essay on why elementary education is important

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Why is elementary education so important.

It’s widely known that early education plays a critical role in how students perform in their later school years. Understanding just how crucial these early education years are is important.

According to The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the annual average learning gain for students in kindergarten through second grade is higher than at any time during a child’s years in school. And the ability to read proficiently by fourth grade is so important that not doing so often puts kids on track to drop out of high school.

For teachers considering a master’s degree in education, focusing on elementary education offers a chance to become a leader in this critical area.

The Power of Reading

While there are important aspects to elementary education across all subjects, almost all of it comes back to the ability to read. Reading is how students can be introduced to every educational subject presented to them. And although it’s a skill we learn at a young age, reading is complex. Students need the opportunity to ask questions, make predictions and grasp words they may not completely understand based on their contextual use.

Teachers of elementary education have to stretch their teaching skills to face the challenges of teaching children to read.  Students in any given classroom possess a vast range of reading skills. Elementary school teachers must have strategies to help students interpret complex ideas, develop critical skills, synthesize information from diverse sources and use reading to learn about all subjects.

This requires a high level of teaching expertise in elementary education – something that the state of Massachusetts requires.

A Master of Education with a focus on elementary education can prepare teachers to become leaders both in the classroom and with their peers, helping them find strategies that will lead to better outcomes for students.

What You’ll Learn in a Master’s Degree Program

Because of the challenging nature of elementary education, quality master’s degree programs are designed to give graduates expertise in a range of areas.

In the Merrimack College Master of Education programs, students take classes on a variety of topics, including the following.

[maxbutton id=”3″ url=”https://online.merrimack.edu/m-ed-in-elementary-education/” text=”ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEGREE” ]

Teaching and Learning in the Inclusive Classroom

Teachers learn how to use different instructional strategies to accommodate students of varying backgrounds, learning styles and levels of academic readiness. They also learn how to create cooperative, orderly and motivational student environments.

Foundations of Language and Reading

Good reading skills are the foundation for academic achievement. Teachers taking this course learn the fundamental skills behind language and reading development.

Reading Strategies and Interventions

This course provides an introduction to the significant theories, practices, and programs for developing literacy skills in students with learning challenges. This includes students from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, as well as students with limited experience in an educational environment.

Math Methods for the Elementary School

Students learn how to teach math skills to students from diverse backgrounds and experiences. This includes developing learning objectives, instructional methods, and assessment techniques. This course is designed with consideration for recommendations from the professional standards established by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, among other sources.

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Social Studies and World Geography

This course focuses on teaching skills in three areas of social studies: the development of geography skills and global awareness, the development of history skills that include critical, creative and analytical thinking, and cooperative learning, vocabulary, and concept formation.

Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment in Science, Health and Physical Education

Students learn teaching methods that promote the development of cognitive and scientific reasoning, as well as strategies for teaching science and assessing students’ understanding. Other sections of the course deal with health education, laws and regulations on student health and safety, warning signs that students are experiencing issues and development of school physical education programs.

Massachusetts and Elementary Education

The Merrimack College degree program prepares teachers for the MTEL exams. Massachusetts requires these exams before teachers can earn the Initial License to teach in Massachusetts.  Preparation for the exams is a part of the degree program. The MTEL exams required are:

• Communication and Literacy Skills
• Math and Multi-Subject subtests of the General Curriculum exam
• Foundations of Reading

Merrimack College provides a degree program that meets the state’s rigorous standards. The Elementary education years are some of the most important in the life of a student. They deserve teachers who have trained themselves to work at the highest possible level.

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27 Facts on the Importance of Education (Essay or Speech)

Are you in need of ideas for an importance of education essay?

Here is a list of 27 ideas that will get you started!

These ideas come from a variety of online sources and links have been provided in case you need to provide references in your essay .

This article lists ideas on the importance of education to a person’s life (Points 1 – 16) and to society (Points 17 – 27).

Importance of Education to a Person’s Life

1. education helps people out of poverty.

