Importance of education to individuals and society 教育对于个人及社会重要作用.doc

Importance of educationEducation Opens Our MindsThe importance of receiving education in our lives cannot be doubted. Education opens up our minds and makes us broadminded. There is no better time than the present to understand this. Gobalization has transformed the world into one big village. It is possible for us to know about the different cultures or events taking place at the other end of the world today. All this has been made possible due to education. Education has broadened our minds, so that we are not confined to our countries and comfort zones anymore. We arent trapped in our small worlds, instead we have come out of our shells and begun to explore and learn new things. Learning about new things and different cultures not only adds to our literacy bank but also instills in us humane qualities. For example if we see that a society in some other part of the world has accepted HIV patients and begun to work for them, then we might also begin to do the same. Maybe we had resorted to shunning them earlier but education can change our thought processes for the better. It therefore helps in making us more tolerant and accepting.Forms the Basis of SocietyEducation forms the basis of any society. It is responsible for the economic, social, and political growth and development of society in general. Education imparts knowledge whereby making discoveries and implementing them for the betterment of the society becomes possible. The thread of the growth of society depends upon the quality of education that is being imparted. The better the quality, the better people can learn and utilize it to make reforms that lead to research and development.Education for ChildrenThe importance of taking education as a concept needs to be instilled in children from an early age. Education does not simply mean bookish knowledge or learning things by rote but holds a much deeper meaning. It means opening your minds to learn new things and pursue different options. Opting for higher education provides one with a clearer vision and makes one more receptive to change. It makes a person rational with an ability to think and question. And these are the basis on which reforms are made.Education also provides opportunities to interact with people from different walks of life. It leads to better understanding and an exposure of how the world lives and thinks. It is our duty to inculcate the importance of education in children. They should be made aware that the list of degrees that tail an individuals name does not mean that one is educated. It holds a much wider perspective. Education means to go beyond the degrees and continue to achieve by acquiring knowledge. In the real sense, education means to evolve from being an individual to a human being, capable of not merely surviving but living life.The importance of education goes beyond the concept of being literate. It goes much deeper, in denoting a way of life and thinking. Education today has become synonymous (rightly so) with being a well-informed, thinking person. Importance of Education to YouthsYouth is that phase of life when you dream big, hope for only the best to happen to you and look forward to a bright tomorrow. It is that phase when nothing seems impossible; you want to be successful and you believe you will. You feel you know exactly what you want from life and you believe you will get it. During these years, life looks bright and beautiful. You feel you can win the world. Its an important phase in your life - youth - when you turn into someone different. Turning from a child to an adult is a transition - a big transition. Theres added confidence, added responsibility, theres growth, theres life - a new life. Its when you begin to understand yourself, discover your potential, know when opportunities knock your door and dream of only success. Its the time to reinvent yourself and redesign your personality. And thats where education has a big role to play.Education is the best tool to bring a positive change in society, to develop a generation of responsible individuals and contribute to the development of good human beings. The fundamental purpose of education is to gain knowledge, understand the forms of proper conduct and acquire technical competency in specific subject(s). Education serves as the means to develop oneself physically, mentally and socially. Heres how education makes a difference in ones life.Gives them Wings: The importance of education manifests itself in the need to cultivate youths to become mature individuals. Youth is the growing stage of their lives. It is during these years that they develop from kids to become mature and responsible individuals. It is during this phase that they make career decisions and begin pursuing their goals.Tells them Where to Fly: Education should consist of training and development in their field(s) of interest. It should help the youths define their career objectives, decide what they want from life and enable them to achieve what they wish to. Education to youths must aim at helping them build a skill set and work on the skills acquired to develop subject expertise. It should include courses that can help them develop a career. The education should open doors for new opportunities in different fields. It should help the youths find avenues to pursue their interests. It should enable them to venture into new fields and explore new areas. Education must help them set reachable goals and realize them.Makes them Socially Aware: It is important that education to youths aims at developing social awareness in these adults-to-be. The training given to them should consist of environmental education and social values. They should be made aware of the current social and environmental issues. They should be explained the steps they can take in dealing with the issues. Education should expose the youths even to the darker side of society; the problems that eclipse it, the prejudices that shackle it and the superstitions that blind it. Youths should be encouraged to come up with ideas and devise ways