roles of education in society

roles of education in society

Education has been the primary driver in the advancement of human civilization during humankind’s time on earth. Education plays a key role in improving society. The aphorism education is the key to success signifies the importance of education to modern society. Success, of course, is subjective, but in broad terms, it entails the improvement of either the individual, the society, or both, and education is pivotal. Human beings are born with sentient characteristics, but to truly become participants in society, they have to acquire knowledge about the world and how it works. This is why access to education is contemporarily considered a global basic human right. However, in recent times education has been tempered with indoctrination, which is the process of ingraining ideas and attitudes into a person. This obstructs the indoctrinated person’s ability to question the doctrine they have learned. It is, therefore, vital to learn the distinction between education and indoctrination. Education is important to society because it equips people with the knowledge of values, attitudes, and behaviors necessary to make a positive difference, unlike indoctrination, which limits a person’s ability to reason.

One of the most important roles of education is to teach the habit of critical thinking in the learner, which is essential to society. Education, in its essence, is supposed to teach a person think to critically evaluate the ideas and concepts and decide which is the most ideal for the betterment of their society. Evaluating these ideas involves thinking critically and hearing thoughts from others and using the knowledge acquired to improve the community. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato argues that those people who have gained expertise and enlightenment should not “linger …..and refuse to go down again….and share their labors and honors” (752). Plato argues that it is the role of people who have acquired education to go back and actively participate in the education of other people who also require the same knowledge. Education, therefore, is aimed at improving society. Critical thinking is acquired from mastery and borrowing from various disciplines of knowledge. This is why the Newman’s argued that University should aim at equipping students with the ability to “identify connections and engage humanity’s most difficult philosophical questions, social issues, and scientific problem” (3). A society of people who exercise critical thinking is less likely to fall victim to sentiments of biases such as gender bias and racial bias. Through critical thinking, a person can also assess the problems that are plaguing society and come up with sustainable solutions that can improve society. In this way, education helps to solve the many issues that affect society and consequently enhances the said society as a whole.

Education is also vital for society because it uplifts those who have been systemically oppressed hence creating a world where everyone can contribute to society. Throughout history, many nations in the world have been blighted by discrimination against people who are deemed to have inferior traits. In the US, for example, racism, gender inequality, and other forms of discrimination are societal ills that encumbers the ability of all Americans to actively and positively participate in society. However, with education, people on both sides of the discrimination line, that is, those who discriminate and those who are discriminated against gain useful knowledge that dispels the many falsehoods that are used as the basis for propagating discrimination. For instance, in “Shakespeare’s Sister,” Woolf writes that “nothing is known about women before the eighteenth century” (2267). This implies that women were repressed in those days and treated as subordinates to men. However, as people continued to become more literature about women came out, the voice of women became more prominent, leading to feminism and the contemporary push towards gender equality.

The benefits of education are important. However, in modern society, indoctrination as a pedagogical method is becoming more prevalent. Indoctrination is aimed at propagating a particular point of view. For instance, religious teachings are common examples of indoctrination as they teach people to follow a specific faith. Education, on the other hand, involves cultivating the wisdom of a person by exposing them to various schools of knowledge. In spite of these differences, there is an element of indoctrination in education. This is because even the most objective and well-meaning forms of education are based upon an assumption of what is good for society. This aspect of indoctrination in education is amplified in the film Matrix. According to the film, the world is a virtual reality created by machines. Everyone “born into a prison that you (Neyo) cannot smell or taste or touch.” Similarly, human beings are born into societies that governed by acceptable values and attitudes, primarily doctrines, which are perpetuated in all the education forms in society. Because human beings, who inherently have firmly held beliefs, are the ones who are tasked in spreading education, there will be hints of indoctrination as they try to instill their firmly held beliefs onto their students. This is seen in some Colleges where various forms of indoctrination in these educational institutions have left “little to no room is allowed for different, much less opposing viewpoints” (Kenny 23). In America, here are established values such as the need for peace, civility importance of paying taxes, the importance of education, and many others that are inherently perpetuated where advertently or inadvertently to the learner who grows up in America. Therefore, not all indoctrinations are necessarily destructive, and every form of education as long as human beings administer it will have an element of indoctrination.

However, even though there is an element of indoctrination in education, the two concepts are different when it comes to their core aims, and there are consequences. Indoctrination is aimed at inculcating a particular doctrine into a person. Education, on the other hand, is aimed at improving the wisdom of the learner. The other difference between the two concepts is that indoctrination devalues the learner’s ability to reason by shoving a doctrine down their throats. At the same time, education respects a person’s ability to reason and only aims at developing this ability. Indoctrination also tends to recognize a single source of authority. Education, on the other hand, appreciates different authorities regarding knowledge and presents them to the student for them to reason and decide what is best. Indoctrination also characterizes disagreement as a slight or an insult while in education, reasonable disagreement is welcomed and encouraged. Also, indoctrination propagates final truths such as the Marxist doctrine that argues that “the history of all society hitherto is a history of class struggles” (Marx and Engels, 17). Education, on its part, propagates tentative truths that can change over time.

Education is an essential aspect of the modern world. As society becomes larger and more integrated, it requires the effort of all the people to contribute to the benefit of the community. People have inherently different perceptions and are bound to disagree. This is where education comes in as it presents people with knowledge for them to deliberate on either by themselves as a society and agree upon the best course for their societies. Education is vital as it teaches people how to think critically and deliberate with each other to emerge with solutions for the problems that ail society. At its core, education is meant to equip the individual to make a positive contribution to society. However, because education needs people to teach others, indoctrination is also rife in society. Indoctrination is whereby people are instructed to follow a particular doctrine. Because human societies have several specific values and ideas that they hold dear, and because education generally involves a person teaching another indoctrination is inherent even in education. However, the two are different in that education is aimed at improving the wisdom and reasoning abilities of a person, while indoctrination is aimed at teaching a person to think in a particular way.