In her back to school message, Martha Nussbaum emphasizes the value of education. In her opinion, students should widen their horizons using various resources in order to prevent their minds from becoming narrow and too routinized (Nussbaum 2009). If the problems of narrow-mindedness and the advantages of education are taken into consideration, this statement can be deemed accurate. Expanding one’s knowledge is highly important, because it helps people to become open-minded and it benefits personal development, employment opportunities and society. This essay first examines the problems of narrow-mindedness and routine. Then, it treats the importance of education and the resources that can be used to widen one’s horizons. Finally, it …show more content…
First, education benefits personal development. In our society, people set great store by job opportunities and tend to question every subject that is not a direct preparation for a specific job. Even though a training for a certain career is important, it is not the main focus of education. Students should be encouraged to widen their horizons and get to know interests other than their own speciality, just for the sake of knowledge and experience. Students can attend an opera, for example, not to become an opera singer themselves, but to admire the beauty of the performance. New experiences and interests can help a person generate new ideas. Furthermore, it is of high importance to learn skills other than the ones that are required for the job you are studying for. For a student in mathematics, for instance, it is, apart from being an expert in mathematics, also interesting to learn how to read and write critically, since these are skills an academic needs each day. Only focusing on mathematics teaches a student nothing more than a broad knowledge of a very narrow