to better the society that they are part of.Makes them Self-Aware: Overpopulation, unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions, unprotected sex and teenage pregnancy are some areas of growing concern today. The reason - lack of sex education. Incomplete knowledge in this regard or wrong notions about sex breed psychological problems in teenagers. This underlines the importance of sex education to youths. Education should make the youths self-aware.Tells them whats Right, whats Wrong: While instilling the good in youths, education should also give them the ability to reject the bad. It should enable them to choose good against bad. Education should empower them to take decisions and make choices - each time preferring right to wrong. Education should give them the strength to accept the mistakes made, mend them and most importantly - learn from them. Education should give them the courage to rise after every fall and turn every failure into a success.The fundamental purpose of education is to create good human beings. Education is vital to the healthy growth and development of ones personality. The importance of education to our society1. To complete the socialization processThe main social objective of education is to complete the socialization process. The family gets the child, but the modern family tends to leave much undone in the socialization process. The school and other institutions have come into being in place of family to complete the socialization process.Now, the people fell that it is the schools business to train the whole child even to the extent of teaching him honesty, fair play, consideration for others and a sense of right and wrong. The school devotes much, of its time and energy to the matter such as co-operation, good citizenship, doing ones duty and upholding the law. Directly through textbooks and indirectly through celebration of programmes patriotic sentiments are intimates and instilled. The nations past is glorified, its legendary heroes respected, and its military ventures justified.(2) To transmit the central heritageAll societies maintain themselves, by exploitation of a culture. Culture here refers to a set of beliefs and skills, art, literature, philosophy, religion, music etc. that are not carried through the mechanism of heredity. They must be learned. This social heritage (culture) must be transmitted through social organizations. Education has this function of cultural transmission in all societies. It is only at the under leaves of the school that any serious attempt has been, or now is, made to deal with this area.(3) For the formation of Social personalityIndividual must have personalities shaped or fashioned in ways that fit into the culture. Education everywhere has the function of the formation of social personalities. Education helps in transmitting culture through proper molding of social personalities. In this way, it contributes to the integration, to survive and to reproduce themselves.(4) Reformation of AttitudesEducation aims at the reformation of attitudes wrongly developed by children already. For various reasons the child may have absorbed a host of attitudes, beliefs and disbeliefs, loyalties and prejudices, jealously and hatred etc. these are to be reformed. It is the function of education to see that unfounded beliefs, illogical prejudices and unreasoned loyalties are removed from the childs mind, though the school has its own limitations in this regard, it is expected to continue its efforts in reforming the attitudes of the child.(5) Education for occupational placementAn instrument of livelihood. Education has a practical and also it should help the adolescent for earning his livelihood. Education has come to be today as nothing more than an instrument of livelihood. It should enable the student to take out his livelihood. Education must prepare the student for future occupational positions; the youth should be enabled to play a productive role in society. Accordingly, great emphasis has been placed on vocational training.(6) Conferring of Status:Conferring of status is one of the most important functions of education. The amount of education one has, is correlated with his class position. This is four in U.S.A., U.S.S.R., Japan, Germany and some other societies. Education is related to ones position in the stratification structure in two ways. (1) An evaluation of ones status is partially decided by what kind of education one has received and (2) Many of the other important criteria of class position such as occupation, income and style of life are partially the result of the type and amount of education one has had. Men who finish college, for example, earn two and a half times as much as those who have a grammar school education.(7) Education encourages the spirit of competitionThe school instills co-operative values through civic and patriotic exhortation or advice. Yet the schools main emphasis is upon personal competition. For each subject studied the child is compared with the companies by percentage of marks or rankings. The teacher admires and praises those who d- well and frowns upon those who fail to do well. The schools ranking system serves to prepare for a later ranking system. Many of those who are emotionally disappointed by low ranking in the school are thereby prepared to accept limited achievement in the larger world outside the school.Other Functions of EducationPeter Worsley has spoken of a few more functions of education. Some of them may be noted, Education Trains in skills that are required by the Economy.The relation between the economy and education can be an exact one. For example the number and productive capacity of engineering firms are limited by the number of engineers produced by education. In planned economy, normally it is planned years in advance to produce a definite number of doctors, engineers, teachers, technicians, scientists etc. to meet the social and economic needs of the society.Fosters Participant Democracy:Education fosters participant democracy. Participant democracy in any large and complex society depends on literacy. Literac