Poverty is linked to low education . Families that are poor are usually less educated than families that are rich. Plus, if you are born into a low educated poor family, chances are high that you too will end up low educated and poor.

One way poverty affects education is through the direct costs. Even when school is free, the costs of uniforms, travel, and so on can be very difficult for families to cover.

To escape the poverty trap cycle , people need to gain a higher education than their parents and find upwardly mobile employment (this means: jobs that help you get from the working class into the middle class).

Here’s some facts to back up this point.

A recent report found that people with a college education are statistically less likely to be in poverty. Of people over the age of 25, only 2% of college graduates were in poverty. That compares to 13% of high school graduates over 25.

Related Article: How Can Health Influence Learning?

2. Education helps People make More Money

Jobs that require a higher education are usually more highly paid than unskilled jobs. This is because the jobs are more difficult and require a more specialized skillset. If you get an education in a skill area where there is a shortage of available workers, your wages will increase.

To underscore this point, Brookings presented findings that show:

“An individual with a college degree is nearly nine times more likely to make over $100,000 than someone with only a high school diploma and 13 times more likely to make more than $200,000 per year.”

Today, jobs that are in demand, require a high education and pay quite well include:

• Software developer (USD $101,000)
• Health care administrator (USD $98,000)
• Medical Technologist (USD $51,000)

Source: CNBC .

3. Highly Educated People have a Better chance of Getting a Job

Jobs are not that easy to come by these days – even for people with degrees. But there’s statistically a higher chance of you getting a job if you have a higher education.

The 2017 report Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society found that people with higher education have lower rates of unemployment.

In 2015, younger people (ages 25 – 34) with bachelor’s degrees had an unemployment rate of 2.6%. High school graduates of the same age range had an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent.

That’s a huge difference that underscores the correlation between education and employability.

>>>You Might Also Like: 21+ Ways to Make an Essay Longer

4. Highly Educated People are Statistically Healthier

Statistically, the higher your education, the healthier you are. This could potentially be due to a few factors including:

• Stable jobs with regular hours allow you to plan exercise;
• Cultural differences between working-class and middle-class people;
• More money to participate in recreational activities.

Whatever the reason, the facts stand for themselves. One of the major facts is this:

In 2014, 26% of high school graduates smoked cigarettes. In the same year, only 8% of college graduates smoked cigarettes.

Source: Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society

5. Highly Educated People Volunteer More

Educated people tend to do better when it comes to volunteering. The reasons for this may be very similar to the reasons for being more fit. Reasons could include:

• Stable jobs with regular hours allow time to plan regular volunteering hours;
• Highly educated people are less likely to work two jobs;
• People who are well educated have more money to travel to and from their volunteering locations.

Again, it’s a good idea to back this claim up with some facts.

In 2015, 39% of college graduates reported that they volunteered that year. Among high school graduates, it was just 16% who reported that they volunteered.

6. Education helps People make Better Decisions

We have already established that people with a higher education have more job security and more money.

The flow-on effect of this is that they can make better decisions.

When you are more certain that you have money coming in every week, you’ll be able to plan our your budget more. You’ll also have the money to make decisions about living in safer neighborhoods with more public services.

Furthermore, higher education usually teaches critical thinking skills . This means people who’ve been trained in critical thinking may have an advantage when making tough decisions. They will have the education to know how to handle complex decision-making processes.

7. Education helps People make Long-Term Decisions

Not only will highly educated people have the skillset to make tough decisions, they will also have the money to make long-term decisions.

If you have a stable job with a high income each month, you’re more likely to get a loan for a home. You also have the freedom to start investing into your retirement funds.

As you can see, the correlation between high education and high incomes has huge flow-on effects for quality of life.

8. Education can increase Social Status

An education from a respected educational institution can open lots of doors for you.

Many students from around the world flock to nations like the United Kingdom, United States and Australia to get degrees from top-ranking education nations.

Similarly, if you make it to a higher-ranking school or university such as Harvard, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford or Princeton you’ll get a lot of social status just for having attended the university.

