Importance of Education

Did you know that in today’s economy, in America, there is a higher need for highly skilled workers with credentials? President Obama is pushing for more college graduates to get degrees so they can live above the poverty level in America. A college education is a must if you want to keep up with the economy today. Having an education was not important a couple of centuries ago, but today’s society is different where more than a high school diploma is needed to make it in the economy (Pretlow III & Wathington, 2012). Minorities are the one’s most affected from lack of education mainly because of high tuition fees and rates. A couple of centuries ago, education was not required to live above the poverty level. Since the colonial days, government and community leaders have been trying to come up with different ways to effectively educate children. In the colonial days, children were taught trades instead of a general education because unskilled workers were needed. Most of the students, taught by tutors, on an one on one basis, or in a small group were uneducated because they went to school to just learn about religion. The majority of those students were Partisans or Congregationalists. Having an education in religion started to decline as different people migrated to America. Thomas Jefferson and other reformers also help change the way education was taught in America because they believed education should have not included religious beliefs. Reformers also opposed the idea of only the wealthy being able to obtain an education. Reformers spoke out on education saying crime and poverty would go down if people received a quality education. By the end of the colonial period, reformers made a way for every child to at least have a elementary education. They made a way for students of all races, nationalities, and sex. The last change to the educational system was passed under the Bush administration which included the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) (Burke &