麻烦各位看看怎么改。。。摆脱哈。。。TOPIC: ISSUE51

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TOPIC: ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."
WORDS: 837
TIME: 00:53:12
DATE: 2009-8-17 13:10:49

There is hardly any debate on the importance of education, which is the utimate force civilizing the society and the ladder ascending personal social status and income. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of various education systems has been controversial throughout the history, as there can hardly be any absolute scientific and quantitative metric to measure the system. However, education should be invested by the government, institution and individual to satisfy two demands, the need of the society and support a healthier, safer and better life of individuals. While personal interests and needs play a vital role in determining the realization of those goals, other metrics also should be considered in judging the effectiveness of education.

Without doubt, personal need and interest is with great significance as it decides the individual productivity and mental satisfaction, which is one of the most important criteria judging outcome of our education. Imagining Picaso, Da Vinci and Coco Chanel were forced into learning biology and mechanical science also subsequently devoted into such field afterwards, the loss would not be their suffering in a sad career and unsatisfied life, but also the misery of all human beings by seeing some of the most brilliant cultural phenomenon and jewels on the crown of civilization tarnished and hammered into steals. It is also true that in societies where huge peer pressure pushed individuals into majors where financial income is
secured yet personal interests and happiness is sacrificed, like China and Japan, suicide rates are far higher than those in Western European countries where more liberal choice in education is provided.

On the other hand focusing on individual's needs and interests is vital, individuals need to be led to learn about what they want and discover their real personalities, which will not be realized until the person reaches 20, by earliest. From this perspective, compulsory education on all different fields and studies should be conducted. Such education does not only provide the people with a comprehensive view stand of the world but also equip them with necessary tools of acquiring knowledge in a later stage of their life. Without being presented a full spectrum of knowledge and subjects, one can hardly decide their personal interests and needs while most people's personalities undergo major shift between 12 and 18. Compulsory educations in different fields provide us with various options during those psychological changes and lead to a better understanding of the exact and authentic individual needs. Without having an in-depth understanding of ourselves, our personal interest fluctuates and most of the times the fluctuation is led by the rewarding regime of the society. There are also numerous examples when blind pursuit of interests led to unwise decision of career and education choice. Taking financial degrees, which is claimed to be the king of all jobs, is the choice of countless students since they falsely believed they have pure interest it, without realizing it is solely driven by money. During the financial downturn, most people now adopt jobs in government institutions and education system, where a more stable career path is provided, people who wrongly choose financial career now understand their interests do not lie in the field anymore once the flashy facade is gone but their huge investments in the degree is no where to find anymore.

Meanwhile, the education should support the constant growth of the society, especially in special era like in war times and epidemic period, when people in certain fields are highly demanded to save the society out of misery. Someone may argue those necessities and demands from the society perish the individual happiness and needs. However, a brief exam into the history we can discover that such intensive training and rare practices during special era and missions equip a person with lasting merit he/she can capitalize from for the rest of their lives. Combining those skill sets with their personal interest generate more unique result and career than a mundane interest-focused training could ever achieve. The Time Magazine recently examined the life of the 2 dozens moon walkers and astronauts at the 40 anniversary of the Apollo mission. Many of them combined their training and skills acquired 4 decades ago with their personal interests in art, finance or industry and became pillar in their fields. Those achievements could hardly come to reality if they did not undergo the rigorous training to meet US government's unique demand in 1960s, also their personal interests could never be satisfied in such a grand scale if they were chosen to
fulfill the mission.

All in all, meeting not only personal interests and needs, an effective education system should also satisfy the requirement of the person and the society, while personal interest play the key role in deciding a effective education and curriculum, people need to be exposed to a more comprehensive subjects and fields. While people arguing the nation and the society's needs demand the sacrifice of individual happiness, combining the skills sets which satisfy the need for the majority with the a individual's personality enhance the outcome of the education and training.

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