Even at compulsory school age there are elite institutions. For example, the private school named Eton College in the UK is known for producing no less than 19 British Prime Minsters .

When you get social status from going to a good school or university, we say you have institutional or cultural capital .

This degree from a well-respected university may get you that job interview you were looking for. But, it could also get you social status amongst family, friends and – yes – potential future partners!

9. Education makes People better Conversationalists

Have you ever had a conversation with a person and they were just really interesting? They seemed to know a lot of things and be able to talk to you about anything.

Well, that person is likely very well educated.

In fact, we have some words to describe people who are well-educated in a broad range of topics. You could call them:

• A renaissance man
• A renaissance woman

There is also a type of education designed to help you become a polymath. It’s called a Liberal Education and you get it by doing a Liberal Arts Degree from a university.

10. Education helps People get Access to Important Information

In the dark ages in Europe very few people had the ability to read.

This meant that knowledge held in books was only available to very few people.

When people don’t have access to knowledge, they’re in a very vulnerable situation. They can’t educate themselves on important information and have a harder time making decisions.

Nowadays, most people in the developed world can read. This huge advance in education levels has enabled any of us to go out there and access information.

In fact, you’re doing that right now! Aren’t you glad you can read?

Educated people also have the knowledge about how to access important information. We’re taught at school about encyclopaedias and libraries. At university we’re taught about scholarly sources and how to access them .

Combine the ability to read with the skills to access information and anyone can help educate themselves on anything. You just need a basic level of education to get started!

11. Education enables People to Critically Analyze ideas

At school, you’re not just being taught facts.

You’re also being taught how to think.

This ability to think involves some pretty advanced strategies like:

• Skepticism: The reluctance to believe something until you see the facts;
• Critical Thinking : the ability to look at something from multiple perspectives;
• Analytical Thinking : the ability to investigate something deeply to find answers.

With these fantastic skills, you can go a long way! You’re less likely to be tricked into believing something that’s not true. You’ll also be able to think things through and come to reasonable, rational conclusions.

12. Education can Help People (especially Women) become Independent and Powerful

Women’s education is a major focus of the United Nations.

This is because many women who are not educated are dependent on their families or husbands to make money.

When women become educated, they can become independent . They can work in better paid jobs, move into more powerful positions in workplaces, and earn an income that’s independent of their husbands.

In the long run, this will mean that women have an equal say in the development of our world.

Furthermore, women with jobs can contribute financially to their families which can help move the whole family out of poverty and give them a better standard of living.

Read Also: Why is School Important?

13. Education reduces Unplanned Pregnancies and Sexual Diseases

Basic education on sex and relationships can dramatically reduce sexual diseases and unplanned pregnancies.

Here’s some facts:

The Borgen Project cites that completion of primary school will reduce a person’s chances of getting HIV. In fact, it reduces girls’ chances of contracting the illness 3-fold.

Educated people also have smaller families and they have them later in life. In Mali , women with a high school education have an average of 3 children. Women without a high school education have an average of 7 children.

14. Education helps us Realize our own Potential

Through education, we learn about what we like and don’t like. We learn all about things from science, math, languages and history.

After contemplating all of these different topics, we’ll be more capable of living our best life.

If you don’t get educated, you won’t open up your horizons and learn about the world. You may end up being stuck in an insular life without having experienced all the great things life has to offer.

You don’t need to go to school for this. Maybe being educated for you is just about reading books on a lot of different topics.

Either way, by educating yourself, you can realize your potential and live a more meaningful life.

15. Education can bring Enjoyment to People’s Lives

Unfortunately, it’s often overlooked that education can be pleasurable for its own sake.

I’ve talked all about how education can help people out of poverty, get them jobs, make them more powerful and less sick.

But it’s also important to remember that education can simply be enjoyable and therefore be important for helping you be happy.

Have you ever learned something really cool and just been glad you know that information now?

That’s what I mean by education being a fun activity on its own.

When people are learning just because they love learning, we say they are intrinsically motivated . This is the opposite to extrinsic motivation where people learn things so they can get a reward like a better job.

