The Purpose of Education :: School Learning Educating Essays Papers

The Purpose of trainingI suppose the reasons that brought me to St. Olaf in 2003 were shared by m each spirit to upper class Midwestern kids who had just calibrated from high school. We play by the rules and our attainment styles fit well into the frequent education brass (and maybe we were fairly smart too), so we had a piece of opus saying that we had a good GPA. Our parents had been grooming us for College of all time since we were little, fashioning us fill out practice applications and breathing out out of their instruction to drive us past the U of M on our carriage anywhere. We knew the rules If you dont get the degree, youll end up living in your parents basement and cleaning toilets for a living or pregnant (or, GASP, both). Those seemed like the only twain options at the fourth dimension sans degree. Plus, at least in my case, I had a big child at St. Olaf and I liked books and was motivated. All in all, it was just pass judgment of me and I was ok with it. T hen, how of all time, the summer after a truly data-based and not extremely educational freshman year, I spent a summer working on an organic spring up near Stillwater, MN and discovered what it felt like to truly learn. not just reading some book because I HAD to and wherefore throw away the schooling backbone out on a test, but questing for information and experiences because plants were FASCINATING and learning to drive a tractor was empowering and farming was complex, elegant, challenging and to a higher place all, very very real. For a suburban kid who didnt chicane what a love apple plant looked like and never had seen the inside of any machine, learning how to senesce food, the some necessary thing in behavior besides water, was the most relevant experience Id ever had. For the first duration in my life, I wasnt doing something because I gather uped the grade or the approval I was doing it because it interested me. So then I intractable I call for to drop out of school. tolerable with this book stuff, how does this ever relate to real life? Why do I need to know about Christianity in the 7 th century or the philosophical thoughts of dead white men or about the intimate workings of the Krebs cycle I want to cock in the dirt, I want to learn about how to keep squash rackets bugs off my cucurbits, and I want to fix fences and tractors.The Purpose of Education School Learning Educating Essays coverThe Purpose of EducationI suppose the reasons that brought me to St. Olaf in 2003 were shared by many middle to upper class Midwestern kids who had just graduated from high school. We played by the rules and our learning styles fit well into the public education system (and maybe we were fairly smart too), so we had a piece of paper saying that we had a good GPA. Our parents had been grooming us for College ever since we were little, making us fill out practice applications and going out of their way to drive us past the U of M on our way a nywhere. We knew the rules If you dont get the degree, youll end up living in your parents basement and cleaning toilets for a living or pregnant (or, GASP, both). Those seemed like the only two options at the time sans degree. Plus, at least in my case, I had a big sister at St. Olaf and I liked books and was motivated. All in all, it was just expected of me and I was ok with it. Then, however, the summer after a very experimental and not extremely educational freshman year, I spent a summer working on an organic farm near Stillwater, MN and discovered what it felt like to truly learn. Not just reading some book because I HAD to and then regurgitate the information back out on a test, but questing for information and experiences because plants were FASCINATING and learning to drive a tractor was empowering and farming was complex, elegant, challenging and above all, very very real. For a suburban kid who didnt know what a tomato plant looked like and never had seen the inside of an y machine, learning how to grow food, the most necessary thing in life besides water, was the most relevant experience Id ever had. For the first time in my life, I wasnt doing something because I needed the grade or the approval I was doing it because it interested me. So then I decided I needed to drop out of school. Enough with this book stuff, how does this ever relate to real life? Why do I need to know about Christianity in the 7 th century or the philosophical thoughts of dead white men or about the inner workings of the Krebs cycle I want to dig in the dirt, I want to learn about how to keep squash bugs off my cucurbits, and I want to fix fences and tractors.