to acknowledge what they know and what they do not yet know without penalty, providing evidence beyond their own experience to support their thinking and develop consensus, or adjust their understanding with new knowledge. Current science education practices discussed previously like Claims, Evidence, Reasoning assignments (CERs; Meacham, 2017 ; McNeill & Martin, 2011 ), and Socratic seminars (Chowning, 2009 ; Griswold et al., 2017 ) are designed to support these components of student learning. However, without connecting these assignments to non-arbitrary knowledge, such as requiring students to cite scientific sources that support their arguments, and subjecting their understanding and argument to review against shared knowledge, this practice is still a mimicry of scientific practice in the real world.

For CERs, think about how the student experience might change if a requirement is added for scientific citations to the evidence component of the rubric, and the claim component is subject to review against shared knowledge of the concept of interest. To balance the arbitrary and non-arbitrary aspects of science education, science educators need to emphasize scientific fact and shared knowledge in the development of critical thinking and crafting arguments. The goal of CERs is at least partially to understand how arguments are built with a claim and provided evidence, but more structured guidance for students should be provided to apply critical scientific literacy to what evidence is selected and how reason is applied to the claim. For Socratic seminars, valuing the process of critique and participation in the conversation is important and already an integral part of the process. However, students should also be expected to provide concrete evidence to support their claims, and the evidence should either be acknowledged as limited to individual empirical experience, or be presented as developed from scientific expertise using a reference to existing sources. The leader of the Socratic seminar should also be prepared to critique and push for clarity in argumentation, and to consistently summarize and update the shared knowledge of the topic throughout the seminar to model scientific conversations. Arbitrary knowledge in science does not exist in a vacuum disconnected from non-arbitrary knowledge, and connecting these aspects of the curriculum is a key component of the development of critical realism as an epistemology of science education.

Curriculum on arbitrary knowledge in critical realism paradigm science education should also engage in the work of decolonizing what is known about science, and considering what is truly non-arbitrary knowledge and what should be better understood as arbitrary ways of knowing that are dependent on human activity and context. Science education in positivist paradigm science, and often in postmodern paradigm science, rarely presented other ways of knowing and understanding science beyond the European or western model (Aikenhead & Ogawa, 2007 ; McKittrick, 2021 ; Gilbert, 2013 ; Harding, 2016 ). Some aspects of the curriculum that we might consider non-arbitrary in traditional science would be better understood in a decolonizing lens as inherently connected to European knowledge development, grounded in colonialism and/or capitalism (Gilbert, 2013 ; McKittrick, 2021 ). If you are planning a lesson or module on a local issue for students to explore, think about what might change if you invited local or historical knowledge experts to the conversation in addition to traditional science experts and resources. Critical realism argues for an understanding of science and epistemology that considers context and human impact on what is known, and this is directly applicable to even seemingly non-arbitrary aspects of science (Bhaskar, 1998 ; Scott, 2010 ). We can only attempt an understanding of the domain of the real through development of shared knowledge in the domain of the actual , and that is not limited to only one version of truth or way of knowing. Experts from multiple ways of knowing across the domain of the actual should be given space in developing our understanding of the natural world in exploring the domain of the real in science education grounded in critical realism.

6 Conclusion

Science and science education have shifted throughout history in response to changing philosophies of how we can know the natural world and develop scientific knowledge. From the positivism dominant wave one to the postmodern critiques in wave two, science education has responded with a constant focus on trying to effectively teach students about the natural world and the human derived laws and principles that define our understanding of science. In this article, I have argued for the place of critical realism as a paradigm for wave three science education, providing a framework that can hold in tension the goal of discovering what is “real” about the natural world with an awareness of the human and social impact on our understanding in the actual world. Additionally, I have presented specific examples of the application of critical realism as a framework for science education, connecting the tenets of critical realism to principles of the nature of science and teaching strategies such as inquiry learning, CERs, and Socratic Seminars. For those whose job it is to teach, critical realism is presented as a way of thinking about the science curriculum at multiple levels, including recommendations on how to teach the nature of science in both arbitrary and non-arbitrary forms and support students in developing a critical scientific literacy and understanding of the “real” work of science. This is not presented as a completely new way of teaching science, but instead is intended as a new framing for talking about and evaluating science education practice. In the continuous shift of paradigms and practice, critical realism provides a model for science education that values both non-arbitrary and arbitrary content in science, and guides educators to prioritize both aspects of the curriculum and ensure the direct connections between the two sides are made clear for students.

Future research could explore curriculum development grounded in critical realism and study the effectiveness of curriculum designed in this way. Additionally, explorations of the student understandings of science under this paradigmatic conception would help test the usefulness of this idea in practice. Teacher educators and those providing professional development should also consider what wave of science education they are supporting, and whether critical realism might give them an additional lens to think about their materials and support for teachers. Finally, curriculum and science education materials provided to students could be evaluated, considering what version of science is being taught in current curriculum and where other elements of knowing in science can be infused into the existing curriculum to broaden our students’ understanding of what is “real” about science.

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Ferguson, S.L. Teaching What Is “Real” About Science. Sci & Educ 31 , 1651–1669 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-021-00308-w

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Importance of Education

The importance of education in life is immense. It facilitates quality learning for people throughout their life. It inculcates knowledge, belief, skill, values and moral habits. It improves the way of living and raises the social and economic status of individuals. Education makes life better and more peaceful. It transforms the personality of individuals and makes them feel confident.

Well said by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world”. To elaborate, it is the foundation of the society which brings economic wealth, social prosperity and political stability. It gives power to people to put their views and showcase their real potential. It strengthens democracy by providing citizens with the tools to participate in the governance process. It acts as an integrative force to foster social cohesion and national identity.

In India, education is a constitutional right of every citizen. So, people of any age group, religion, caste, creed and region are free to receive education. An educated person is respected everywhere and well-treated in society. As a kid, every child dreams of being a doctor, lawyer, engineer, actor, sportsperson, etc. These dreams can come true through education. So, investment in education gives the best return. Well-educated people have more opportunities to get a better job which makes them feel satisfied.

In schools, education is divided into different levels, i.e., preschool, primary, secondary and senior secondary. School education comprises traditional learning which provides students with theoretical knowledge. However, now various efforts are being made to establish inbuilt application-based learning by adding numerous experiments, practicals and extracurricular activities to the school curriculum. Students learn to read, write and represent their viewpoints in front of others. Also, in this era of digital Education, anyone can easily access information online at their fingertips. They can learn new skills and enhance their knowledge.

Steps Taken By Government To Promote Education

Education is evidently an important aspect that no government can ignore in order to ensure the equitable development of a nation. Unfortunately, some children still do not have access to education. The Government has thereby taken initiatives to improve education quality and made it accessible to everyone, especially the poor people.

