Paradox When Henry Adams described the "task of education" as being "this problem of running order through chaos, direction through space, discipline through freedom, unity through-multiplicity," it appears that he was referring to something that people today would more readily refer to as the meaning of life. This may seem a loose phrase that risks cliche, but in fact it is the easiest way to make sense of Adams's set of paradoxes about education. After all, the events of life are a pure chaos of one event after another, unless one has obtained the mental criteria to evaluate them. Similarly, life is directionless unless one has a specific purpose, and life is marked by a bewildering freedom of options unless one is restricted to certain choices, and life can appear as numerous unique phenomena unless we have learned to recognize the underlying patterns and categories in those events. In some sense, then, what Henry Adams means is that education is our chief way of providing meaning to life (and religion, philosophy, science, art, politics, and economy) although he is too rhetorically elegant to come right out and say so. In the writings...
This is perhaps easiest to see when a bad or inadequate education performs a pale parody of this task, and gives people an illusory meaning. The first example that springs to mind are devotees of the writer Ayn Rand. In these overheated paperback screeds familiar to many adolescents, Rand offers her readers a form of education: she has figured out her own meaning in life (and in religion, philosophy, science, art, politics, and, alas, economics) and she intends to share it, at great length. Ultimately these books are offering a course in the meaning of life -- the meaning propounded by Ayn Rand and her followers seems to be that there is no God and the only moral obligation is to be selfish -- but this is why they appeal mainly to teenagers, who are undergoing their education at the same time when they may be experiencing difficult relationships at home. That is why these books offer a bad form of education, which is calculated to appeal to the immaturity and emotional bias of their readers -- but nonetheless, in the attempt by Ayn Rand to provide her readers with a simplistic and ready answer for everything, we can glimpse the nature of education. It is to find a worldview, a meaning in life: the person who reads Ayn Rand is invited to say in consequence that he or she (but usually he) is an "Objectivist." Joining a cult like this is a quick way to finding meaning in life, of course. I do not agree with Ayn Rand's philosophy on anything, really, but I understand the way in which certain people latch on to this readily-available worldview…
Education Richard Rodriguez and Mike Rose both write about their education. In "I Just Wanna Be Average," Mike Rose recounts his experience in Catholic school as an Italian-American from a working class family background. Because of a school error, he was placed in the vocational tract at school. The experience taught Rose a lot about the low expectations place on students, the lack of effective role models in the classroom, and
Education and National Security Education is essential for the advancement of our nation as well as our children. A good education gives children the ability to succeed physically, intellectually, and emotionally. The American nation has been labeled as having a threat to national security because of the education system failing to provide the needed learning and skills to know how to protect the nation. The condition of America's education system has
The rules of this paradigm are that government usually perform formal inquiries because they hope to establish trends for funding or new educational models, while social research does not have to follow these rules, instead, they study social problems and divides that affect adult and distance learners, and seek to solve those problems through social change and reorganization. Finally, the paradigm that exists between the institution and the adult learner
In particular, they specify the need for students to be good listeners, team players, and to make compromises to work toward mutual goals (Scheuerell, 2010). Group work must be a time for students to engage in productive and accountable collaboration around a task or problem that causes them to rely on one another's part or participation to ensure successful completion. Successful group work can be designed and presented to the
Dr. Frank Pajares, writing in Reading and Writing Quarterly (Pajares 2003), points out that in his view of Bandura's social learning theory, individuals are believed to possess "self-beliefs that enable them to exercise a measure of control over their thoughts, feelings, and actions." As has been mentioned earlier in this paper, but put a slightly different way by Pajares ("Self-Efficacy Beliefs, Motivation, and Achievement in Writing: A Review of the Literature")
Education of the Heart, Soul, And Mind This paper explores the personal meaning of an education of the heart, mind, and soul. An Education of the Heart, Mind, and Soul: Personal Meaning true education is so much more than simply learning certain facts and figures. While such rote information is useful and has its place, a true education is enriching for the entire person. All five senses are engaged and enlivened, the
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