How Classes Like "Ancient Civilizations" Will Actually Help You in Life by Emily

How Classes Like "Ancient Civilizations" Will Actually Help You in Life by Emily - April 2015 Scholarship Essay

President John F. Kennedy once said that “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth”. He explained in perfect terms what education is but the still question remains as to what is the purpose of this “advancement of knowledge”. In my opinion, the purpose of education is to disciplining the mind for continuing advancement of the human race.

The mind must be trained and that is the most basic purpose of an education, to teach one how to learn. At some point in everyone's life they have sat in a classroom and wondered 'when am I ever going to use this?”. And the truth is perhaps they won't, not everyone in their career will need to know the ancient civilization of Sumeria or the first fifty prime number. The basis of an education is being able to learn, and the point of learning things like these is to train your mind to retain information, meaningfully encode it, and be able to recall it. Learning is such an integral part of life, and education is what teaches one how to do it.

However, now the question might arise: what is the purpose of being able to learn? Well the purpose of being able to learn is that it will allow you to keep the information you need at every stage of ones life. But I believe the segment of life where one can truly thank education for the ability to learn is once in college. The 12 years of discipline the mind has undergone up until that point will be what allows one to be able to learn the skills that he or she needs for their career. The job force is the ultimate test of education, what all the years of training the mind have led up to. While some might pose the argument that they do not want a job that requires a college education, they are failing to see the importance of careers that do require one.

It is safe to say that doctors, lawyers, political leaders, research scientist, engineers, and businessmen are the most obvious careers that require an education. What do all of these careers have in common? That they are essential not only to the continuation of the human race, but also the advancement. Humanity might be able to survive without bio-mechanical engineers, but we will certainly not advance. We need careers that require an education for civilization to make progress. While not everyone will go to college for any of the aforementioned occupations, their job will some way contribute to society, and at least it will give them a way to support themselves. Even people who choose not to attend college; their high school education has given them the ability to learn the skills they will need in their line of work.

The purpose of all the years of primary learning is to open the mind and as humans we need our minds to be opened by the time we need to learn skills for a career. The meaningful encoding of information is what will not only help one financially survive, but help society too. Education is what makes it possible for the human race to advance. Whatever way it is put the purpose of education is essential to life, as it first teaches one how to learn, and then one learns for a lifetime.