The Government passed the Right to Education Act 2009 (RTE Act 2009) on 4 August 2009. This Act came into effect on 1 April 2010, following which education has become the fundamental right of every child in India. It provides free and compulsory elementary education to children of the age group of 6-14 years in a neighbourhood school within 1 km, up to Class 8 in India. On similar lines, there are other schemes launched by the government, such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan , Mid-Day Meal , Adult Education and Skill Development Scheme, National Means cum Merit Scholarship Scheme, National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary Education, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Scheme for Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutions, Beti Bachao , Beti Padhao, etc.

For our country’s growth, we require a well-educated population equipped with the relevant knowledge, attitude and skills. This can be achieved by spreading awareness about the importance of Education in rural areas. There is a famous saying that “If we feed one person, we will eliminate his hunger for only one time. But, if we educate a person, we will change his entire life”. Henceforth he will become capable of earning a livelihood by himself.

This essay on the Importance of Education must have helped students to improve their writing section for the English exam. They can also practice essays on other topics by visiting the CBSE Essay page. Keep learning and stay tuned with BYJU’S for the latest updates on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams. Also, download the BYJU’S App for interactive study videos.

Frequently Asked Questions on Education Essay

How can the literacy rate in india be increased.

People in rural areas must be informed about the importance of providing education to their children. Also, with the COVID-19 situation, the government should take steps by providing laptops/phones for children to follow online classes.

Are girl children still denied their right to get educated?

Although awareness has now improved, there are still many villages in India where girl children are not provided with proper education or allowed to enrol themselves in schools. This mentality has to change for the betterment of the society.

Teaching subjects/academics alone is enough, or should students be introduced to other forms of educational activities too?

Extracurricular activities, moral value education, etc., are also as important as regular academic teachings.

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• How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips

How to Write an Argumentative Essay | Examples & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An argumentative essay expresses an extended argument for a particular thesis statement . The author takes a clearly defined stance on their subject and builds up an evidence-based case for it.

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Table of contents

When do you write an argumentative essay, approaches to argumentative essays, introducing your argument, the body: developing your argument, concluding your argument, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about argumentative essays.

You might be assigned an argumentative essay as a writing exercise in high school or in a composition class. The prompt will often ask you to argue for one of two positions, and may include terms like “argue” or “argument.” It will frequently take the form of a question.

The prompt may also be more open-ended in terms of the possible arguments you could make.

Argumentative writing at college level

At university, the vast majority of essays or papers you write will involve some form of argumentation. For example, both rhetorical analysis and literary analysis essays involve making arguments about texts.

In this context, you won’t necessarily be told to write an argumentative essay—but making an evidence-based argument is an essential goal of most academic writing, and this should be your default approach unless you’re told otherwise.

Examples of argumentative essay prompts

At a university level, all the prompts below imply an argumentative essay as the appropriate response.

Your research should lead you to develop a specific position on the topic. The essay then argues for that position and aims to convince the reader by presenting your evidence, evaluation and analysis.

• Don’t just list all the effects you can think of.
• Do develop a focused argument about the overall effect and why it matters, backed up by evidence from sources.
• Don’t just provide a selection of data on the measures’ effectiveness.
• Do build up your own argument about which kinds of measures have been most or least effective, and why.
• Don’t just analyze a random selection of doppelgänger characters.
• Do form an argument about specific texts, comparing and contrasting how they express their thematic concerns through doppelgänger characters.

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An argumentative essay should be objective in its approach; your arguments should rely on logic and evidence, not on exaggeration or appeals to emotion.

There are many possible approaches to argumentative essays, but there are two common models that can help you start outlining your arguments: The Toulmin model and the Rogerian model.

Toulmin arguments

The Toulmin model consists of four steps, which may be repeated as many times as necessary for the argument:

• Make a claim
• Provide the grounds (evidence) for the claim
• Explain the warrant (how the grounds support the claim)
• Discuss possible rebuttals to the claim, identifying the limits of the argument and showing that you have considered alternative perspectives

The Toulmin model is a common approach in academic essays. You don’t have to use these specific terms (grounds, warrants, rebuttals), but establishing a clear connection between your claims and the evidence supporting them is crucial in an argumentative essay.

Say you’re making an argument about the effectiveness of workplace anti-discrimination measures. You might:

• Claim that unconscious bias training does not have the desired results, and resources would be better spent on other approaches
• Cite data to support your claim
• Explain how the data indicates that the method is ineffective
• Anticipate objections to your claim based on other data, indicating whether these objections are valid, and if not, why not.

Rogerian arguments

The Rogerian model also consists of four steps you might repeat throughout your essay:

• Discuss what the opposing position gets right and why people might hold this position
• Highlight the problems with this position
• Present your own position , showing how it addresses these problems
• Suggest a possible compromise —what elements of your position would proponents of the opposing position benefit from adopting?

This model builds up a clear picture of both sides of an argument and seeks a compromise. It is particularly useful when people tend to disagree strongly on the issue discussed, allowing you to approach opposing arguments in good faith.

Say you want to argue that the internet has had a positive impact on education. You might:

• Acknowledge that students rely too much on websites like Wikipedia
• Argue that teachers view Wikipedia as more unreliable than it really is
• Suggest that Wikipedia’s system of citations can actually teach students about referencing
• Suggest critical engagement with Wikipedia as a possible assignment for teachers who are skeptical of its usefulness.

You don’t necessarily have to pick one of these models—you may even use elements of both in different parts of your essay—but it’s worth considering them if you struggle to structure your arguments.

Regardless of which approach you take, your essay should always be structured using an introduction , a body , and a conclusion .

Like other academic essays, an argumentative essay begins with an introduction . The introduction serves to capture the reader’s interest, provide background information, present your thesis statement , and (in longer essays) to summarize the structure of the body.

Hover over different parts of the example below to see how a typical introduction works.

The spread of the internet has had a world-changing effect, not least on the world of education. The use of the internet in academic contexts is on the rise, and its role in learning is hotly debated. For many teachers who did not grow up with this technology, its effects seem alarming and potentially harmful. This concern, while understandable, is misguided. The negatives of internet use are outweighed by its critical benefits for students and educators—as a uniquely comprehensive and accessible information source; a means of exposure to and engagement with different perspectives; and a highly flexible learning environment.

The body of an argumentative essay is where you develop your arguments in detail. Here you’ll present evidence, analysis, and reasoning to convince the reader that your thesis statement is true.

In the standard five-paragraph format for short essays, the body takes up three of your five paragraphs. In longer essays, it will be more paragraphs, and might be divided into sections with headings.

