The Purpose of Education

When thinking about the definition and purpose of education, the obvious answer would be to learn new information and gain knowledge. But why do we really need to know all of these things? When discussing in class, my classmates were saying that they found some subjects to be a waste of time to learn, such as volcanoes or history. Unless pursuing a career in those areas, we will never need to known anything about these areas of concentration, right?

Well I believe that none of the things we learn in school are a waste of time or should be seen as "unnecessary". I think most of these subjects actually help us gain a social skill. Sure you don't have to be an expert about history if you're going to grow up to be an engineer, but how sad would it be if you were having a conversation with someone who didn't know who Abraham Lincoln was? Most of the subjects we learn in class that we find tedious and irrelevant are probably the most practical and shouldn't be taken for granted.

Also, I believe it's good to expose the children to a wide variety of subjects because it gives the students an opportunity to find out what their interests are. Once they know that, making decisions about their career and goals will be easier for them in the future. So even if one student deems learning about volcanoes to be unimportant, another might find it to be extremely interesting and grow up to become a geologist because of that class. Learning about new things should never be considered insignificant because even if it was boring to learn, that information will stick to you for the rest of your life. Who knows, you may even find that information to be useful in a future situation.

So in conclusion, I presume that education is basically giving students the skills and knowledge they need to help contribute and interact with society. Our main priority in life is to essentially get a job, and every job makes a contribution to our society somehow. As humans, we are always trying to find new ways to innovate and help mankind advance. We aim for a better future and look for ways to improve our world. That's why education is considered to be highly essential in our community. One cannot get anywhere in life without an education. But to do all that, we need to learn the basics. We need to know a little bit of everything, from history to science, math, and language arts. The following article would agree, http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/08/15/what-is-the-purpose-of-education/.