Education Essay : Example and Tips

Example 1 of introduction to the essay on the importance of education

Now some politicians and famous people are trying to neutralize the importance of education. Examples of successful people without education are of interest and imitation. For starters, it is important to remember that education is not just the diploma that you receive at the university or school, but the entire learning process. These are the books that you read, courses and lectures, films and facts. This is what gives us the opportunity to write words without errors, to tell exactly where to find the Eiffel Tower and answer the questions of a simple crossword puzzle. You can live without this kind of information, but you can be considered an educated and interesting person.

It seems to me that the degree of manifestation of “good and evil” in every person is directly dependent on the level of person’s development. At the time of birth, you can not say that this person will bear only good or only evil. Based on heredity, one can only assume some individual differences of a particular person, presumably speak about his mental abilities. The development of individual qualities in the process of acquiring knowledge by each individual occurs absolutely spontaneously, assuming that it is left to itself. Therefore, whether he will direct his innate qualities towards evil or good, towards himself and others, depends on his ability to determine the direction of his actions. Thus, it can be concluded that there are no innate evildoers, just like there are no innate altruists who sow one good.

The main meaning of education, I believe, is the development of a form of education that would allow people to instill knowledge and ways of thinking that facilitate the choice of a person by actions leading primarily to good, minimizing actions that are detrimental to the person and society.

I want to say here that a person behaves himself in life, starting from knowledge about himself – his goals in life, his understanding of what a person is. The main meaning of education, therefore, I see in the education of the mind of man, his willpower in determining the right way of life.

Example 2 of introduction to the essay on the importance of education

Education is becoming one of the fundamental values ​​of modern social development. To a large extent this is due to the development of education itself and the importance of education in the life of each person.

Education, as is known, is a process of familiarizing a person with universal forms of his being in the world with other people. Essentially, this means that it is through education that people master socially significant ideas, concepts, forms of feeling and behavior in the world around them. That is why education is always a process of elevating a person over his natural essence, and consequently, the process of his entry into the sphere of the spirit (cultural values), that is, mastering all that was created by mankind in the whole history of its existence. However, education is not only the introduction of man into the universal: in the experience, knowledge, ways of behavior of other people – it involves simultaneously the development of the personality, its self-awareness, when the universal in it acquires a special form of life. We can say that the essence of education is in the formation and development of the person’s personality and spirit.

Education lies the inseparable unity of the two processes: education and upbringing, and is aimed at harmonizing the two measures of being of the individual: social (general, significant) in the individuality of its development and individual (particular) in its social existence. True, education and upbringing are not always in line, equilibrium with each other. Often, these or other specific social circumstances can strengthen or, conversely, weaken the importance, weight of each of these processes in the education of the individual. So, in the educational space – the area of ​​the distribution of educational and educational activities of people in the life of modern society – special importance (weight) is acquired precisely by training – the process of obtaining and assimilating knowledge and skills.

Part 1 of body of education essay example. History and trends of education development

Education is a part of the process of socialization of the individual, representing the transfer of accumulated experience and knowledge to subsequent generations. The process is carried out within the relevant social organizations of secondary and higher education.

Educational institutions coordinate the activities of many people, aimed at satisfying such socially important needs as the need for training the younger generation, transferring them scientific and practical knowledge, values, ideology, social norms, aspects of upbringing, professional skills. To implement this activity, a system of educational institutions has been formed in the society: secondary schools, colleges, institutes, academies, universities. The curricula used in them are more or less standardized and interrelated, which determines the unification of education.

In past ages, the education in schools was not available to many. Basically, they were religious figures, priests, ie, a social group whose representatives literacy was simply necessary for reading and interpreting the sacred texts. For most members of society, the process of education was limited to acquiring social experience and professional skills from the older generation.