Each paragraph covers its own topic, introduced with a topic sentence . Each of these topics must contribute to your overall argument; don’t include irrelevant information.

This example paragraph takes a Rogerian approach: It first acknowledges the merits of the opposing position and then highlights problems with that position.

Hover over different parts of the example to see how a body paragraph is constructed.

A common frustration for teachers is students’ use of Wikipedia as a source in their writing. Its prevalence among students is not exaggerated; a survey found that the vast majority of the students surveyed used Wikipedia (Head & Eisenberg, 2010). An article in The Guardian stresses a common objection to its use: “a reliance on Wikipedia can discourage students from engaging with genuine academic writing” (Coomer, 2013). Teachers are clearly not mistaken in viewing Wikipedia usage as ubiquitous among their students; but the claim that it discourages engagement with academic sources requires further investigation. This point is treated as self-evident by many teachers, but Wikipedia itself explicitly encourages students to look into other sources. Its articles often provide references to academic publications and include warning notes where citations are missing; the site’s own guidelines for research make clear that it should be used as a starting point, emphasizing that users should always “read the references and check whether they really do support what the article says” (“Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia,” 2020). Indeed, for many students, Wikipedia is their first encounter with the concepts of citation and referencing. The use of Wikipedia therefore has a positive side that merits deeper consideration than it often receives.

An argumentative essay ends with a conclusion that summarizes and reflects on the arguments made in the body.

No new arguments or evidence appear here, but in longer essays you may discuss the strengths and weaknesses of your argument and suggest topics for future research. In all conclusions, you should stress the relevance and importance of your argument.

Hover over the following example to see the typical elements of a conclusion.

The internet has had a major positive impact on the world of education; occasional pitfalls aside, its value is evident in numerous applications. The future of teaching lies in the possibilities the internet opens up for communication, research, and interactivity. As the popularity of distance learning shows, students value the flexibility and accessibility offered by digital education, and educators should fully embrace these advantages. The internet’s dangers, real and imaginary, have been documented exhaustively by skeptics, but the internet is here to stay; it is time to focus seriously on its potential for good.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
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An argumentative essay tends to be a longer essay involving independent research, and aims to make an original argument about a topic. Its thesis statement makes a contentious claim that must be supported in an objective, evidence-based way.

An expository essay also aims to be objective, but it doesn’t have to make an original argument. Rather, it aims to explain something (e.g., a process or idea) in a clear, concise way. Expository essays are often shorter assignments and rely less on research.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The majority of the essays written at university are some sort of argumentative essay . Unless otherwise specified, you can assume that the goal of any essay you’re asked to write is argumentative: To convince the reader of your position using evidence and reasoning.

In composition classes you might be given assignments that specifically test your ability to write an argumentative essay. Look out for prompts including instructions like “argue,” “assess,” or “discuss” to see if this is the goal.

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Essay on Importance of Education for Children and Students

Table of Contents

Importance of Education Essay: The importance of education in society is undeniable. It is a necessity that helps us to grow as individuals and become better citizens. It is also an important tool that helps us to acquire new skills and knowledge. Education is the key to success in life. It is also the best way to reduce poverty and crime. It helps us to become more responsible and mature. It also helps us to become more aware of our surroundings and the people around us.

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Importance of education is a topic which can be written about in many different ways. Here are a few essays that can help students in essay writing . We have provided both long and short essays on importance of education in the society for students of classes 1 to 12.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. – Nelson Mandela

Long and Short Essay on Importance of Education in English

We all want to see our kids going towards success which is only possible through the good and proper education. Every parent tells their kids from childhood about the importance of education in the life and all the advantages of education to make their mind towards better study in the future. Make your kids and children habitual of writing essays, participate in debates and discussion and many more skill enhancing activities in the schools or at home using such simple essays. We are here to help you all parents in making your kid’s better future by providing simple essay on importance of education. Following importance of education essay are easily worded and given under various words limit especially for students. You can select anyone of these according to the class standard:

Essay on Importance of Education 100 words

Better education is very necessary for all to go ahead in the life and get success. It develops confidence and helps building personality of a person. School education plays a great role in everyone’s life. The whole education has been divided into three divisions such as the primary education, secondary education and Higher Secondary education. All the divisions of education have their own importance and benefits. Primary education prepares the base which helps throughout the life, secondary education prepares the path for further study and higher secondary education prepares the ultimate path of the future and whole life. Our good or bad education decides that which type of person we would in the future.

Essay on Importance of Education 150 words

In such competitive world, it is must for all to have good education. The importance of higher education has become increased in getting good job and position. Proper education creates lots of ways to go ahead in the future. It makes us strong mentally, socially and intellectually by increasing our knowledge level, technical skills and good position in the job. Each and every kid has their own dream of doing something different in the life. Sometimes parents dream for their kids to become a doctor, IAS officer, PCS officer, engineer and other high level positions. There is only one way to all dreams which is good education.

Students who are interested in other areas like sports, game, dance, music, etc., continue their further study together with their specialties in order to have degree, knowledge, skill and confidence. There are many boards of education such as UP board, Bihar board, ICSE board, CBSE board, etc., according to the state. Education is a very good tool which benefits all through the life.

Importance of Education Essay 200 words

Education is very important tool for everyone to succeed in life and get something different. It helps a lot in lessening the challenges of life difficult life. Knowledge gained throughout the education period enables each and every individual confident about their life. It opens various doors to the opportunities of achieving better prospects in life so promotes career growth. Many awareness programmes has been run by the government in enhance the value of education in rural areas. It brings feeling of equality among all people in the society and promotes growth and development of the country.

Education plays a paramount role in the modern technological world. Now-a-days, there are many ways to enhance the education level. The whole criteria of education have been changed now. We can study through the distance learning programmes after the 12 th standard together with the job. Education is not so costly, anyone one with less money may study continuously. We can get admission in the big and popular universities with fewer fees through the distance learning. Other small training institutes are providing education to enhance the skill level in particular field.

Importance of Education Essay 250 words

Education is must for both men and women equally as both together make a healthy and educated society. It is an essential tool for getting bright future as well as plays a most important role in the development and progress of the country. Citizens of the country become responsible for the better future and development of the country. Highly educated people become the base of the developed country. So, proper education makes the bright future of both, the individual and the country. It is only educated leaders who build the nation and lead it to the height of success and progress. Education makes people as perfect and noble as possible.

Good education gives many purposes to the life such as enhancement of the personal advancement, increase social status, increase social health, economical progress, success to the nation, set goals of life, make us aware towards many social issues and gives solutions to solve environmental problems and other related issues. Now-a-days, education has become very simple and easy because of the implementation of distance learning programmes. Modern education system is fully capable to remove the social issues of illiteracy and inequality among people of different race, religion and caste.

