[i习作temp] Flyer 杀G Issue 51 by Selinashen (估计是写的最差的呜呜呜） [复制链接]

selinashen
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发表于 2010-7-8 21:26:53 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

TOPIC: ISSUE51 - "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."
WORDS: 626
TIME: 00:45:00
DATE: 2010-7-8 下午 08:02:33

If Ralph Waldo Emerson's critique about education is sensible--that education is nothing but recitation, then this argument's emphasis on meeting individual's interests and needs couldn't be much better to tackle the problem about the effectiveness of education. Ever since the beginning of human civilization, education has become one of the dominant factors to personal enhancement and social development. Hence it is feasible to assert that education could meet the individual needs and interests effectively. Yet the further statement that education will be truly effective as long as it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests seems ill-conceived and impractical.

Generally, the practical function of education is to prepare us for future career. In this ever changing and competitive post-modernizational world, education has become the major approach for ordinary people to get a good job. And generally speaking, a good job can always equate to decent life. In this sense, education can influence the quality of person's life. Educational courses, be it finance or marketing, be it journalism or literature, can help students directly to fit in the future career. The quality and effectiveness of education can, to some extent, influence personal living standard on a larger scale. Quantitatively, the more people receive education, the better their lives are, and at the national scale, the better economic condition of the country is. Take Singapore for example, as a tiny country with limited natural resources, Singapore government invested a larger amount of money in education so as to maintain the economical momentum and improve social civilization in 1980s. This policy has a profound positive influence on Singapore’s objective in making a intellectual-focused industries. And its annual unemployment rate is less than 2% and most of people consider education as an wise investment for future lives.

Individual interests, meanwhile, is the metaphysical demand which could be various among different people. Education, with boundless courses, can meet individual interests in different subjects. And interest as the motivation agent, can boost people's study in certain areas. If we study for delight, for interest, or for ornamentation, we don't consider education as a tool to live a life, but a way to find our true selves. Philosophers in Ancient Greece considered studying as the way to find unique in every human being. As Aristotle claims; study is not for the sake of consequence, but for the sake of curiosity. Therefore everyone has different curiosity in the realm of natural science, social science and arts. We educate ourselves to be a better person, to understand the meaning of life, and to find the true self as long as we find our true interests.

Even education can meet the individual needs and interests generally, it can not, however, specifically designed to meet everyone's need. Unlike luxurious cars or other tailor-made accessories which are made according to buyer’s demand, and which the exchange relation will end after the deal finishes, education is the accumulative knowledge from our predecessors without a specific ending point. Therefore, each individual has a life-long relation with education.
Were specifically designed, education would be hard to carry out.
In addition to this argument, there is another issue that we can not ignore. In the area of education, we might not exactly and specifically know what we need and want. Education is a process of exploration, and it can never end. A chance conversation with a stranger might make you realize how ignorant your are in the knowledge of religion. Education itself is a life-long process of exploration. Hence, we might never know what we want until we have.

Education, the most pervasive and persuasive activity, is our spiritual fount that everyone can get spring from it but we can not ask it to specifically design to us.