The rapid growth of natural science in the 18th and 19th centuries and the development of capitalist production stimulated the need for educational institutions.  They gradually began to appear in its modern form of education, involving the transfer of knowledge with the help of professional educators. The present stage in the development of science and education and the growth of their social role begins in the middle of the twentieth century. This stage is characterized not only by the further acceleration of scientific progress, but also by a significant modification of the ratio of education, science and production. Science becomes the productive force of society and the starting point for the creation of industries.

The goals of education have also changed, the number of people with higher education, scientific titles has increased significantly. Trends in the development of education:

  • Humanization – the main focus of education is on the formation of personality, its interests and psychology; strengthening of attention towards establishment of relations of mutual respect between pupils and the teacher; simplification of access to the educational environment for people with disabilities.
  • Humanitarization is the orientation of society’s attention to the study of social and humanitarian sciences.
  • Internationalization of education – convergence of educational programs of different countries.
  • Profilization of education is a professional definition in the early stages of training, providing more serious study of subjects for the future profession.
  • Informatization of education – the use of computers, information and communication technologies in the educational process, the use of broad information resources;
  • Continuity of education – the process of learning lasts throughout the life of a person, due to the need for updating knowledge due to constantly developing technologies.

Part 2 of body of education essay example. Value of education in sociological science

Education is part of the process of personality formation. With the help of this process, society transmits knowledge and skills from one person to another. In the process of teaching, certain cultural values ​​are imposed on the student. The learning process is aimed at the socialization of the individual, but sometimes learning conflicts with the student’s true interests.

Durkheim said that the main goal of education is to transfer the values ​​of the dominant culture. Since the culture of each nation is unique, the content of education is also very different. In ancient Rome, the main goal of education was the training of military commanders and statesmen. In the Middle Ages in Europe, emphasis was placed on the study of the Christian religion, during the Renaissance the main interest existed in culture, art in literature. So, we see how the cultural interests of man and, accordingly, the content of education changed with the passage of time and era. Similarly, education contributes to the preservation of the values ​​accumulated by mankind, and the emergence of new ones.

Simultaneously with the involvement of children in values, the school becomes a means of social control over the pupil (children are supervised in the classroom and beyond). Education has an impact on all types of human activities. After graduating from school, people choose different paths. This is a certain filter in the choice of the future profession of man. The function of the filtering device is not lost by formation. Hearn wrote that education is a reasonable way of distributing people according to their merits.

Another kind of functionalism is the theory of “human capital”. According to this theory, education is not something immediately consumed, rather it is an investment in the future of man. Like all investments, in the future it brings profit. This theory states that all efforts spent in the past will be rewarded in the future. It is only natural that the reward corresponds to the investment. This justifies inequality between people, as they spent unequal resources on preparation for various activities.

In the primary school, the main importance is attached to the education of such qualities as punctuality, accuracy, subordination of authority, which are important for the disciplining of the workforce. A characteristic feature of education in modern developed countries is that primary education becomes compulsory and free. The developed societies assume that a literate population is needed to modernize society.

Part 3 of body of education essay example. Influence of education on the formation of personality

The role of education is manifested in the way it influences the formation of personality. Many of the personality traits of a person are determined not only by natural causes, but also acquired under certain conditions of social life. Education corrects the personality and forms certain of his qualities. It depends on the educational environment, the structure of knowledge and technology of education, educational processes. Education is designed to form a professional consciousness. The most important of those qualities of a person that are determined by education are the following:

  1. The system of human values. As knowledge is acquired, skills are enriched and the human values ​​system is adjusted. Education combines humanitarian values ​​with professional, strengthens the effectiveness of certain types of values, motivates the social significance of human activities.
  2. The system of interests is also under the influence of education. Interest is the desire to achieve a certain result. Education enhances a person’s ability to set goals for his activities and makes it possible and a real movement towards this goal. This is due not only to the construction of a professional career, but also to the spiritual satisfaction of a person. Man always seeks the joy of achieving something.
  3. Education changes the quality of human activity, increases its intellectual component.
  4. Only in the educational process is it possible to recognize and effectively develop the individual abilities of a person.
  5. Education, among other things, creates professional skills and thus determines the possibility and reality of obtaining a profession that plays a significant role in the work life of a person.
  6. Education is the basis of the trajectory of a person’s career. It opens the way for further professional growth and development.
  7. The social status of a person is also determined by education. The position in society worries the person. Education promotes the ability to consciously regulate or change this position.
  8. The result of all these factors is the role of education in the formation of culture, both personal and social.