16. Education makes you more Tolerant

There is some evidence that highly educated people may be more tolerant than lowly educated people.

To take just one example, people from Latin America with a high school education are 45% more tolerant toward people with HIV than Latin Americans with only an elementary school education.

Similarly, Lorelle Espinosa argues that colleges are ideal locations for teaching tolerance. She argues:

The foundations of tolerance run deep in the college classroom, where students learn and confront new ideas, issues and experiences at times vastly different than their own.

This is, of course, if you have a good teacher who’ll teach you different people’s perspectives!

>>>You Might Also Like: How to Write a Top University Essay

Importance of Education to Society

17. education prevents diseases in society.

Health education in classrooms can make an entire society healthier and live longer.

Health care education helps people avoid risky activities and behaviors, conduct basic first aid when someone is injured, and learn when they need to see a doctor.

The Population Reference Bureau argues that education of women on matters of health is especially important because they often set the standards for household behaviors like regularly washing your hands.

Educating children on health is also very important for the future health of a society.

That’s why Save the Children spends a lot of money on health education in developing countries. Here’s what they say the benefit of education is for children’s health:

Most importantly, through education, students learn how to adapt their daily habits to improve their health, nutrition, hygiene and prevent HIV and AIDS, gaining these important skills and behaviors for life.

18. Education helps a Country’s Economy Grow

When the population of a country is more educated, the whole country gets wealthier. This surely highlights the importance of education!

Here’s some facts that might be useful for you:

Hanushek and Wobmann (2010) looked at the evidence on the links between economic growth and education. They found that good quality education systems have a strong connection to long-term economic growth in a society.

Here’s their conclusion:

Economic growth is strongly affected by the skills of workers. What people know matters.

Hassan and Rafaz (2017) looked at economic growth in Pakastan between 1990 and 2016. They argue that:

[A] 1% increase in female education, female labour force participation, education expenditure and fertility rate causes 96% increase in GDP of Pakistan

Woah! Education of women appears to be a powerful way of increasing the wealth of entire societies.

19. Education can attract High Paying Jobs of the 21 st Century

You might have heard that manufacturing and factory jobs are becoming pretty rare in developed nations.

Because the high paying jobs of the future won’t be in unskilled labor. Those jobs are disappearing and going to poorer nations.

Instead, all the good jobs of the future will require a very high education level.

Often teachers like me talk about skills for the 21 st Century . These are skills like:

• Creative thinking ;
• Critical thinking;
• Communication;
• Collaboration;
• Digital literacy

If children today aren’t educated on these important skills, they’ll have trouble finding the best jobs. And if a whole society falls behind in education, those good jobs will move overseas to where the most highly educated workers can be found.

20. Education can Prevent Wars and Conflicts

History lessons can be very powerful for helping is prevent the mistakes of the past.

If you want to avoid the mistakes of history, you have to learn about how they were made. By educating people about the events leading up to World War 1 and 2, we might be able to teach people how to avoid the same mistakes again.

Similarly, if a society is well educated on the dangers and heartbreak of wars, those wars might be prevented.

This happened during the Vietnam War when students on college campuses began protesting the war . These students worked hard to teach people all over the United States about what was really happening in Vietnam.

War journalists were also instrumental in educating the public on the terrible effects of the war. Video footage, photos and news reports sent back to the United States helped educate the population and helped boost the anti-war efforts.

21. Education is good for Democracy

Most first world nations ensure children are taught democratic citizenship .

Teaching the values of democratic societies – like the fact that we should elect our leaders – helps to keep democracy going.

If we don’t teach about how good democracy is for our freedom and prosperity, we may sleepwalk into an evil dictatorship!

Democracy is about more than voting. It’s about learning the importance of treating each other respectfully, volunteering in our community, and respecting each other’s liberty.

I think Senator Michael Bennet sums this one up well when he says in his blog post :

With education, the common man would be able to select leaders wisely and fight back against the tyrannical instincts of those in power.

