John Stuart Mill's Conception Of Education

Superior Essays
In a world where money, success, power, and education are key, the most viable option to achieve this dream for most people is to attend a college or university right after high school. High schools strongly encourage all students to try and go to a great four year college, but is this absolutely necessary. These days it seems that if one does not attend college and receive a degree, they are not respectable or they are not as intelligent as others. This is not true. Many people who are in high school simply aren’t cut out for such rigorous and so-called “standard” college courses. Most people believe that a college education is necessary to create capable and coherent students but this basic education can be achieved in high school. College …show more content…
In John Stuart Mill’s view, “Their object is not to make skillful lawyers, or physicians, or engineers, but capable and cultivated human beings.” Mill argues that a basic education to create capable human beings is found in a college curriculum. Mill is surely right that college can be a place for students to cultivate their mind a gain an education that will give them basic knowledge, but as he may not be aware, the best time to teach a student how to be a coherent human being is kindergarten through eighth grade. This basic education should be taught to all students, but college is not the place necessary for this knowledge. A basic education should be achieved earlier, in grade school. According to Charles Murray, “K-8 are the right years to teach the core knowledge, and the effort should get off to a running start in elementary school.” Murray’s point is that instead of trying to introduce this education to college students, it should be implemented into school systems early on. With the view that Murray provided, it shows that college shouldn’t be about creating capable and coherent people, which should already have been completed in grade school. College should be about extending one’s education to lead toward what job they want to have in life. Not everybody needs to go to a four year college. Vocational schools or jobs …show more content…
The result of this is all students trying to go to college or university. If everybody is going to college then there will be no one left to take the vocational jobs or the jobs that require only a high school diploma. To put it simply, too many people are going to college. College is in fact not for everybody. There are many people who are not meant to go to college. This does not mean that these people are any less valued than the people who do attend college. They are simply meant for other jobs that may not require a college degree. These people and workers are vital to our nation’s middle class and economy. Many people even view college as a necessity because it appears to be the only place where they may gain a basic knowledge that will mold them in to a coherent and cultivated person. This education should not be limited to college because if it were, colleges would be filled with people graduating with useless degrees. This basic education should be taught as a standard and early on. If people continue to be going to college unnecessarily, there will be nobody working where it is necessary. Not everybody can be a biochemist or a surgeon. Some people are meant to be construction workers or managers. College simply is not for

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