Education in the United States
From scholars and students listening to Plato’s and Socrates’ theological teachings, to modern day America’s public schools, education has affected the lives of every human being on the planet. Human beings see it as their responsibility to teach one another, we are inspired to learn new information and pass that information on. Afterall, knowledge is useless unless you share it with one another. Without the inspiration to both learn and teach, we would still be in a cave pounding rocks together. Inspiration, as well as the ability to follow your own path, is paramount to the idea of education as a whole. The fact that these key features are missing from our current education system proves that the current …show more content…
The orator Plato uses the Allegory of the Cave to describe the purpose of education. He describes multiple captives tied up, facing the wall of a cave. All they see for the entirety of their lives are shadows from people passing by. However, when one of these captives is released and able to venture into the outside world, he discovers the world as it truly is. After this, he ventures back into the cave in order to explain to the other captives how the world truly works. The Allegory of the Cave enlightens us to the biggest flaw in our education system, that students are not inspired to learn. They are simply forced to go to school and learn the same material as every other student in the state and country. Plato teaches us to deviate from the chains that bind us, and carve our own path. He uses the fact that the captives are content with the complacency of their current situation to show us that students should be similar to the released captive and test the bounds of our education. They must be inspired in order to truly gain …show more content…
Malcolm X speaks of how his inspiration changed him when he remarks in the excerpt from Saved that “The ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive”(3). He then goes on to say that “My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America“ (3). Malcolm X’s choice to follow his own path and educate himself revealed to him the flaws that society was containing. However, he was only able to achieve this once he strayed from the path set before him and decided to educate himself. Similar to Malcolm X’s situation, high school students are unable to start following a path that they choose for themselves. They must all take the same required courses and learn the same material.
Malcolm X and Plato both speak of how the students ability to follow their own path is the most important element in education, in addition to how inspired the student is to learn. Although it is the responsibility of the students to learn the information passed down upon them from their teachers, it is also the responsibility of the teachers to inspire those students to truly learn the lessons each subject teaches. One student from MIT even went and described
From scholars and students listening to Plato’s and Socrates’ theological teachings, to modern day America’s public schools, education has affected the lives of every human being on the planet. Human beings see it as their responsibility to teach one another, we are inspired to learn new information and pass that information on. Afterall, knowledge is useless unless you share it with one another. Without the inspiration to both learn and teach, we would still be in a cave pounding rocks together. Inspiration, as well as the ability to follow your own path, is paramount to the idea of education as a whole. The fact that these key features are missing from our current education system proves that the current …show more content…
The orator Plato uses the Allegory of the Cave to describe the purpose of education. He describes multiple captives tied up, facing the wall of a cave. All they see for the entirety of their lives are shadows from people passing by. However, when one of these captives is released and able to venture into the outside world, he discovers the world as it truly is. After this, he ventures back into the cave in order to explain to the other captives how the world truly works. The Allegory of the Cave enlightens us to the biggest flaw in our education system, that students are not inspired to learn. They are simply forced to go to school and learn the same material as every other student in the state and country. Plato teaches us to deviate from the chains that bind us, and carve our own path. He uses the fact that the captives are content with the complacency of their current situation to show us that students should be similar to the released captive and test the bounds of our education. They must be inspired in order to truly gain …show more content…
Malcolm X speaks of how his inspiration changed him when he remarks in the excerpt from Saved that “The ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive”(3). He then goes on to say that “My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness, and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America“ (3). Malcolm X’s choice to follow his own path and educate himself revealed to him the flaws that society was containing. However, he was only able to achieve this once he strayed from the path set before him and decided to educate himself. Similar to Malcolm X’s situation, high school students are unable to start following a path that they choose for themselves. They must all take the same required courses and learn the same material.
Malcolm X and Plato both speak of how the students ability to follow their own path is the most important element in education, in addition to how inspired the student is to learn. Although it is the responsibility of the students to learn the information passed down upon them from their teachers, it is also the responsibility of the teachers to inspire those students to truly learn the lessons each subject teaches. One student from MIT even went and described