The purpose of education
A teacher wrote to me: “In your opinion, what is the purpose of education? Is the purpose of education to meet the needs of the society? Based on your blog, it seems that you are proposing that college education to become like a vocational education? Do you think most teachers share your view? Please explain.”
Answer: In my opinion, the purpose of education is to develop the character of students so they can grow up and contribute to their society. Therefore, the goal of education is to meet the needs of the society and humanity. To do that effectively, students should also develop certain knowledge and skills that allow them to contribute to the society. Today, every country is being impacted by technology, and as a professor of technology, I advocate more technology training so our students can contribute to our society effectively. I do not consider a college education to become a vocational training, but it must address the need of our society. Today a college education must focus more on the application of certain knowledge and skills, especially science and technology, instead of pure academic and theories. Of course, knowledge and skills will change as the needs of society changes, but the developing of character for students should never change because they are the foundation of our culture. Therefore, the purpose of education is not only developing skills but also students’ characters, so they understand right from wrong, good from bad, ethical from unethical, and become good citizens.
In my opinion, education does not start in school, but in the family. Whatever students learn, they learn first from watching their parents’ behavior. Today many parents are too busy to make a living; they do not pay enough attention to the character development of their children. Many parents send their children to special schools to learn foreign languages or technologies to make sure they are not left behind their friends. However, these skills can be learned at any time, but the development of character and proper behavior always happen early in young children. How children behave, they learn it first from their parents. It is important for parents to pay attention to help their children develop this foundational character so they can rely on it for the rest of their lives. By having a strong moral character, when these children go to school they can overcome certain temptations and grow up to be a good person. When they go to work, no matter what happens, they will act according to their foundational character that they have learned earlier. Only then, they can contribute to their society.
In my opinion, when a country has more people with strong moral character, the negative influences, poor attitudes, bad habits that many corrupt people can be reduced. Why does today’s society is not as good as we wish? Because we do not have enough people with strong moral character. Many are easily tempted by greed and fame, etc. They only focus on their selfishness and act irresponsibly for anything. Therefore, a good education must start with the development of moral character so students can be filial to their parents, respect their teachers, law abiding citizens to their country, and contributors to humanity. As the purpose of education starts with the development of character, the roles for parents and teachers is to make it happens, to shape them to be people with strong character, with the skills and talents to be the innovators of this century.
In my opinion, everything begins with education. Only when we have a strong educational foundation, then the country can prosper. Only when education can produce enough talents, then the economy can grow better and able to compete globally.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
