by Cody Hodge

Created on: November 30, 2008   Last Updated: January 05, 2010

Education is the single biggest advantage that a human being can have in getting ahead in life. It doesn't matter if someone is a Harvard educated president-elect, or a poor child in Nepal, everything you learn will help you get farther in life. Even if you think I'm being ridiculous, just think of what having an education did for the likes of Frederick Douglas. Education was the difference between being an ignorant former slave, and a famous American icon.

Since a good education is so crucial, recieiving a quality education is something that cannot be done halfway. What constitutes a good education? A good education has nothing to do with being able to pass standardized tests, or the abilitiy to memorize a date or a persons name.

A good education is something that is relevant to the learner. It should appeal to the interests and desires of the student. Education should be practical, yet well rounded in nature, something that will offer different viewpoints, and inspire the curiosity to learn more on ones own.

Obviously we all need to know how to read and write and do arithmetic. However, the learner needs to be able to take those basic principles and apply that to whatever is being done in life. For example, its great that someone can spell dog, or add two plus two, but it is even more powerful to be able to write something that truly says something. A great education will transform simple words into a message that will resound throughout the ages.

A good education won't be focused on things that don't interest the learner. While a child should learn what a parabola is, is it vital to the existence of the child if he cannot tell you what it is during dinner? Lets face it, there are plenty of things we learn in school that we quickly forget, and some things that no matter how briefly mentioned, are remembered forever. If a child is more interested in history in school, then why not let the kid learn as much history as possible? As soon as the child turns into an adult, he will just spend most of his time learning about history, a parabola isn't going to do much good. Why force a student interested in mechanics to study the history of France all day?

A well rounded education will realize that a learner will not want to learn if he is force-fed information that is boring or uninteresting. A good education will not take a learner interested in history, and force-feed them Newton's laws of physics. Instead, a curious learner should be allowed to learn about Newton and why his laws are so important. A curious learner will learn the laws, and not even know they are learning things that may not interest them normally. Small bits of every subject should be learned, but in a fun way that will not discourage someone from learning.

Education should be fun, interesting and practical. Learning should be viewed as an adventure, a way to improve ones life, not as something that is forced, and more work than pleasure.

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