Education develops the people’s minds to a great level and helps in removing all the differences in the society. It makes us able to become a good learner and understand every aspect on life. It provides ability to understand all the human rights, social rights, duties and responsibilities towards country.

Essay on Importance of Education 300 words

Education is an essential tool for bright future for all of us. We can achieve anything good in the life using the tool of education. Higher level of education helps people in earning social and family respect and unique recognition. Education time is a crucial part of life for everyone personally and socially. It provides a person a unique standard in the life and feeling of well being. Education provides ability to solve any big social and family and even national and international level problems. No one of us can unseen the importance of education in the life in every aspect. It turns the minds towards positivity in the life and removes all the mental problems and negativity.

It changes the people’s thought by bringing positive thoughts and removing negative thoughts. Our parent plays a great role in turning our mind towards education from childhood. They try their best to give us good education from the popular educational institutions. It provides us opportunity to gain technical and highly skilled knowledge as well as enlarge our views all over the world. Best ways to enhance the skill and knowledge level is to get practiced of reading news paper, seeing educational programmes on TV, reading books of good authors, etc. Education makes us more civilized and better educated. It helps us in making better position in the society and achieves dreamed position in the job.

It makes us able to become a good doctor, engineer, officer, pilot, teacher, etc., in the life whatever we want to become. Regular and proper study leads us towards success by making a goal of life. Earlier the education system was so tough and people from all castes were not able to get education according to their own wish. It was very tough to get admission in the proffered colleges because of high cost. But now it has become so simple and easy to go ahead in the education.

Essay on Importance of Education 400 words

Home is the first place of education and parents are first teacher in everyone’s life. In our childhood, we get first impression of education from our home especially form our mother. Our parents let us know the importance of good education in the life. When we become three or four years old, we sent to the school for the proper, regular and sequential study where we have to give many exams and then we get a pass certificate for one class. Slowly we go ahead by passing our one by one class until we get passed successfully till 12 th standard. Then start preparations for getting admission to the technical or professional degree which is called as higher study. Higher study is very necessary for all to get good and technical job in the life.

We become a well educated person in the life by the efforts of our parents and teachers. They are real well wishers of us who helps us in leading our life towards success. Now-a-days, many governmental programmes have been implemented to enhance the education system so that everyone may get access to the proper education. Lots of advertisements are shown on the TV and news to make people aware of the advantages and importance of education especially in the rural areas as people in backward or rural areas do not want to study because of poorness and improper understating towards the education.

Earlier the education system was so tough and costly, poor people were not able to get higher studies after the 12 th standard. There was so much differences and inequality in the society among people. People of higher caste were studying well and people of lower caste were not allowed to study in the schools and colleges. However currently, the whole criteria and theme of education has been changed to a great level. There are many rules and regulations have been made and implemented by the Indian government to make education system accessible and less costly for all level of people. Most importantly the distance learning programmes has made higher studies so simple and cheap so that people from backwards areas, poor people and people living good life may get equal access to the education and success in the future. Well educated people make the healthy pillar of the country and lead it ahead in the future. So, education is the tool which can make every impossible thing possible in the life, society and nation.

Below are the list of related essay available at IL

Importance of Education Essay FAQs

What is the importance of education.

Education is important because it helps people learn about the world around them and make informed decisions. It also helps people develop the skills they need to succeed in life.

Why education is important in India?

Education is important in India because it helps to reduce poverty, improve health and reduce gender inequality. It also helps to promote economic growth and reduce child labour.

Is education important for life?

Education is important for life because it helps people acquire the knowledge and skills they need to be successful. It also provides people with the opportunity to develop their talents and abilities.

What is Education?

Education is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills, values, beliefs, and habits. Education is typically divided into three phases: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

How Education helps in Employment?

Education helps people get better jobs, earn more money and helps them advance in their careers.

Mention one way how Education helps a society?

Education can help to reduce crime rates by teaching people about the law and helping them to develop skills that can lead to productive careers.

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What is Real Education

by  Ashok Agarwal

Education is not only studying, doing job, marrying, bringing up family and taking care of our kids. It is journey from WE AS A KID TO OUR KIDS. But this is not all life and education. The real education is that which prepares you for the life. It makes you learn, cultivate and develop the healthy values of life. The education must make make you competent enough to cross the obstacles, hardships and hurdles of life. When we talk of education it is not four walls classroom education but the EDUCATION FOR LIFE. THE REAL EDUCATION IS A JOURNEY FROM CONVERTING THE HUMAN BEING IN TO BEING HUMAN. Unless the education makes you a good human being it is of no use. The real education not only imparts you knowledge but the wisdom too. Only wisdom takes you ahead in life. If you navigate smoothly in your life then only you seem to be really educated. Real education develops life skills . One must be able to manage the life efficiently and effectively. It does not mean that there will never be any problems but one will come out safely out of that if wisdom applied.

We cannot change the roads of life which may be hard, rough and tough but there are very few people who have the skills to cross such roads too by their intellect. One can explore new paths of life. One can walk on less traveled and untraveled roads too. The real education is holistic one which not only develops and takes care of your body but mind , heart and soul too. The real education must lead to one’s wellness, well-being and welfare (WWW). It must lead to eminence, expertise and excellence (EEE). It must lead to development of Inventive, innovative and intuitive (III) skills.

LIFE =BODY+MIND+HEART+SOUL

The real education must lead to TOTAL health, happiness, peace and contentment in life. It must lead to your spiritual advancement. MATERIAL SUCCESS IS NO GUARANTEE TO PEACE & HAPPINESS. As some people may attain success by material education. Whether they will pass / qualify the examination of life? Real education will develop the values and traits of goodness and niceness, compassion & love. One must have an aligned, secular, harmonious, inclusive,  balanced approach to life  in the truest spirit.

REAL EDUCATION MUST SERVE THE ENDS OF LIFE AND THE SAME IS POSSIBLE BY HOLY AND SATTVIC LIVING.

Ashok Aggarwal, DELHI

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Plan, Prepare & Make the Best Career Choices

Education Essay

Education is essential for anyone who wants to reach their full potential and live a fulfilling life. It is a powerful tool, and it is essential for creating a better future. Education helps to develop a sense of discipline, responsibility, and respect for others. Here are a few sample essays on the topic ‘Education’.

100 Words Essay On Education

200 words essay on education, 500 words essay on education.

Education is an invaluable asset that can create many opportunities for individuals in our society. It is the cornerstone of success in personal, professional, and academic lives. Education is important because it helps us to develop necessary skills and knowledge, which enables us to think critically, make informed decisions, and maximise our potential.