Everyone has individual educational needs and should have the opportunity to implement them in some form or another.

Part 4 of body of education essay example. Education as a value, process and result

Education is a single, purposeful process of learning and training, which is a socially significant good and is carried out in the interests of the individual, the family, society and the state, as well as the totality of acquired knowledge, skills, values, experience and competence of a certain volume and complexity for the purposes of intellectual, spiritual, moral, creative, physical and (or) professional development of a person, satisfaction of his educational needs and interests. Let us highlight the main aspects of the above interpretation of education. To do this, we structure the definition, as shown in the following figure. This definition reveals three key aspects of the concept of education:

  • education as a value and a public good;
  • education as a process that unites the upbringing and education of a person;
  • education as a result of learning, training, development of a person, the realization of his interests and needs.

The realization of the value, procedural and effective aspects of education is carried out in their unity. Education as a social phenomenon has existed since ancient times, it is due to the social need to transfer to the new generations the experience accumulated by previous generations, to create prerequisites for the improvement and development of this experience, for the stability of society. Education is reproduced and developed for many centuries, the modern level of education is just another stage of its development. Reproduction and development of education requires a lot of resources, it is carried out in the activities of many people, institutions, organizations, using a variety of means.

Therefore, among the meanings of the term education, there is one more: education as a complex system of interactions between subjects and material means, providing training, upbringing and personal development. This aspect of education reflects the concept of the education system.

Part 5 of body of education essay example. Growing importance of education

The tendency of the growth of the importance of training, scientific formation of people began to manifest itself in the world already from the second half of the last century. One can see the expansion of the educational space (educational activities), its boundaries in geographical, gender, age, social, professional and other plans. It is impossible not to see that the development of education and training today, it’s the most distant (and once backward) regions of the world. Now there is practically no such country, where there is no system of general school and special higher education for people. The same can be said about the gender and age specific features of learning activity. There are no restrictions (at least formal) on admission to various educational institutions on the basis of sex or age. Moreover, the dynamic processes of informatization of society everywhere promote the growth of terms and intensity of training. The same processes everywhere predetermine the need for the creation of institutes of continuing education throughout the entire work life of a person. They stipulate the organization of distance learning and the development of the system of raising the qualification and educational level, the acquisition of knowledge by people, their retraining in any new professional field.

Thus, universal access to education expands the educational space and makes not only general but also higher education a mass one. However, all this, of course, should not be absolutized. It must be understood that the mass character of education does not yet indicate its quality. At the same time, the mass character of education practically everywhere shows that it is in demand, it is desirable for people. All this shows that education is for the majority of people living now a stable value and serves for many of them as a value orientation.

As you know, value is a multidimensional phenomenon. The basis of all of its measures is the significance (price) of a particular object of reality, into which the subject (individual, group, society) is ranked. On the basis of values, a value orientation is formed – a special social relation of people to certain values, which is represented in consciousness as an object necessary for a person to satisfy his needs. Value orientation as a relation arises always only in connection with the actualization of the value of a certain object in the consciousness of the individual, his inclusion in the activity of man. Actually, this means that value orientation is always a subject-object relationship that characterizes the dual structure of any value. After all, value is determined by the properties and quality of its object (thing, phenomenon, process), on the one hand, and the properties of the subject itself, its needs, interests and goals – on the other. At the same time, in the value orientation, the personally colored attitude to the objects of reality is decisive. The personal relation arises on the basis of a person’s correlation of reality objects in connection not only with his needs and goals, but also with his own (though not always relevant) knowledge, information and life experience.