22. Education leads to Medical and Technological Breakthroughs

Before we became obsessed with the link between education and money, societies still invested heavily in public universities.

Because strong higher education systems can lead to technological and medical breakthroughs.

Here’s a few things that people invented while learning and researching at universities:

• The Seat Belt: Invented at Cornell University
• Gatorade: Unvented at the University of Florida
• Ultrasound: Developed at the University of Vienna
• CAT Scans: Developed at Georgetown University
• GPS: Developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Polio Vaccine: Developed at the University of Pittsburgh

23. Education can lead to Entrepreneurship

The online website Talk Business argues that entrepreneurs are always in need of more education. They argue:

…at their core [Entrepreneurs] are problem solvers and spend their time investigating potential solutions.

In order to solve problems, entrepreneurs enroll themselves in courses, read books, listen to podcasts and pay for mentors. In other words, they’re huge self-educators.

The article goes on to explain that entrepreneurs often don’t seek out a formal education from a school or university. Instead, they seek out answers to their questions from people who have already solved the problems.

So, education is good for business – but don’t narrow your definition of education. Education can come in all shapes and sizes.

24. Education may be the Solution to Global Problems like Climate Change

There’s two ways education can help us get out of the problem of climate change.

Firstly, educating people about sustainability can help us to reduce our ecological footprint on this world. If we recycle more, consume less goods, and ensure we’re cleaning up after ourselves, we can do a lot to help the environment.

Secondly, educating future environmental scientists is vital for finding the solutions to our current environmental problems.

Scientists of the future might find ways to dramatically reduce carbon emissions, reduce the temperature of the globe, or come up with better ways to produce energy.

In the race against time to solve the climate crisis, education may just be the thing that saves us from ourselves.

25. Education is important for Creating a Cohesive Society

Education helps us learn how to behave appropriately.

Emile Durkheim is a major theorist who came up with this concept.

According to Durkheim, schooling is all about ‘socialization’.

By this, he means we go to school to learn about more than maths and science. School has a hidden curriculum . The hidden curriculum is all the things we learn above and beyond our textbooks.

The hidden curriculum includes:

• Learning manners;
• Learning to get along with each other;
• Learning to respect other people’s privacy;
• Learning to follow the rules for the good of society;
• and many more things besides!

So, without schools teaching us how to get along, there may be many more conflicts in our communities.

26. Education passes on Cultural Values, Heritage and Information from one Generation to the Next

How did you learn about Christmas? How about the 4 th of July? How did you learn about Native Americans?

We learn a lot of these things from school.

So, education also teaches us about our culture and who we are.

This usually takes place in history classes where we learn about the history of our nations and our world.

But we also learn cultural values from the hidden curriculum (If you haven’t read point 25, I talk about the hidden curriculum there).

For example, in western culture it’s polite to look people in the eyes and shake their hands. We also respect our elders. These are cultural values that are taught to us in everyday conversations at school.

27. Education can lead to Gender Equality

There is a lot of evidence that says education is the key to creating a more equal world.

For example, UNESCO states that women tend to be less educated than men in developing countries. However, women overall show more concern for the environment.

Why is this a problem?

Because at the moment women aren’t empowered enough (through education) to create change. More educated women means more power for women to effect change.

Here’s an example:

“Women constitute almost two-thirds of the 758 million adults who are unable to read or write a sentence – a vast pool of people we are not empowering to help us fight environmental shifts” ( UNESCO )

There is also the problem of gender stereotypes, which can be challenged through education . If we educate more people about justice and equality, gender stereotypes will diminish which will be good for gender equality.

Final Thoughts

Any importance of education speech or essay needs facts and figures backing it up. Use these 27 key points on the importance of education for your next essay!

You could also get facts from the following two sources:

• 23 Major Barriers to Education
• 11 Lifelong Effects of Lack of Education

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 15 Animism Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ 10 Magical Thinking Examples
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ Social-Emotional Learning (Definition, Examples, Pros & Cons)
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd/ What is Educational Psychology?