The importance of education is undeniable, and its numerous benefits are undeniable. Education helps to provide the essential knowledge, skills, and values that are necessary for success in life. Education also helps to prepare individuals to assume positions of responsibility, as well as to think critically and develop problem-solving skills.

Education creates a sense of social responsibility. It teaches people how to respect one another, as well as how to be productive members of society. Learning about history and culture can help people to better understand and appreciate the differences among different cultures, and it can also inspire individuals to use their knowledge to make the world a better place. Education also fosters social mobility, as those who have access to quality education can more easily pursue higher-level positions and career paths.

Education can also help to combat inequality. By providing access to knowledge and resources, education can help to bridge the gap between those who have and those who do not have access to these things. This can lead to a more equitable distribution of resources and opportunities, as well as a decrease in poverty.

The benefits of education are wide-ranging and varied. It is essential for preparing individuals to enter the labour force, as it provides the necessary skills and knowledge that employers look for when hiring. Education also helps to create a more informed and engaged society, by teaching citizens how to think, problem solve, and make better decisions. In addition, students who attend school are more likely to have higher incomes and become financially secure.

Education plays an important role in expanding our view of the world and increasing cultural awareness and understanding. Education helps us to gain a better understanding of different cultures and beliefs, and it can eliminate prejudices and promote mutual respect. Moreover, education has been proven to increase the economic stability of individuals and families. Individuals who are educated tend to earn higher wages, have better job security, and are more likely to own a home. Education also tends to reduce poverty, as well as improve the overall quality of life for individuals and families.

Advantages of Education

Education is one of the most important aspects of any person's life. It is a key to unlocking the door to success and providing a more fulfilling life. With education, a person can become more informed, gain knowledge, and increase their skills. The advantages of education are many, and its importance cannot be overstated.

Education helps us to develop the skills, knowledge, and values that are necessary for success in life, and it can help to increase economic stability, reduce poverty, and promote cultural understanding. Education is a lifetime investment that provides individuals with the knowledge and skills they need to lead successful lives.

Education is important for the development of a person’s knowledge and skills. It allows them to gain an understanding of the world around them, analyse and interpret data, and find creative solutions to complex problems. By having an education, a person is better prepared to make informed decisions and become a successful individual.

Education is also important for career and employment opportunities. Having an education gives a person the opportunity to pursue a career they are passionate about and to be more competitive in the job market. It also provides them with more job security and higher salaries.

Finally, education is important for personal growth and development. With an education, a person can learn about different cultures, explore different fields of knowledge, and develop a better understanding of the world. Education can also help a person build relationships, gain life experiences, and develop a positive attitude towards life.

How Education Benefits The Society | Education is one of the most important aspects of life, and it plays an increasingly vital role in our society today. It is important for a variety of reasons, including contributing to the development of communities, preparing individuals for the workforce, and providing access to knowledge and resources. Education can benefit our society in many ways, and it is essential to understanding how the world works. With a good education, individuals can be better equipped to enter the labour force, create a more informed and engaged society, and combat inequality.

Education is one of the most important aspects of a person’s life. It provides them with knowledge and skills that can be used to become successful and to pursue a career that they are passionate about. It also provides them with personal growth and development, job security, and higher salaries. Education is an asset that stays with you for your entire life and helps you deal with any challenge that life throws at you.

Explore Career Options (By Industry)

• Construction
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Information Technology

Data Administrator

Database professionals use software to store and organise data such as financial information, and customer shipping records. Individuals who opt for a career as data administrators ensure that data is available for users and secured from unauthorised sales. DB administrators may work in various types of industries. It may involve computer systems design, service firms, insurance companies, banks and hospitals.

Bio Medical Engineer

The field of biomedical engineering opens up a universe of expert chances. An Individual in the biomedical engineering career path work in the field of engineering as well as medicine, in order to find out solutions to common problems of the two fields. The biomedical engineering job opportunities are to collaborate with doctors and researchers to develop medical systems, equipment, or devices that can solve clinical problems. Here we will be discussing jobs after biomedical engineering, how to get a job in biomedical engineering, biomedical engineering scope, and salary. 

Ethical Hacker

A career as ethical hacker involves various challenges and provides lucrative opportunities in the digital era where every giant business and startup owns its cyberspace on the world wide web. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path try to find the vulnerabilities in the cyber system to get its authority. If he or she succeeds in it then he or she gets its illegal authority. Individuals in the ethical hacker career path then steal information or delete the file that could affect the business, functioning, or services of the organization.

GIS officer work on various GIS software to conduct a study and gather spatial and non-spatial information. GIS experts update the GIS data and maintain it. The databases include aerial or satellite imagery, latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and manually digitized images of maps. In a career as GIS expert, one is responsible for creating online and mobile maps.

Data Analyst

The invention of the database has given fresh breath to the people involved in the data analytics career path. Analysis refers to splitting up a whole into its individual components for individual analysis. Data analysis is a method through which raw data are processed and transformed into information that would be beneficial for user strategic thinking.

Data are collected and examined to respond to questions, evaluate hypotheses or contradict theories. It is a tool for analyzing, transforming, modeling, and arranging data with useful knowledge, to assist in decision-making and methods, encompassing various strategies, and is used in different fields of business, research, and social science.

Geothermal Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as geothermal engineers are the professionals involved in the processing of geothermal energy. The responsibilities of geothermal engineers may vary depending on the workplace location. Those who work in fields design facilities to process and distribute geothermal energy. They oversee the functioning of machinery used in the field.

Database Architect

If you are intrigued by the programming world and are interested in developing communications networks then a career as database architect may be a good option for you. Data architect roles and responsibilities include building design models for data communication networks. Wide Area Networks (WANs), local area networks (LANs), and intranets are included in the database networks. It is expected that database architects will have in-depth knowledge of a company's business to develop a network to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. Stay tuned as we look at the larger picture and give you more information on what is db architecture, why you should pursue database architecture, what to expect from such a degree and what your job opportunities will be after graduation. Here, we will be discussing how to become a data architect. Students can visit NIT Trichy , IIT Kharagpur , JMI New Delhi . 

Remote Sensing Technician

Individuals who opt for a career as a remote sensing technician possess unique personalities. Remote sensing analysts seem to be rational human beings, they are strong, independent, persistent, sincere, realistic and resourceful. Some of them are analytical as well, which means they are intelligent, introspective and inquisitive. 

