A Proper Education

Essay by PaperNerd ContributorCollege, Undergraduate February 2002

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I don't think a proper education can be acquired just in the school, I think more learning comes from outside of school in your interests and curiosities. You learn what you want to learn and everything else is wasted. Mark Twain once said "I have never let my education interfere with my schooling.", and I agree with what he is trying to say.

        Education is derived from the Latin word educere, which means "bring to light", indicating that the purpose of education is not to learn trivial facts. The purpose, then, of an educator would be to help the student bring out his full potential, to "teach" him to think for himself, to be curious, to investigate, teach him to learn on his own. When school is out you can't be expected to know everything you need to know for the rest of your life, the most important thing in an education, then, would be to have the ability think for yourself.

Albert Einstein said, "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.", if it weren't for this curiosity we would still be living in caves gathering berries.

        One of the most important things in life is communication and the exchange of ideas. On September 23, 1999 the Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on its way to Mars due to a communication error involving metric to standard measurement conversions. Due to this simple mathematical communication error 327.6 million dollars were wasted. It is small communication errors like that, that can have a devastating effect in the long run.

        Page 2 History, if taught correctly, can be one of the most important things you can know. People can learn from others mistakes so the same mistakes are not repeatedly. History should not be an objective course but taught more like a...