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Home  /  News  /  Why Is Education Important? The Power Of An Educated Society

Why Is Education Important? The Power Of An Educated Society

Looking for an answer to the question of why is education important? We address this query with a focus on how education can transform society through the way we interact with our environment. 

Whether you are a student, a parent, or someone who values educational attainment, you may be wondering how education can provide quality life to a society beyond the obvious answer of acquiring knowledge and economic growth. Continue reading as we discuss the importance of education not just for individuals but for society as a whole. 

Harness the power of education to build a more sustainable modern society with a degree from  Unity Environmental University .

How Education Is Power: The Importance Of Education In Society

Why is education so important? Nelson Mandela famously said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” An educated society is better equipped to tackle the challenges that face modern America, including:

• Climate change
• Social justice
• Economic inequality

Education is not just about learning to read and do math operations. Of course, gaining knowledge and practical skills is part of it, but education is also about values and critical thinking. It’s about finding our place in society in a meaningful way. 

Environmental Stewardship

A  study from 2022 found that people who belong to an environmental stewardship organization, such as the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics, are likely to have a higher education level than those who do not. This suggests that quality education can foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

With the effects of climate change becoming increasingly alarming, this particular importance of education is vital to the health, safety, and longevity of our society. Higher learning institutions can further encourage environmental stewardship by adopting a  framework of sustainability science .

The Economic Benefits Of Education

Higher education can lead to better job opportunities and higher income. On average, a  person with a bachelor’s degree will make $765,000 more  in their lifetime than someone with no degree. Even with the rising costs of tuition, investment in higher education pays off in the long run. In 2020, the return on investment (ROI) for a college degree was estimated to be  13.5% to 35.9% . 

Green jobs  like environmental science technicians and solar panel installers  have high demand projections for the next decade. Therefore, degrees that will prepare you for one of these careers will likely yield a high ROI. And, many of these jobs only require an  associate’s degree or certificate , which means lower overall education costs. 

Unity  helps students maximize their ROI with real-world experience in the field as an integral part of every degree program. 

10 Reasons Why School Is Important

Education is not just an individual pursuit but also a societal one.  In compiling these reasons, we focused on the question, “How does education benefit society?” Overall, higher education has the power to transform:

• Individuals’ sense of self
• Interpersonal relationships
• Social communities
• Professional communities

Cognitive Development

Neuroscience research  has proven that the brain is a muscle that can retain its neuroplasticity throughout life. However, like other muscles, it must receive continual exercise to remain strong. Higher education allows people of any age to improve their higher-level cognitive abilities like problem-solving and decision-making. This can make many parts of life feel more manageable and help society run smoothly. 

Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is key to workplace success.  Studies  show that people with emotional intelligence exhibit more:

• Self-awareness
• Willingness to try new things
• Innovative thinking
• Active listening
• Collaboration skills
• Problem-solving abilities

By attending higher education institutions that value these soft skills, students can improve their emotional intelligence as part of their career development in college.

Technological Literacy

Many careers in today’s job market use advanced technology. To prepare for these jobs, young people likely won’t have access to these technologies to practice on their own. That’s part of why so many STEM career paths require degrees. It’s essential to gain technical knowledge and skills through a certified program to safely use certain technologies. And, educated scientists are  more likely to make new technological discoveries .

Cultural Awareness

Education exposes individuals to different cultures and perspectives. Being around people who are different has the powerful ability to foster acceptance. Acceptance benefits society as a whole. It increases innovation and empathy. 

College also gives students an opportunity to practice feeling comfortable in situations where there are people of different races, genders, sexualities, and abilities. Students can gain an understanding of how to act respectfully among different types of people, which is an important skill for the workplace. This will only become more vital as our world continues to become more globalized.

Ethical and Moral Development

Another reason why school is important is that it promotes ethical and moral development. Many schools require students to take an ethics course in their general education curriculum. However, schools can also encourage character development throughout their programs by using effective pedagogical strategies including:

• Class debates and discussions
• Historical case studies
• Group projects

Unity’s distance learning programs  include an ethical decision-making class in our core curriculum. 

