UNST 101
10/07/2007
Short Analysis Paper on Education
My philosophy of education and view of the world are directly related. Education
in general is possibly the single most important thing in defining the world from our
perspective. It gives us ways in which to communicate and interpret ideas, create new
ideas, and apply existing or created ideas to aid in the development of modern culture,
new technology, and the expansion of our world. There are many different variables that
effect education: the region or political state it is shared, the background, previous
knowledge and capability of the student, the purpose of the student(in their mind)
learning the topic and the purpose of the educator teaching the topic. Before one can find
the most effective way to teach all variables should be considered. Although all the
attributes education brings may indeed be good for the betterment of mankind, education
may also be used as a type of construction of the soul that can most effectively be used in
the setting it is provided(a type of unavoidable propaganda). The argument would not be
is education a good thing, however what does the betterment of mankind mean and who
makes that decision. My view of the world was very closely related to the region and
culture in which I lived and the source in which it came from(the public school system),
until I became more educated. After realizing the complexity of the world, the people and
things in which it is composed of, and the ideas of the political state I was educated in,
An example of how education can differ from a regional and political standpoint
important topics such as how to catch food or how to properly plant a crop for the
purpose of survival. Where as a student at a university may be learning how to design
automobiles or how to form a business with a competitive advantage in the market place
which after they graduate will be applied in the workplace in order to keep their economy
going. Both examples are a form of education however the purpose, student, and “frame”
in which they are taught differ. In Eviatar Zerubavel‘s The Fine Line: Making
Distinctions in Everyday Life, The Free Press, 1991, Zerubavel explains the concept of
frames of reality in which we often use and may not realize. “Picture frames also make us
disregard the wall surrounding the picture. Like them, all frames basically define parts of
focused manner from all the out-of-frame experience that we leave “in the background”
and ignore.” This can be applied to culture as well. Although the stock market may have
just crashed in the frame of the indigenous reality it would have no effect, yet would have
a drastic effect on the realm of the student in the university. Because of the differences in
these “realms” of existence the education is relative to what is pertinent in the realm.
Teaching a very young student with no real idea of the world outside his or her
the physical world is provided for a base to learn from. A young student in an indigenous
culture may have no use for the same basic knowledge as a student in an aristocratic
culture. Once a student in any setting receives a basic knowledge he or she begins to
develop the capability to question his surroundings and think deeper into his or her
surroundings and than perhaps outside it’s surroundings. The previous knowledge they
receive will be concurrent to the purpose of the education. An indigenous culture may
teach important survival skills and roles in society for the continuation of the community,
where as an aristocratic culture will provide a basis for higher learning and tactics to
The natural ability of the student may be repressed by the educator inadvertently
Books, 1993, Freire explains how the educator uses a type of banking education to fill the
students mind rather than have them think critically. “The teacher talks about reality as if
topic completely alien to the existential experience of the students. His task is to "fill" the
students with the contents of his narration -- contents which are detached from reality,
disconnected from the totality that engendered them and could give them significance.
Words are emptied of their concreteness and become a hollow, alienated, and alienating
verbosity.” If an educator can simply give the student the information and the student in
turn remembers only what was said and not why or how it relates to their world, the
student can easily be manipulated into thinking the way the educator would like them to.
citizen”. In my opinion, the system realizes that not every student will become their
model citizen, however most will and that is all they need to keep the structure of their
other wise chaotic society, organized. On the contrary Freire also mentions a type of
autonomous education where the student is encouraged to think freely and not influenced
by the political views or ideals of the educator. The student is also encouraged to question
anything and everything. Use a type of analytical thinking to solve problems which exist
amongst not only his or her realm but the entire fathomable existence of the “world”, and
search for solutions to those problems. In a banking type of education the student would
be looked down upon for questioning the educator and is asked to accept what is for what
is. A student with a high aptitude for learning in a banking style education system will in
turn be repressed from creating insightful conclusions about the topics he or she is
A truly remarkable attribute of the human mind is its ability to create thoughts.
Ideas and sciences that once, to our race, were non-existent are now used in every day life
and often pleasurably taken for granted. Without the ability for a student of any kind to
think freely and validate a fact or idea this ability to create new thoughts and ideas would
suffer eminently. Therefore a students own reasoning of himself must be analyzed before
learning any motif. In my experience as a student, with other students, the most frequent
barrier between thinking critically and not is one in which he has created. The ability to
comprehend any difficult entity lies within everyone. Even if there are people who
exhibit a finer capability of assimilation more than others everyone is capable of thinking
freely. A mind can make up for what it lacks in natural ability by using pure
math class a student will simply say a problem is too hard, or a reading is stupid because
it does not make sense. Since the reading or equation does not relate to pop culture, their
friends, or anything that matters to them they see no use in analyzing it further and almost
cultural and political “realms”, and students natural ability all play a role in creating these
barriers. If the student can collectively take all these variables into account when
approaching education he or she will be successful in any classroom.