Remote sensing scientists use remote sensing technology to support scientists in fields such as community planning, flight planning or the management of natural resources. Analysing data collected from aircraft, satellites or ground-based platforms using statistical analysis software, image analysis software or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a significant part of their work. Do you want to learn how to become remote sensing technician? There's no need to be concerned; we've devised a simple remote sensing technician career path for you. Scroll through the pages and read.

Budget Analyst

Budget analysis, in a nutshell, entails thoroughly analyzing the details of a financial budget. The budget analysis aims to better understand and manage revenue. Budget analysts assist in the achievement of financial targets, the preservation of profitability, and the pursuit of long-term growth for a business. Budget analysts generally have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a closely related field. Knowledge of Financial Management is of prime importance in this career.

Underwriter

An underwriter is a person who assesses and evaluates the risk of insurance in his or her field like mortgage, loan, health policy, investment, and so on and so forth. The underwriter career path does involve risks as analysing the risks means finding out if there is a way for the insurance underwriter jobs to recover the money from its clients. If the risk turns out to be too much for the company then in the future it is an underwriter who will be held accountable for it. Therefore, one must carry out his or her job with a lot of attention and diligence.

Finance Executive

Product manager.

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for product planning and marketing. He or she manages the product throughout the Product Life Cycle, gathering and prioritising the product. A product manager job description includes defining the product vision and working closely with team members of other departments to deliver winning products.  

Operations Manager

Individuals in the operations manager jobs are responsible for ensuring the efficiency of each department to acquire its optimal goal. They plan the use of resources and distribution of materials. The operations manager's job description includes managing budgets, negotiating contracts, and performing administrative tasks.

Stock Analyst

Individuals who opt for a career as a stock analyst examine the company's investments makes decisions and keep track of financial securities. The nature of such investments will differ from one business to the next. Individuals in the stock analyst career use data mining to forecast a company's profits and revenues, advise clients on whether to buy or sell, participate in seminars, and discussing financial matters with executives and evaluate annual reports.

A Researcher is a professional who is responsible for collecting data and information by reviewing the literature and conducting experiments and surveys. He or she uses various methodological processes to provide accurate data and information that is utilised by academicians and other industry professionals. Here, we will discuss what is a researcher, the researcher's salary, types of researchers.

Welding Engineer

Welding Engineer Job Description: A Welding Engineer work involves managing welding projects and supervising welding teams. He or she is responsible for reviewing welding procedures, processes and documentation. A career as Welding Engineer involves conducting failure analyses and causes on welding issues. 

Transportation Planner

A career as Transportation Planner requires technical application of science and technology in engineering, particularly the concepts, equipment and technologies involved in the production of products and services. In fields like land use, infrastructure review, ecological standards and street design, he or she considers issues of health, environment and performance. A Transportation Planner assigns resources for implementing and designing programmes. He or she is responsible for assessing needs, preparing plans and forecasts and compliance with regulations.

Environmental Engineer

Individuals who opt for a career as an environmental engineer are construction professionals who utilise the skills and knowledge of biology, soil science, chemistry and the concept of engineering to design and develop projects that serve as solutions to various environmental problems. 

Safety Manager

A Safety Manager is a professional responsible for employee’s safety at work. He or she plans, implements and oversees the company’s employee safety. A Safety Manager ensures compliance and adherence to Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) guidelines.

Conservation Architect

A Conservation Architect is a professional responsible for conserving and restoring buildings or monuments having a historic value. He or she applies techniques to document and stabilise the object’s state without any further damage. A Conservation Architect restores the monuments and heritage buildings to bring them back to their original state.

Structural Engineer

A Structural Engineer designs buildings, bridges, and other related structures. He or she analyzes the structures and makes sure the structures are strong enough to be used by the people. A career as a Structural Engineer requires working in the construction process. It comes under the civil engineering discipline. A Structure Engineer creates structural models with the help of computer-aided design software. 

Highway Engineer

Highway Engineer Job Description:  A Highway Engineer is a civil engineer who specialises in planning and building thousands of miles of roads that support connectivity and allow transportation across the country. He or she ensures that traffic management schemes are effectively planned concerning economic sustainability and successful implementation.

Field Surveyor

Are you searching for a Field Surveyor Job Description? A Field Surveyor is a professional responsible for conducting field surveys for various places or geographical conditions. He or she collects the required data and information as per the instructions given by senior officials. 

Orthotist and Prosthetist

Orthotists and Prosthetists are professionals who provide aid to patients with disabilities. They fix them to artificial limbs (prosthetics) and help them to regain stability. There are times when people lose their limbs in an accident. In some other occasions, they are born without a limb or orthopaedic impairment. Orthotists and prosthetists play a crucial role in their lives with fixing them to assistive devices and provide mobility.

Pathologist

A career in pathology in India is filled with several responsibilities as it is a medical branch and affects human lives. The demand for pathologists has been increasing over the past few years as people are getting more aware of different diseases. Not only that, but an increase in population and lifestyle changes have also contributed to the increase in a pathologist’s demand. The pathology careers provide an extremely huge number of opportunities and if you want to be a part of the medical field you can consider being a pathologist. If you want to know more about a career in pathology in India then continue reading this article.

Veterinary Doctor

Speech therapist, gynaecologist.

Gynaecology can be defined as the study of the female body. The job outlook for gynaecology is excellent since there is evergreen demand for one because of their responsibility of dealing with not only women’s health but also fertility and pregnancy issues. Although most women prefer to have a women obstetrician gynaecologist as their doctor, men also explore a career as a gynaecologist and there are ample amounts of male doctors in the field who are gynaecologists and aid women during delivery and childbirth. 

Audiologist

The audiologist career involves audiology professionals who are responsible to treat hearing loss and proactively preventing the relevant damage. Individuals who opt for a career as an audiologist use various testing strategies with the aim to determine if someone has a normal sensitivity to sounds or not. After the identification of hearing loss, a hearing doctor is required to determine which sections of the hearing are affected, to what extent they are affected, and where the wound causing the hearing loss is found. As soon as the hearing loss is identified, the patients are provided with recommendations for interventions and rehabilitation such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, and appropriate medical referrals. While audiology is a branch of science that studies and researches hearing, balance, and related disorders.

An oncologist is a specialised doctor responsible for providing medical care to patients diagnosed with cancer. He or she uses several therapies to control the cancer and its effect on the human body such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, radiation therapy and biopsy. An oncologist designs a treatment plan based on a pathology report after diagnosing the type of cancer and where it is spreading inside the body.

Are you searching for an ‘Anatomist job description’? An Anatomist is a research professional who applies the laws of biological science to determine the ability of bodies of various living organisms including animals and humans to regenerate the damaged or destroyed organs. If you want to know what does an anatomist do, then read the entire article, where we will answer all your questions.

