Skills being increasingly regarded as fundamental. These skills can be transferred to enable the learner to progress at work and in society in general.…
In the article named “Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education” by Horace Mann, the author explains that school is an integral step to prepare for students to be aware of the responsibilities of becoming good citizens. On the other hand, the text “Against Schools” by John Taylor Gatto emphasizes that the role of the school system is not necessary in society since it forces students to go to school and sit around in classes for a certain amount of hours for twelve years, but many students feel useless and bored with the school curriculum. Although Mann makes a good point when he says school is important for student’s future, I must disagree with Mann and agree with Gatto because of my own educational…
With a faster pace of everyday life, employability skills are becoming essential in modern society. The employability essential concepts and skill sets represent universal content. They contribute to outcomes that are valued for individuals and for society; bring benefits in a wide variety of contexts and apply to multiple areas of life; and are of use to all individuals, deemphasizing competencies of use only in a specific trade, occupation or walk of life. In this report, we look deeply into six critical employability skills including communicating skills, management skills, problem solving skills, personal knowledge, work experience and teamwork skills. Each of these skills was studied and analysed to show its importance. All of these employability skills are held to make a focus on an individual 's ability to gain initial employment, maintain employment, move between roles within the same organisation, obtain new employment if required and ideally secure suitable and sufficiently fulfilling work, in other words- their employability, more important than the simple state of being employed. (Hillage and Pollard, 1998)…
All throughout my educational career I had never taken the time to reflect on what school really meant to me and if school was made optional would I still attend? After reading the essay “Against School,” by John Taylor Gatto a series of questions began to arise in my head. Is school really that necessary? Is it really the only way for a person to be successful in life? According to John Taylor Gatto schools are nothing but merely “laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands (38).” After reading Gatto’s essay I must say I agree. The educational school system in the U.S…
My specialist area of teaching is Employability Skills, the qualification that the learners gain from this course is BTECH level 1 in supporting Employability and Personal Effectiveness. The aim of the unit is for the learners to develop their employability and personal effectiveness skills through involvement in a group project. The group project is used as a vehicle for the development of employability and personal effectiveness…
In the article “A Good Education”, the author poses the question of whether a good education is a broad one, with traditional subjects, or a specialized one, providing practical skills. The author states that in the XVIIIth and XIXth century a good education was a broad one, which provided men the possibility to pursue any career. However, he/she contends that since the latter part of the XIXth century, workers were required to have a more specialized training because the world was more complex, specialized, and competitive. The author explains that, around the 1960s, American students’ complaint about taking useless courses and not choosing their subjects lead to a reform in Universities’ programs, which now included many specialized subjects and dropped several traditional ones. According to the author, now both graduates and employers complain that practical knowledge lacks depth and flexibility, and is not enough to perform successfully at work. To conclude, he/she states that every teacher and student has their own ideal program and that it is hard to decide who has to right to define what a good education should be like. In my opinion, the fact that the author has presented the changes in the educational system within a historical frame is very important, because I believe that the historical and social context is closely related to the definition of a good education. As the renowned author, Sir Ken Robinson, states in his talk “Changing Education Paradigms”, nowadays the reasons why many countries are reforming public education are mainly economic and cultural. On the one hand, the economies in the 21th century are constantly changing and children should be educated to take their own place in their country’s economy. On the other hand, due to globalization, children need to find a balance between adapting to this process and having their own cultural identity. This context is completed by the fact that, according to Robinson, children are growing up in the…
Education has an immense impact on the human society. The quality of human resource of a nation is easily judged by the number of literate population living in it. This is to say that education is a must if a nation aspires to achieve growth and development and more importantly sustain it. In today’s world, the role of education has become even more vital. It is an absolute necessity for economic and social development, and the single most important predictor of good jobs and high income at the individual level. In the United States, the Department of Education aims to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring educational equity.…
All children are required to graduate high school, but pursuing higher education is only recommended. While high school curriculum is designed to prepare students for higher education, students learn essential career readiness skills while enrolling in higher education classes. Since students are not obliged to pursue higher education, many students who decide not to continue their education lack the skills necessary for future careers. While some schools hope to implement career readiness for either all their students or for only the students who do not wish to pursue college, other schools do not want to offer career readiness programs as they believe that it offers incentives for students not to attend college. Schools should require all students to take career readiness classes as…
Today new school reforms have been formulated. These reforms are created to form individuals into becoming financially advanced and globally competitive persons. The very means to gauge the progress of the new reform is through test scores. Standardized tests and the test scores are now tantamount to accountability, transforming the educational system into a dehumanized market institution. The school is seen as a capital investment and is now measured according to financial value. Today 's school reforms have seemed to do away with the notion of schools "helping to create people who are fully developed as human beings and as democratic citizens." (Tyack D. 1997) However, amidst the prevailing regress in today 's education and contentions on reforms, Americans hold schools as the means to change and influence society. No other institution in the culture is solely devoted to developing mental powers, and the existence both of powerful means of psychological and political influence through the organized media and of an intellectually complex culture and economy amply justifies, and indeed compels, a focus on the effective use of one 's mind. Furthermore, intellectual training is eminently useful: it opens means to educate oneself in any sphere of interest or importance. Without it, one is crippled. With it, one can gain, on one 's own, that comprehensive learning that so attracted the predecessors in the past. The belief is still the same: "education holds the key to the future". Indeed, the future of the United States of America, of any similar country, depends to a huge extent on what goes on in the schools, whose membership (teachers and studies) comprised a large percentage of the nation 's population. Any reform, any revolution of ideas, of hearts and minds, of attitudes could very well take root in the school system. The school is obviously the most potent vessel of the development of a pole and its culture. The…
As any high school junior or senior will tell you, the most common question students face is ‘what are your plans for after high school?’ This, rather weighted, question leaves students more concerned for their future. In the past, it has been stressed that only by going to college will a student become successful in the ‘real world.’ However, today students are faced with a multitude of choices regarding their future. Nevertheless, a college education has the ability to prepare students to be successful and the skills, knowledge, and character build from attending college makes the benefits of college significantly outweigh the costs.…
A short essay reflecting upon and analysing aspects of the graduate skills required by the participant’s current workplace and for future personal development.…
Accountable. Passionate. Purposeful. These are all facets of effective educators at institutions around the world. Most parents want their children to attend a prestigious university so they can secure a well-paying job. However, this should not be the focus of schooling. Students need to learn skills for living and interacting with others in society, outside of a work atmosphere. This essay will assert that the purpose of education is to foster critical thinking, practical abilities, and career preparation, not . leading to breakthroughs for individuals and society as a whole.…
Education is the source of progress and success and the community should be the one who takes advantage of it. According to Arthur W. Chickering (2010) the social institutions with more importance in order to have citizens with adequate levels of cognitive, moral, and intellectual capacity are colleges and universities. Therefore, the significance of educational institutions can be considered as a primary necessity in order to the society to develop and grow the right way, where the coexistence between citizens is adequate and the behavior is reasonable.…
The next article, from the New York Times, opens up by revisiting America’s past decision to make high school open to the public and how education has benefitted the United States. The writer makes a comparison between the current situation of the importance of higher education to the America’s past decision. Studies stated that prove a bachelor’s degree is an asset even for those whose jobs do not require any degree. He states that, beyond the monetary value of a degree, education seems to make…
As Americans, we take education for granted. We see it as a right that everyone is entitled to an education. This was not always the case. There was a time in America’s history in which education was not a basic right for everyone. In this essay I will be discussing the purposes of American education, how the American educational system has changed through the years for students, what the meaning of American education is to me, and about the new understandings I have gained about the American education.…