In my personal experiences I have yet to come across a social issue that is particularly aggravating. Especially controversial matters such as racism, bigotry, poverty, and sexism that permeates our society I find to be trivial and fundamentally impossible to solve. What I find most peculiar is that people optimistically strive to realize this notion of equality in what is an inherently unequal reality. However superficial, I find education to exemplify humanity’s desperate struggle to perfect our institutionalized and hierarchical societal structure in that it is definitely flawed but progress is seemingly unachievable and sisyphean. People are quick to point out flaws (and rightly so) in the American education system (and education in general) but they do so without actually realizing the validity of the status quo. Though the education system currently institutionalized possesses gaping and blatant flaws, it is best that we first understand its merits.
Education is arguably the foundation from which society is built—it imposes substantial influence on people’s development from youth to adulthood and is the system by which society classifies and categorizes individuals. As such, the manner in which education is carried through has substantial impact on the workings of society and gravely influences the manner in which people live. Being so important, education often is both overlooked and over-targeted. I myself have personal issues with education—one that stems from the system’s failure to efficiently relay information and over reliance and emphasis on extraversion. That being said, I still value our education system in its attempt to provide education that is able to be assessed and an education in which progress is quantifiable. A system that over-emphasizes the fostering of critical thinking and subjective, philosophical rationale is beneficial in some respects but fails in its inability to be effectively assessed. Homework is another aspect of education that is questionable in efficiency but undoubtedly necessary. Sometimes I feel homework has regressed into menial labor that does no good in developing the skills necessary to progress through life yet if applied correctly can be a beneficial tool that creates an environment that is more conducive to learning. The contrast that exists between efficient education and inefficient education exists, in my opinion, not due to a fundamental flaw in the system but due to the political, financial, logistical, and systemic limitations that inherently exists. To me it’s not a matter of the system being fundamentally defective and/or erroneous but a matter of flawed execution due to intrinsic limitations.
