We should fund college education for all Americans because knowledge is the basis of success - Essay Example

We should fund college education for all Americans because knowledge is the basis of success There are many cases in which stop their education half way through and will go after something else. Such students will realize the importance of education only after sometime. Knowledge makes a person perfect. Some people believe that the need of education is only to grab a job. The above perception is a wrong one. Education helps a person immensely in leading a successful life in many ways. Huge expenses of college education are the major reason for the drop outs of students from American colleges. Because of the dipping of American economy, financial problems are evident in most of the families. Americans usually spend more than what they earn and they do not have the habit of saving much for the future. Whenever they are in need of money, they approached the financial institutions in America for loans and before the recession problems; they found no hurdle in getting the loans sanctioned from the banks. For meeting the expenses of college education, many of the American students used the aid from financial institutions. However, because of recession, American financial institutions now tightened the norms and hence the college students are not getting enough financial aids from these institutions. Considering the importance of college education, American government should give enough funds to all who admitted in the colleges In family or society, only the educated people are well respected. The society will hear and respect the words of the educated people better than that of other’s. Only the educated person will be capable of meeting and solving the life challenges more effectively. College education will provide an opportunity to get good jobs which is necessary for securing the future life. Though the aim of college education is not limited to getting good jobs alone, it can certainly help people lead a life as a good citizen of the country. Completion of Pre secondary education was considered as a decent educational level around 50 or 75 years ago because of the limited knowledge base. But the advancements in every field of life especially in science and technology have made it almost impossible to survive without college education. Entry into a good professional organization is not an easy task in the present century. In order to prepare a person for an entry level in an organization, the minimum qualification required is graduation. The organizations may give the person formal training in the required areas to develop skills, once he is appointed. But just to apply for a post in a reputed organization the person must have a graduation. “In recent years, researchers in Africa, Asia and elsewhere have found that people in non-Western cultures often have ideas about intelligence that differ fundamentally from those that have shaped Western intelligence tests”(Benson). Intelligence is believed to be a culture dependent entity. In other words, the nature of intelligence in American culture and Asian culture are entirely different. Because of this difference in nature of intelligence, it is difficult to assess the intelligence of a culturally diverse community with the help of a standardized test. Americans had an illusion earlier that the nature of their intelligence is far more superior to that of others. However, Americans now realized that their assumptions were only illusions and there are many cases in which people from other cultures dominate over the Americans. For example, the recent recession has caused major problems to American economy whereas Asian countries like India, china etc escaped from recession without much problems. Many of the CEOs of American companies are of foreign origin now. Indra Nui, the CEO of PepsiCo is one best example. The current American president is from a black origin and the current Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal is a person of Indian origin. Moreover, in many of the reputed science and research agencies like NASA, people of foreign origin are dominating over the Americans. In short, the quality of American education or the structure of American education has some basic problems. Quality college education is the basic necessity to the future success of America. Yet, available evidences suggest that America public education system is failing in their pursuit to prepare its students with the skills necessary for the future. “It is a well-known fact that a large majority of our nation’s students are not reading on grade level, and this can have devastating effects on their education” (Boyer & Hamil, p.6) Reading is an essential requirement for improving the knowledge. Most of the American students spend more time for surfing internet and playing videogames and they gave up the idea of reading to improve their knowledge base. In the absence of reading, it is difficult to improve the numerical skills and the analytical skills. It is necessary to have all these skills well developed, not only to succeed in college examinations, but also for facing the realities of life in future as well. “A recent survey by the Centre for Education Policy found that 71 percent of the America’s 15,000 school districts had lessened the amount of class time given to subjects like history, music, art and others” (Kingsley). Subjects like languages, music, arts etc are intended to develop creativity among the students. However, current American students think that learning arts subjects is simply wastage of time and hence thy give more attention to the science subjects. This trend adversely affected the development of creativity and moral values among the students. Morality and ethical standards have lessened in the American system of education because fo the less importance given to the arts subjects. Teachers are helpless in providing individual attention to the students because of the big sizes of the classes even in colleges. Moreover, lack of skilled teachers has added to the problem. Teaching is a skilled work. It is not necessary that a well qualified person may become a good teacher. The narrative skills or the methodologies of the teacher are important rather than the qualifications. American college education is facing lack of skilled teachers and the drop outs of teachers are more in American colleges. Though the main purpose of education is for developing good citizens, the professional value of education cannot be underestimated. Education is one of the essential requirements for achieving a professional career. In a world of knowledge explosion, only the education makes a person capable of meeting the professional challenges. Fine tuning of knowledge and skills are essential for professional advancements. The organizational theories and scientific management theories are undergoing constant changes based on the new concepts like globalization and liberalization. A person who does not have ideas about the changing trends in the world may not be a success in his profession. “In today's business world, your options for career advancement can be limited --or sometimes eliminated-- by not having a post-secondary education. Many types of careers actually require post-secondary education as a prerequisite for entry to that particular field” (Nutt). The only way of improving the standards of American college education is adequate funding.  College students should get enough financial assistance from the government for completing their college education. The teachers should get enough salaries and the infrastructure facilities available in the college campuses should be improved. Learning of arts subjects should be encouraged at the college level. To conclude, considering the immense advancements other countries made in manpower developments, America should give more attention and funding to the college level education in order to mould a future generation for the nation building process. Works Cited 1. Benson, Etienne. “Intelligence Across Cultures”. 2003. American Psychological Association. February 2003, Vol 34, No. 2. Web. 30 January 2011. 2. Boyer, Ashley & Hamil, Burnette Wolf. “Problems Facing American Education”. 2008. FOCUS ON COLLEGES, UNIVERSITIES, AND SCHOOLS, VOLUME 2, NUMBER 1, 2008 Web. 30 January 2011. 3. Brock, Kingsley, U.S. education problems, Web. 30 January 2011. 4. Nutt, Amy “The Importance of Post-Secondary Education in Furthering Your Career”,2009. Read More