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Education: Losing Its Value
Today, more and more people are attending third level education, and many
go on to post-graduate degrees. People specialize in subjects that were not
dreamed of a century ago. However, the result has not been an increase in real
knowledge, but a cheapening of education. In this essay I will discuss how
education has become devalued.
Education is now something that can be purchased. Like a powerful new car
or an architect-designed house, a degree or a post-graduate degree has become a
luxury that everyone wants. But when everybody has something, that thing becomes
worthless. Gold is sought after because it is expensive and hard to find, but if
everybody changed their attitude to gold, its value would drop.
In the same way, education, like the currency of a bankrupt country, is
becoming devalued as more people have degrees. It takes ever-higher
qualifications to get a job. Once a degree-holder was respected and listened to.
Now he or she is just another job-seeker or employee.
One effect of the rush towards degrees is that knowledge becomes less
important. Other factors, such as influence, are more central in getting a job
or a promotion when everyone has a qualification. A further point is that people
lose respect for themselves. Since everybody has a degree, even degree-holders
feel that what they have is almost worthless. More seriously, the pressure to
have degrees results in a drop in quality. When thousands of people study in a
college, the professors cannot possibly maintain standards. Furthermore, we need
to question whether advanced education is suitable for everyone. Does our entire
population really need to spend years in school and college just to do fairly
simple jobs?
In conclusion, there are many negative aspects to the increased emphasis on
qualifications. If we want to maintain the value of education, we need to
examine the emphasis we put on degrees. |
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发表于 2016-7-10 15:21:36