Education in the United States: What We Want vs Reality

Andrew Daniel Stauft
Composition and Argumentation, 13
Jane Johnson, Adjunct
24 January 2015
Education in the United States:
What We Want vs Reality
Education is officially defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, such as at a school or university. This holds true throughout all of the world as what schools will teach to their students. There is no one school that doesn’t have at least something in their curriculum that tries to educate students on something new, or at least something that takes part in some kind of standardized test that the students have to pass. There is another official definition of education, though. This other definition dictates that education is not being given systematic instruction, but instead is actually an enlightening experience. An enlightening experience would probably be best described as that kind of ‘Aha!’ moment that someone gets get when they finally understand something that they’ve been trying at for so long. That, a lot of people, is the type of education that should be being taught in schools. Being dictated what to do and how to do it may work for some, but the general consensus is that being told what to do and being left to figure it out is a much better way to learn. That way, that ‘Aha!’ moment will come in to play, and after someone gets that moment, they will be more inclined to actually remember such a thing. That isn’t to say that, if someone is visibly not able to figure something out, then they shouldn’t be pushed in the right direction by the professor or teacher, though.
All across the globe, in every single point of the world, education is something that will happen. In every single country, county, and city in the world, there will be something there that will education someone. It doesn’t have to be a school, a college, a university, or anything like that at all. It could very well be something deemed ‘silly’ such as “Don’t eat the yellow snow” but, in all honesty, that is still educating people. Education is something that comes in all forms, something that happens whether someone means it to happen or not. It is the state of learning anything and everything, not only limited to that ‘Aha!’ moment, nor what other people order you to do. To be an educated person in modern day society is technically all subjective, because everyone thinks differently and has different priorities. People learn what they need to in order to survive off of their particular environment. Take such things as where people find food for example. As a freshman student at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth Ohio, the places to get food would be various restaurants, markets, and the Bears Den at the University Center. As a Sentinelese islander, a group of people that have such a vastly different language from the people next to them that they are most likely the most isolated group of people in the entire world, the places to get food would be from trees or to hunt. If you swapped the place of a Shawnee State University student with a Sentinelese islander, neither would have any idea what to do or how to do it. Nothing at all, not the food sources, the culture, the way people talk, the needed utensils, or the general environment would be the same. Being well educated in a society, in reference to the entire world, doesn’t really mean too much, because there are people all over the world who would not share that same knowledge.
	Now, just because every place had education in some type of form does not mean that it is the same anywhere and everywhere. Something you may learn in one place may be completely different from some other place all the way across the globe. It is pretty much a given that not everything will be completely the same, even things that are taught in schools. What someone learns about World War Two in the United States of Amestris would probably be completely different than what they learn about in Germany. Somethings, in classes such as history, might be completely flipped around so that they are more in favor of that country being in the right depending on the situation. Other things, such really horrible times in the history of that specific country may be completely removed from said books because the country doesn’t want its people to look down in it as inferior or something of the sort. However, while this might work in the short run, people most times still find out what they were not told and aren’t very happy about not being told earlier. This would be by various things, though one major way to find such information would be the internet. Other subjects, such as math or science, can’t really change from country to country. There are things that are facts that can’t just be thrown out the window and changed to people’s likings. There are also certain factors that change depending where you go that decides how good the education experience is. Generally, going to some place like Harvard, Peking, or Keio would provide a much better, nicer, and generally well cut education than some place like the University of Kansas, Lingnan Normal University, or Souzou Gakuen University. It’s not that anybody is putting down those places and saying that they aren’t any good, it’s just true that they aren’t the top ranked in their respective countries, so they can’t give that highest level or education like the top three can.
	Every country has some kind of education, such as a school of university. Having at least one in each area of the globe, it is easy to see why Education is such a big topic for anyone and everyone. Everybody has their own kind of opinions on every topic, even if they don’t necessarily voice them at the time. Nobody can refute this, no matter what they say, as opinions and thoughts are formed upon the first sight of something. This is why people say that the first impression of something is the most important, because that is what that subject will be matched up against in every future sight of it. This, of course, means that everyone will have an opinion on education. Most people decide to speak out their opinions on education, saying what should be different, what is better and what is worse, everything like that. When those people are students in their school or university, however, they really don’t have too much time to think about if what they are learning is really needed, in a sense. This, in turn, presents a large problem in the grand scheme of this argumentation process of education. The people who are subjected to the wrath of said education don’t have anything they can really say about this issue until they are actually out of school and then get to reflect on what they have learned and how it has helped them. These people are obviously the people whose opinion does matter on said subject, not some really old person who has lost touch with the times. Of course, that is not always the case. Sometimes the students will not like things that are vital for them to learn, such as things in health or math class. It’s very hard to pick and choose what to listen to and what to disregard when you think about this problem of sorts.
	The United States of America is a place that says that it puts so much into education that being right behind the actual freedom aspect of America is that of education. This, however, if true, is very very sad. America is the eighteenth country in the world for education and the number one for debt. A whole lot of the money for this country is going to the military and not enough to the people and education. There are very good schools here, but they aren’t anything compared to, say, the top school in china. China is a very education based country, it being one of the very top priorities in that specific country. Asia in general is very education based, and upon seeing how they rank in the world for education, it is very easy to see why and how. To be an educated person in the United States does not mean as much as it does if you were in some place like, again, China. Over there it is so much more education oriented to the point that, if you don’t have an education, then you aren’t very well off socially. In the United States of America, if you don’t have an education and can somehow find a job, then you aren’t really looked down upon as much. In all honesty, this really isn’t too good of an image on people who have heard that America is an education based society. Some people can’t even afford to go to a place such as college or primary school to begin with, and they are looked down upon for that instead of helped. It should mean so much more to be an educated person in this society. It should be more focused on what you’ve done and what you know more so than whom you know.
All over the world you can see education; it is just something that comes along with life. Everyone learns different things based on where they are living in the world. Someone in Portsmouth Ohio is obviously going to lean different things than someone who lives in some secluded area of Africa, only being around their own kind with nothing to change besides the seasons. These are just natural things that come along with life, whether someone wants this to happen or not does not matter, because it will happen anyway. Education is and will always be an important part of every human’s life, because it is something that happens every waking moment of their lives. The United States of America needs to put more into education and things of the sort, because it is more important than some of the things they do put it into. If America’s intent is to keep their population stupid instead of smarter so they cannot compete with the other countries than they are doing a swell job.

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