The Purpose Of Education :: Economics

The Purpose Of Education Education is an important part in every child's life, and here in Singapore, every child has to receive compulsory education. I believe that education is an important part in helping a child grow up, to make sure that a child grows up into a sensible and responsible adult. It is also important to make sure the child grows up into an independent person with the skills necessary to be in the workforce of a country. In order to achieve that, I feel that education has to be introduced at a young age. That way, children would be used to the environment, and be able to study more effectively when the child gets older, and more subjects are introduced. However, education cannot be too geared towards an academic approach. For example, I feel that the education system in Singapore is too exam-oriented. Though in Raffles Institution, there is no more focus on examinations, there still common tests and quizzes. Furthermore, other schools, specifically neighbourhood schools, still focus on examinations, which I think is a dangerous pitfall, since schools should not exist solely to make another person more knowledgeable. It should instead be used to help make the children's minds more creative, and not so rigid, in the sense that they would be able to look at things at different perspectives. This is clearly represented in "Gryphon". Mr. Hibler, a normal teacher in Five Oaks, follows the education system very faithfully. Paragraph 55 shows that Mr. Hibler had a lesson plan ready. Thus he was probably just going to tell the students some information about Egyptians. I feel that this kind of teaching, however, is not useful, since it just spoonfeeds the children with information. This information would be forgotten by the students very quickly after a few years. Next, we read on about how Ms. Ferenczi teaches the students. Mr. Hibler falls ill and is replaced by Miss Ferenczi. Miss Ferenczi, on the other hand, does not strictly follow Mr. Hibler's lesson plans, but instead she gives the students a lot of room for imagination. For example, in paragraph 64, Miss Ferenczi is supposed to talk about pyramids. However she asks the students to think of what was inside. Then she goes on to say that the nature of pyramids were to guide cosmic energy forces into a concentrated point. However, we know that this is not true. Thus she is apparently trying to encourage the children to imagine different things. This would be what I think the purpose of education should be. It should be to give children a chance to express their creativity, to