Education: Two Halves of a Whole by Armando

Education: Two Halves of a Whole by Armando - April 2015 Scholarship Essay

The purpose of an essay is two-fold. During the first dozen or so years of a person's education, the role of education is simply to serve as a portal to all of the things a person might develop an interest in later on in life. For example, the purpose of taking various types of classes during high school (government, engineering, foreign language) is to open the student's mind. A student who takes a year of Spanish during their sophomore year might develop an affinity for the language because of that first year of study. The same can also be said for any other field of study. Education's role is to open a student's eyes to all possible future areas one could be interested in and study.

Much later, education serves as a kind of stone to sharpen the blade of the mind. Once a student has chosen which path to travel (after many years of courses in a variety of areas), education serves as a means to hone and refine. Eventually, it no longer feels like education and simply becomes passion. A student who took a woodworking class for a semester in high school might go on to an apprenticeship lasting several years. Is that student still getting an education even though they're using their hands instead of a textbook? Absolutely. And that student might even say that he or she loves working with their hands, and that itself is an education. Refining their technique is education. So is studying at a university. Although the paths are separate, education's role in the later stages of life is the same for everyone.