The Purpose of Education :: Philosophy of Education Teaching Teachers Essays

The Purpose of Education American youths attend schooling between the ages of approximately six to eighteen years of age. Yet, in this required schooling, oftentimes one is at a loss to understand why schooling is necessary for twelve years of each of our lives. I believe there are three reasons why a rigorous twelve-year education plan is mandated in this country. Students must developmentally be around their peer groups in their early youth, they must learn about how our society works, and must become educated enough in order to live in that society upon graduating. For those pursuing further education, K-12 schooling also helps students to find a desired subject area for them to preserve and/or enhance our society's growth and well-being. First, we find that the ages between six and eighteen are those when human behavioral skills exceed any other time in our lives. Before the age of six, young children are learning to speak and use basic motor skills. It is approximately at the age when we begin schooling that children are learning social behaviors. These behaviors include interacting with other children, communicating, and adapting to schedules that do not revolve around the child's own needs. Young children learn to abide by structured hours instead of basing their actions on what they want and need. This basic form of teaching children to begin to grow up is why education begins at the age that it does. Once we learn the basic behavioral skills and understanding that the world does not revolve around oneself, schooling is important for another reason. This reason is comprised of the actual content being taught. We must learn about our own society and the world in which we live in order to one day become an active part in them and be educated on what needs to be done to create positive changes. Students must learn their own language, other languages, mathematics, history, and sciences, so they understand what the world around them looks like and how it is changing. Toward the end of the later years of education, students often have options of taking certain high school classes to correlate with their interests. However, the primary goal is to educate all students thoroughly and not to concentrate on too much of any one subject.