Ready To Learn More About Unity Environmental University?

Communication Skills

Effective written and verbal communication skills are key for personal and professional success. Higher education programs usually include at least one communication course in their general education requirements. Often the focus in these classes is on writing skills, but students can also use college as an opportunity to hone their presentation and public speaking skills. Courses such as  Multimedia Communication for Environmental Professionals  provide many opportunities for this. 

Civic Engagement

According to a  Gallup survey , people with higher education degrees are:

• More likely to participate in civic activities such as voting and volunteering
• Less likely to commit crimes
• More likely to get involved in their local communities

All these individual acts add up to make a big difference in society. An educated electorate is less likely to be swayed by unethical politicians and, instead, make choices that benefit themselves and their community. Because they are more involved, they are also more likely to hold elected officials accountable.

Financial Stability

The right degree can significantly expand your career opportunities and improve your long-term earning potential. Not all degrees provide the same level of financial stability, so it’s important to research expected salary offers after graduation and job demand outlook predictions for your desired field. Consider the return on investment for a degree from an affordable private school such as  Unity Environmental University .

Environmental Awareness

We have already discussed why education is important for environmental stewardship. Education can also lead to better environmental practices in the business world. By building empathy through character education and ethics courses, institutions can train future business leaders to emphasize human rights and sustainability over profits. All types and sizes of businesses can incorporate sustainable practices, but awareness of the issues and solutions is the first step.

Lifelong Learning

The reasons why education is important discussed so far focus on institutional education. However, education can happen anywhere. Attending a university that values all kinds of learning will set students up with the foundation to become lifelong learners.  Research  demonstrates that lifelong learners tend to be healthier and more fulfilled throughout their lives. When societies emphasize the importance of education, they can boost their overall prosperity.

The Role Of Unity Environmental University In Society

Environmentally conscious education is extremely valuable and should be accessible to all.   Unity Environmental University  offers tuition prices that are comparable to public universities, and financial aid is available to those who qualify. Courses last five weeks so that students can focus on only one class at a time. This ensures all learners are set up for academic success. 

Unity believes in supporting students holistically to maximize the power of education. This includes mental health services,  experiential learning opportunities , and  job placement assistance . Students in our  hybrid programs  can take classes at several field stations throughout Maine and enjoy the beautiful nature surrounding the campus for outdoor recreation.

Sustainable Initiatives

Some highlights from Unity Environmental University’s many sustainable initiatives:

• All programs include at least one sustainability learning outcome
• All research courses are focused on sustainability research
• Reduced building energy use by 25% across campus
• 100% of food waste is recycled into energy 
• Campus features a  net-zero LEED Platinum-certified classroom/office building

While many schools value sustainability, Unity stands out because  everything  we do is about sustainability. We also recognize our responsibility to model how a sustainable business can operate in a manner that’s fiscally viable and socially responsible.

Make An Impact At Unity Environmental University

While the phrase ‘education is power’ may sound cliche, it is also resoundingly true. Higher education has the power to transform individuals and societies. Unity Environmental University understands its power to make a positive impact on the world. That’s why we were the first university to divest from fossil fuels. 

This year, we celebrated our  largest incoming class ever , showing that students want an education system that aligns with their values. In addition to our commitment to sustainability, we offer flexibility to students with start dates all year round for our  online degree programs .

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Persuasive Essay: Why is Education Important in Our Society?

Introduction.

Education is more than just learning from books, and it is a shame that a lot of schools do not see that it is more than just a curriculum and school score. A good education can teach a child how to learn so that the child may take up independent learning as an adult. Education may also teach a child how to reason so that a child does not grow up to be ignorant.

I will show you the two best reasons why education is important in our society.

Persuasive point 1

The biggest selling point for education in our society is the fact that it helps people learn “how” to learn. It is not about the knowledge they accumulate, it is the way a child is taught how to “learn” things. A child may come away from school not knowing a lot of the course, but if that child has been taught how to learn, then that child may become an adult that learns everything he or she needs in life. Otherwise, that child may grow up to be a person that cannot see the obvious because he or she cannot reason and consciously learn new things.

