In our modern knowledge-driven society, education is often regarded as a primary utensil for one’s success. Parents regularly consider the acclaim of adjacent schools for their children as a foremost factor when moving into a new neighborhood. Similarly, students typically deem choosing a college to attend as one of the paramount decisions of their life. However, the schooling that one receives does not always reflect the education one possesses. The process of education is far from a clear-cut or defined procedure that provides a transparent conclusion. Rather, the end of education is a personal, subjective observation based upon numerous factors other than just schooling, including life experience, values and the ability to retain and comprehend
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Rodriguez desires for his readers to understand there is additional meaning to education than simply the memorization of formulas, or the ability to recall historic events. It is evident that Rodriguez values the critical ability to retain knowledge in the process of learning as he writes, regarding the scholarship boy, “the great mimic; a collector of thoughts, not a thinker; the very last person in class to have an opinion of his own” (PAGE #). This quote carries into the idea of one abstracting themselves from immediate experiences. The scholarship boy spent so much of his time idolizing his professors in attempt to gain knowledge, that he lacks the ability of creativity and self-thought. While the scholarship boy may be able to recite what his professor or another student thinks, they cannot formulate a conclusive opinion on their own. If a person spends hours upon hours reading one-hundred books, yet, retains none of the information, that person has gained the same knowledge as someone who hasn’t read any books at all. That being said, if said person who hasn’t read any books spends their time productively learning more about themselves or their environment, they arguably have gained more useful knowledge than the …show more content…
Rodriguez relates this to his own life, as he states that he was vehemently consumed by the idea of furthering himself through education due to his parent’s being uneducated. However, unintentionally, by doing this Rodriguez distanced himself from his parents and found it exceedingly difficult to engage in regular conversation with them after receiving his education. The education system is designed to teach students viable skills and to help them obtain knowledge from a set curriculum. However, the system is not set up to teach students about real-life skills such as the ability to converse amongst others, form compassion, or other human skills that make-up one’s image and personality. For instance, in the case of a job interview with two applicants, there is a business major that spends the majority of their time reading textbooks, yet, hardly extends his life to normal social interactions. On the other hand, there is another applicant with similar credentials, but possibly less knowledge of business. However, this applicant is a phenomenal speaker and presenting themselves to managers comes natural to them due to their outside experience amongst others. It is expected that the first applicant’s interview may not go as well as the planned, as they have not gained the proper knowledge of human interaction and the ability
Rodriguez desires for his readers to understand there is additional meaning to education than simply the memorization of formulas, or the ability to recall historic events. It is evident that Rodriguez values the critical ability to retain knowledge in the process of learning as he writes, regarding the scholarship boy, “the great mimic; a collector of thoughts, not a thinker; the very last person in class to have an opinion of his own” (PAGE #). This quote carries into the idea of one abstracting themselves from immediate experiences. The scholarship boy spent so much of his time idolizing his professors in attempt to gain knowledge, that he lacks the ability of creativity and self-thought. While the scholarship boy may be able to recite what his professor or another student thinks, they cannot formulate a conclusive opinion on their own. If a person spends hours upon hours reading one-hundred books, yet, retains none of the information, that person has gained the same knowledge as someone who hasn’t read any books at all. That being said, if said person who hasn’t read any books spends their time productively learning more about themselves or their environment, they arguably have gained more useful knowledge than the …show more content…
Rodriguez relates this to his own life, as he states that he was vehemently consumed by the idea of furthering himself through education due to his parent’s being uneducated. However, unintentionally, by doing this Rodriguez distanced himself from his parents and found it exceedingly difficult to engage in regular conversation with them after receiving his education. The education system is designed to teach students viable skills and to help them obtain knowledge from a set curriculum. However, the system is not set up to teach students about real-life skills such as the ability to converse amongst others, form compassion, or other human skills that make-up one’s image and personality. For instance, in the case of a job interview with two applicants, there is a business major that spends the majority of their time reading textbooks, yet, hardly extends his life to normal social interactions. On the other hand, there is another applicant with similar credentials, but possibly less knowledge of business. However, this applicant is a phenomenal speaker and presenting themselves to managers comes natural to them due to their outside experience amongst others. It is expected that the first applicant’s interview may not go as well as the planned, as they have not gained the proper knowledge of human interaction and the ability