For an individual who opts for a career as an actor, the primary responsibility is to completely speak to the character he or she is playing and to persuade the crowd that the character is genuine by connecting with them and bringing them into the story. This applies to significant roles and littler parts, as all roles join to make an effective creation. Here in this article, we will discuss how to become an actor in India, actor exams, actor salary in India, and actor jobs. 

Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats create and direct original routines for themselves, in addition to developing interpretations of existing routines. The work of circus acrobats can be seen in a variety of performance settings, including circus, reality shows, sports events like the Olympics, movies and commercials. Individuals who opt for a career as acrobats must be prepared to face rejections and intermittent periods of work. The creativity of acrobats may extend to other aspects of the performance. For example, acrobats in the circus may work with gym trainers, celebrities or collaborate with other professionals to enhance such performance elements as costume and or maybe at the teaching end of the career.

Video Game Designer

Career as a video game designer is filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. A video game designer is someone who is involved in the process of creating a game from day one. He or she is responsible for fulfilling duties like designing the character of the game, the several levels involved, plot, art and similar other elements. Individuals who opt for a career as a video game designer may also write the codes for the game using different programming languages.

Depending on the video game designer job description and experience they may also have to lead a team and do the early testing of the game in order to suggest changes and find loopholes.

Radio Jockey

Radio Jockey is an exciting, promising career and a great challenge for music lovers. If you are really interested in a career as radio jockey, then it is very important for an RJ to have an automatic, fun, and friendly personality. If you want to get a job done in this field, a strong command of the language and a good voice are always good things. Apart from this, in order to be a good radio jockey, you will also listen to good radio jockeys so that you can understand their style and later make your own by practicing.

A career as radio jockey has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. If you want to know more about a career as radio jockey, and how to become a radio jockey then continue reading the article.

Choreographer

The word “choreography" actually comes from Greek words that mean “dance writing." Individuals who opt for a career as a choreographer create and direct original dances, in addition to developing interpretations of existing dances. A Choreographer dances and utilises his or her creativity in other aspects of dance performance. For example, he or she may work with the music director to select music or collaborate with other famous choreographers to enhance such performance elements as lighting, costume and set design.

Social Media Manager

A career as social media manager involves implementing the company’s or brand’s marketing plan across all social media channels. Social media managers help in building or improving a brand’s or a company’s website traffic, build brand awareness, create and implement marketing and brand strategy. Social media managers are key to important social communication as well.

Photographer

Photography is considered both a science and an art, an artistic means of expression in which the camera replaces the pen. In a career as a photographer, an individual is hired to capture the moments of public and private events, such as press conferences or weddings, or may also work inside a studio, where people go to get their picture clicked. Photography is divided into many streams each generating numerous career opportunities in photography. With the boom in advertising, media, and the fashion industry, photography has emerged as a lucrative and thrilling career option for many Indian youths.

An individual who is pursuing a career as a producer is responsible for managing the business aspects of production. They are involved in each aspect of production from its inception to deception. Famous movie producers review the script, recommend changes and visualise the story. 

They are responsible for overseeing the finance involved in the project and distributing the film for broadcasting on various platforms. A career as a producer is quite fulfilling as well as exhaustive in terms of playing different roles in order for a production to be successful. Famous movie producers are responsible for hiring creative and technical personnel on contract basis.

Copy Writer

In a career as a copywriter, one has to consult with the client and understand the brief well. A career as a copywriter has a lot to offer to deserving candidates. Several new mediums of advertising are opening therefore making it a lucrative career choice. Students can pursue various copywriter courses such as Journalism , Advertising , Marketing Management . Here, we have discussed how to become a freelance copywriter, copywriter career path, how to become a copywriter in India, and copywriting career outlook. 

In a career as a vlogger, one generally works for himself or herself. However, once an individual has gained viewership there are several brands and companies that approach them for paid collaboration. It is one of those fields where an individual can earn well while following his or her passion. 

Ever since internet costs got reduced the viewership for these types of content has increased on a large scale. Therefore, a career as a vlogger has a lot to offer. If you want to know more about the Vlogger eligibility, roles and responsibilities then continue reading the article. 

For publishing books, newspapers, magazines and digital material, editorial and commercial strategies are set by publishers. Individuals in publishing career paths make choices about the markets their businesses will reach and the type of content that their audience will be served. Individuals in book publisher careers collaborate with editorial staff, designers, authors, and freelance contributors who develop and manage the creation of content.

Careers in journalism are filled with excitement as well as responsibilities. One cannot afford to miss out on the details. As it is the small details that provide insights into a story. Depending on those insights a journalist goes about writing a news article. A journalism career can be stressful at times but if you are someone who is passionate about it then it is the right choice for you. If you want to know more about the media field and journalist career then continue reading this article.

Individuals in the editor career path is an unsung hero of the news industry who polishes the language of the news stories provided by stringers, reporters, copywriters and content writers and also news agencies. Individuals who opt for a career as an editor make it more persuasive, concise and clear for readers. In this article, we will discuss the details of the editor's career path such as how to become an editor in India, editor salary in India and editor skills and qualities.

Individuals who opt for a career as a reporter may often be at work on national holidays and festivities. He or she pitches various story ideas and covers news stories in risky situations. Students can pursue a BMC (Bachelor of Mass Communication) , B.M.M. (Bachelor of Mass Media) , or  MAJMC (MA in Journalism and Mass Communication) to become a reporter. While we sit at home reporters travel to locations to collect information that carries a news value.  

Corporate Executive

Are you searching for a Corporate Executive job description? A Corporate Executive role comes with administrative duties. He or she provides support to the leadership of the organisation. A Corporate Executive fulfils the business purpose and ensures its financial stability. In this article, we are going to discuss how to become corporate executive.

Multimedia Specialist

A multimedia specialist is a media professional who creates, audio, videos, graphic image files, computer animations for multimedia applications. He or she is responsible for planning, producing, and maintaining websites and applications. 

Quality Controller

A quality controller plays a crucial role in an organisation. He or she is responsible for performing quality checks on manufactured products. He or she identifies the defects in a product and rejects the product. 

A quality controller records detailed information about products with defects and sends it to the supervisor or plant manager to take necessary actions to improve the production process.

Production Manager

A QA Lead is in charge of the QA Team. The role of QA Lead comes with the responsibility of assessing services and products in order to determine that he or she meets the quality standards. He or she develops, implements and manages test plans. 

Process Development Engineer

The Process Development Engineers design, implement, manufacture, mine, and other production systems using technical knowledge and expertise in the industry. They use computer modeling software to test technologies and machinery. An individual who is opting career as Process Development Engineer is responsible for developing cost-effective and efficient processes. They also monitor the production process and ensure it functions smoothly and efficiently.