Nevertheless, most people realize that mastering the broad general and special knowledge is necessary for life and well-being in society is possible only through the educational process, and therefore education is now regarded as one of the most important value orientations in society.

So, the values ​​of education are associated with the totality of the needs and interests of society and its members, and therefore education is a primarily value for society. The state, its government can not ignore people’s needs and interests in the field of education. However, the state also builds its priorities for the values ​​of certain types of education in society. Naturally, these priorities depend on the specific structure and level of development of social production, financial security, the international (primarily economic and military) situation in the country, the fulfillment of social obligations.

Part 6 of body of education essay example. Role of education in society

Education is one of the essential factors of stratification in society. It creates differences between people, and vice versa – it removes, neutralizes them. It is known that with the help of education, a person can gain or raise his/her social status, since the presence of education at a certain level allows him to find a well-paid job, contributes to his professional growth.

Education, its level and quality is one of the most important factors of attractiveness, the image of the country. After all, a state in which there is a developed system of education and which provides a high level of professional training of people inevitably attracts the attention of young people from different countries who are trying to determine their place of study. All this creates a developed market of educational services, which is an indicator of the prestige of the state in the world. A state that provides educational services to young people in other countries inevitably influences the formation of the political and intellectual elite of these countries. In addition, of course, the political dimension of the value of education also lies in reciprocal support existing power not only from the young students, but also the majority of citizens (if the state takes care of the national education system and does a lot for its development and prosperity).

Education promotes the mastery of spiritual values, and in this sense it has a great cultural and historical significance. Only through education, continuity and connection of epochs and generations, social inheritance of cultural values ​​occur. And this means that thanks to education, stability is introduced into people’s consciousness, and their civil identity is formed.

The importance of education for society is determined psychologically, too. People receiving education in high school, feel its demand, usefulness to other people, they are imbued with confidence in the permanence of cultural traditions of their people, they retain the faith in the authorities. Claiming, recognizing the value of education for society, naturally, one can not minimize its significance for each individual. True, one must always keep in mind that the basis for the formation of the values ​​of each individual person is the values ​​of society, which are perceived and assimilated (or rejected) individually.

Individual values ​​are empirically obvious. They are a condition for the existence and development of any individual, the orientation of one or another of his activities. This also means that the motivation of this or that human activity does not come as much of an abstract social values, but because of his personal aspirations, personal objects of empirical validity estimates. Education is accordingly such an empirical base value for each individual, as it becomes for him not only meaningful, but also necessary for existence in modern society. After all, value is determined by the significance of phenomena and objects of reality from the point of view of their conformity or inconsistency to human needs. That is why education for the individual now is a terminal value, because it is his goal, which he follows in his life in accordance with the needs. By the way, these goals occupy the leading place in motivating human educational activity, and they become regulators of his attitude, for example, to study.

At the same time education advocates and instrumental value, since it becomes a means to achieve a variety of milestones in the life of people in accordance with their needs, such as achieving prosperity, career status position in society. In other words, education today for so many people consciously or intuitively becomes a value: the goal or means, and sometimes even the norm of life.

Thus, the values ​​of education are not only the goals and means of people’s livelihood, but also their choice, and the evaluation of their actions, as well as the actions and events of people from their environment. These values ​​of education can also be derived from the needs of people, for example, from the need for survival, the welfare of their group, the coordinated behavior and actions in society.

Each type of educational value (goal or means) has its own motive. Thus, the motives of human aspirations to certain specific educational objectives or the means may be:

  • self-regulation (the desire to be free, independent, motivates people to do stand-alone option, strive to be creative in knowledge, actions);
  • security (the desire for stability of existence, removal of uncertainty of situations);
  • universalism (understanding that the need for beauty, harmony, justice, tolerance is achieved through education);
  • achievement (the realization that success in any way, obtaining social approval is largely determined by the level of people’s education);
  • power (obtaining a pass to the so-called corridors of power and government, as well as the process of exercising power depends on education);
  • favor (the desire for good, for respectful relationships with other people is determined by education).

