Impact and Power of Education in Human Life

One of the main reasons for our success as a species consists of our keen ability to pass on information and knowledge to our offspring so efficiently. With that being said, no one can dispute the massive importance of proper education on our society. But, why do we still fail to optimize education for our society’s betterment? Overall, we need to improve the United States education because it is inflexible and inefficient, stifles creativity, and does not have an equal and attention-grabbing environment .

Arguably most importantly, we need to enhance the US education because it is inefficient and inflexible, causing it to not allow accommodations for students personal needs. Paulo Freire, a world renowned educator and philosopher, recommends that we implement “Problem-Posing” Education in classrooms around the world, which allows for a more friendly and accomodating environment for the students, since the teachers merely guide the education but it is mainly directed by both them and the students equally (Source C). This shows that we may be thinking about education too directly nowadays and that we should expand our focus to other forms of education which are far, in similarity, from our own. On the other hand, our blatant inefficiency ails us tremendously as well. In Finland, teachers spend about half of the amount of time in the classroom as the US does and uses extra time to enhance their teaching skills (Source J). Furthermore, Source H states that Finland is among the highest performing countries when it comes to graduation rate (0.2% don’t graduate Compulsory School) and Upper-Education (ie. College) graduation rate is 93%, as opposed to the United States 73% (Source H). Overall, between these two sources, if the United States were to just mimic Finland’s teaching styles, then the US would be able to save time for students, while also enhancing the quality of education we receive through teacher improvement. Therefore, need to improve the efficiency and flexibility of classrooms around the US in order for us to evolve and gain passive power as a nation.

On the other hand, we need to redevelop schools around the nation because our education is designed in such a way as to suppress creativity, mostly in Math and Science classes. This is also something that Freire’s “Problem-Posing” education could help solve. This alternative morphs the student-teacher relationship towards being equal and one where the student is not afraid of mistakes, but rather welcomes them in turn for true learning (Source C). This means that students are now able to understand what is incorrect and correct, and through valid ways which allow for creative attempts towards solving a specific problem. Additionally, these skills are so vital for our future lives in nearly every aspect, due to how technologically progressive the world is today. The next best idea could, and most likely would, stem from encouragement during both success and failure throughout one’s education. In conclusion, merely implementing a more accepting environment for mistakes would solve this suppression of creative and innovative skills which are so useful for our lives later on.

Finally, the United States educational environment must evolve because it currently fails to adequately grasp a student’s undivided attention, which leads back to inefficiency in the classroom and causes an inability to focus and perform well in school, thus causing detrimental issues later on in life.

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