AWS Solution Architect

An AWS Solution Architect is someone who specializes in developing and implementing cloud computing systems. He or she has a good understanding of the various aspects of cloud computing and can confidently deploy and manage their systems. He or she troubleshoots the issues and evaluates the risk from the third party. 

Azure Administrator

An Azure Administrator is a professional responsible for implementing, monitoring, and maintaining Azure Solutions. He or she manages cloud infrastructure service instances and various cloud servers as well as sets up public and private cloud systems. 

Computer Programmer

Careers in computer programming primarily refer to the systematic act of writing code and moreover include wider computer science areas. The word 'programmer' or 'coder' has entered into practice with the growing number of newly self-taught tech enthusiasts. Computer programming careers involve the use of designs created by software developers and engineers and transforming them into commands that can be implemented by computers. These commands result in regular usage of social media sites, word-processing applications and browsers.

Information Security Manager

Individuals in the information security manager career path involves in overseeing and controlling all aspects of computer security. The IT security manager job description includes planning and carrying out security measures to protect the business data and information from corruption, theft, unauthorised access, and deliberate attack 

ITSM Manager

Automation test engineer.

An Automation Test Engineer job involves executing automated test scripts. He or she identifies the project’s problems and troubleshoots them. The role involves documenting the defect using management tools. He or she works with the application team in order to resolve any issues arising during the testing process. 

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Value of Education Essay

500 words essay on value of education.

Education is a weapon for the people by which they can live a high-quality life. Furthermore, education makes people easy to govern but at the same time it makes them impossible to be enslaved. Let us take a look at the incredible importance of education with this value of education essay.

                                                                                                                        Value Of Education Essay

Importance of Education

Education makes people independent. Furthermore, it increases knowledge, strengthens the mind, and forms character. Moreover, education enables people to put their potentials to optimum use.

Education is also a type of reform for the human mind. Without education, the training of the human mind would always remain incomplete.

Education makes a person an efficient decision-maker and a right thinker. Moreover, this is possible only with the help of education. This is because education acquaints an individual with knowledge of the world around him and beyond, besides teaching the individual to be a better judge of the present.

A person that receives education shall have more avenues for the life of his choice. Moreover, an educated person will be able to make decisions in the best possible manner. This is why there is such a high demand for educated people over uneducated people for the purpose of employment .

Negative Impact of Lack of Education

Without education, a person would feel trapped. One can understand this by the example of a man who is confined to a closed room, completely shut from the outside world, with no way to exit it. Most noteworthy, an uneducated person can be compared to this confined man.

Education enables a person to access the open world. Furthermore, a person without education is unable to read and write. Consequently, a person without education would remain closed to all the knowledge and wisdom an educated person can gain from books and other mediums.

The literacy rate of India stands at around 60% in comparison to more than 80% literacy rate of the rest of the world. Moreover, the female literacy rate is 54.16% in accordance with the 2001 population census. These figures certainly highlight the massive problem of lack of education in India.

To promote education, the government of India takes it as a national policy. The intention of the government is to target the very cause of illiteracy. As such, the government endeavours to eradicate illiteracy, which in turn would lead to the eradication of poverty .

The government is running various literacy programmes like the free-education programme, weekend and part-time study programme, continuing education programme, mid-day meal programme, adult literacy programme, etc. With the consistent success rate of these programmes, hopefully, things will better.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Value of Education Essay

Education is one of the most effective ways to make people better and more productive. It is a tool that can make people easy to lead but at the same time difficult to drive. Education removes naivety and ignorance from the people, leaving them aware, informed, and enlightened.

FAQs For Value of Education Essay

Question 1: What is the importance of education in our lives?

Answer 1: Having an education in a particular area helps people think, feel, and behave in a way that contributes to their success, and improves not only their personal satisfaction but also enhances their community. In addition, education develops the human personality and prepares people for life experiences.

Question 2: Explain the meaning of true education?

Answer 2: True education means going beyond earning degrees and bookish knowledge when it comes to learning. Furthermore, true education means inculcating a helping attitude, optimistic thinking, and moral values in students with the aim of bringing positive changes in society.

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Real Education (Essay Sample) 2023

Table of Contents

Real Education

How Can I Get Essay For Free and Is it realistic to expect a low-cost, High-Quality Essay from a Cheap Paper Writing Service ?

Real education has been impacting our society to have a simple measure on achieving a great success to a person’s life in the future. Obtaining a degree is one of the most significant achievements that a person can partake as a way for them to improve their skills and knowledge. When it comes to job offerings, real education engages in an activity that allows an individual to become productive in their respective path. Companies and organizations usually require an academic degree before they are going to accept individuals to be a part of their company or institution. As a requirement, many applicants from different backgrounds are often denied because they do not have a degree that can manage to sustain the company’s integrity.

When it comes to real education, this is termed as a formal education that every person must have to undergo until they become adults who can contribute something to the society. Formal education is required for everyone who wants to fulfill their ambitions when they obtained a certain degree after graduating. Students must have to enroll themselves in a certain academic institution in order to undergo a formal education system. As young as six years old, children are already obliged to be sent to school because their brain needs something to clarify issues that can improve their academic degree. In this case, the essence of real education is experienced by the students whenever they enroll themselves in academic institutions. The reason behind is that there is a formal way of educating younger individuals so that they can become future leaders of the society such as being a public official of our community in the future.

Real education has transformed into a new style of educating young individuals through the use of technology . One main reason is the use of face-to-face communication using the computer or any electronic device. Using technology has been a significant way for reaching out remote areas that are inaccessible by either land or road. This is the reason why there is a homeschooling method to allow students who could not reach their school due to a rigid geographical terrain can still have the chance to have a real educational experience. There are more academic institutions that are now offering home schooling program for students who prefer being home schooled. This is due to security risks experienced by students such as who is constantly bullied at school that affects their learning sustainability.

Real education does not consider a non-formal way of delivering an education program just by a small conversation. This is because there is a contract agreed between the student, their parents, and the school administration. A formal education provides a curriculum for students about the topic that will be covered in each subject that they are enrolled. There are details regarding the topics of their subjects that will be discussed by their teachers as part of the program of the institution. For every student, having an educational attainment is an important achievement because they are able to apply what they have learned from their schools. Some institutions require their students to undergo board and lodging within the vicinity of the school as part of their academic program. Schools provide dormitories for students who are living in far flung areas from the location of the institution (Resmovits, 2013).

• Resmovits, Joy (2013). “Charter Schools Continue Dramatic Growth Despite Controversies”. The Huffington Post. The Huffington Post.