One should keep in mind that there may be a contradiction in motivation and purpose (that is, the discrepancy between the external and the internal when translating the external into the internal one). This contradiction exists practically in any kind of activity. Depending on the form of realization and resolution of this contradiction, one can distinguish between activity as coercion, lack of freedom and activity, where there is a free choice of the person himself. Naturally, if the student’s instruction is imposed and not translated into the inner motive of the action, then usually it is difficult, with effort, unwillingness. And vice versa – every free activity, filled with joy, desire, as a rule, goes easily and at ease.

If the leading role in the process of activity is played by external goals for the person (that is, they are not motivated for these goals, because internal motives are absent or play a role subordinate to external circumstances), unfree activities are realized, all sorts of difficulties arise and reluctance to work fruitfully and consistently.

Example of conclusion to the essay on the importance of education

Naturally, education can not be the same for all or frozen forever, a constant value. However, every person today must have a compulsory minimum of education.

Speaking about the minimum of education, it should be borne in mind that practically all countries of the world have their own limits for compulsory education, or universal education. Society, the state seek to consolidate the framework of universal education in legislation. However, of course, not always and not everywhere the law on the universal minimum of education is being implemented. That is why in almost any society it is possible to meet illiterate people (who can not read, write, produce elementary arithmetic operations), whose world is struck by ignorance. It is clear that such people hardly have even a minimum level of education. Still, probably, people with a minimum of education should be referred to those who have the minimum level of socially necessary compulsory education (knowledge and general culture).

This minimum is determined by the boundary of the presence of some very schematic and approximate knowledge and skills at the level of perception and general representations of phenomena of reality in order to:

  • get at least unskilled (physical) work and carry it out;
  • identify yourself with a specific social stratum (class, group) and be able to communicate, preserving personal certainty and independence;
  • to carry out life activity in its niche (to have ideas about the hygienic, psychological, technical, economic, legal and other aspects of existence in it) and maintain personal security.

It is clear that the boundary of the minimum of education is mobile. Today we are talking about it as a mandatory minimum level of education. However, according to E. Toffler, in the future an illiterate person will already be called not someone who, for example, can not read, but someone who can not learn.

The minimum of education allows a person to occupy only the lowest step in the structure of society. Therefore, a higher level of education is needed. Accordingly, the notion of a maximum of education is not a limiting level that can not be established, but a lower education boundary with which the upper level can be counted.

Maximum human education is often associated with his professional skills, high qualifications and considerable experience in practical work. All this allows a specialist at this level to perform sometimes the functions of an expert in some highly specialized activities. If a person takes a long time to do only one type of activity, he often achieves a certain skill in it. But if he goes beyond this specialized activity, he is often as limited as any non-professional. That is why the maximum level of education should include, in addition to profound special knowledge in their profession (specialty) at the same time:

  • a broad erudition in the field of humanitarian and natural science knowledge;
  • an integrative view of the world, expressed in a coherent and consistent worldview;
  • versatile knowledge of information technology;
  • foreign language skills;
  • possession of knowledge about knowledge and ways of their augmentation;
  • knowledge of various practices of life and the ability to assess the value of various types of practical activities in order to realize the optimal choice in favor of a comfortable existence and personal growth.

At the maximum level of education of people, various competencies: professional, personal, social, etc., acquire the status of universally valid values, and these values ​​become the basis of their self-awareness and self-control.

Thus, in the modern conditions of the movement towards the information society, or, as is often said, to the knowledge society, education becomes the value (need and purpose) of people. The process of getting an education by a person is the formation of its various competencies. With the formation of competencies, one can speak about the level of education and the level of human competence. It is competence as a combination of abilities to creatively implement this or that kind of professional activity and underlies the value of modern education.