Persuasive point 2

Education teaches people how to reason, and if they are taught how to reason well, then they help subdue their own thoughts of ignorance. For example, there are lots of posts and websites on the Internet about childhood vaccinations and how dangerous they are. Ignorant people than never learned how to reason will look at them, believe them and support them. If a person is taught how to reason then he or she will know how to recognize empirical evidence.

That person would look at all the people in the US that have had childhood injections (most of them) and then look at all the people with autism. They would reason that if childhood vaccinations caused autism then most of the people in the US would have autism. If a person is taught how to reason then that person may see how people that smoke seem more likely to develop emphysema than people that do not smoke. They would then reason there is a link between smoking and emphysema. This sort of reasoning can be taught in schools, and if children are not taught it then they walk around risking their children’s lives by not vaccinating them, and walk around smoking because their daddy smoked for years and it never hurt him.

If education is not seen as important, then one day it will just be all about school scores and hitting the factors of a curriculum. There will be a day when children start to hate learning because school put them off it for life (this already happens in some cases). Plus, without education teaching people how to reason things out and teaching them how to separate what is fact from what is faulty evidence, then our society will become more and more ignorant until a smarter country simply marches over and takes our country from under out ignorant noses.

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The "Why" of Education

Examining our expectations around sending children to school..

Posted August 24, 2021 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

• Why Education Is Important
• Find a Child Therapist
• Martin Luther King, Jr. identified "the goal of true education" to be "intelligence plus character."
• Schools that do well in terms of test scores don’t always excel at developing character in their students.
• It's important to not simplify education and to get young people's perspective on its purpose.

By Angela Duckworth, Ph.D.

What do we hope for when we send children to school?

This is the question Martin Luther King, Jr. posed in an essay entitled “The Purpose of Education ,” published in the Morehouse student newspaper around the time of his 18th birthday.

King’s answer: “ Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.”

But what, then, is character?

This is the question child psychologist Diana Baumrind addressed, toward the end of an illustrious career , in an essay entitled “Reflections on Character and Competence.”

Character, Baumrind writes, “provides the structure of internal law that governs inner thoughts and volitions subject to the agent’s control under the jurisdiction of conscience .”

Baumrind then offers examples of character strengths recognized by diverse traditions across history and different cultures. Character is personal integrity, honesty, and social responsibility. But character is also persistence in the face of obstacles, self-discipline, and work ethic. The list of what constitutes admirable character goes on and on. In short, character is not one thing, but many.

In King’s prescient words: “The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education that stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals.” As Baumrind put it: “It takes virtuous character to will the good, and competence to do good well.”

New research by economist Kirabo Jackson and colleagues shows that some schools are especially good at raising standardized achievement test scores. Some excel at improving interpersonal skills, like helping other people. Some improve intrapersonal skills, like setting aside time to study.

Jackson also found that the schools that do a wonderful job on the test-score front don’t always excel at developing aspects of character—and vice versa. But many schools do both.

Don’t oversimplify education. A great classroom is one in which young people thrive in every sense of the word. Schools play an essential role in helping young people develop socially, emotionally, physically, and academically.

Do ask the young people in your life what they think about the purpose of education. Share a story, perhaps, of a lesson you learned as a young person that you can’t put on your resume but hope will be remembered in your eulogy . As with so many endeavors in life, "Why?" is a very good place to start.

Angela Duckworth is the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance . She is also the co-host of the podcast No Stupid Questions .

Character Lab is a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help kids thrive.

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Top 10 Reasons to Teach Elementary School

When teachers are asked to explain why they chose education as a career, there is no telling what the answer might be. Different people choose teaching for different reasons, but one thing is for sure, no matter what the reason, the end result is the same. Teaching is a challenging, yet highly rewarding career, and teachers everywhere will attest to the satisfaction that is felt knowing they are laying the foundation of children’s futures. The following are the top 10 reasons why you may choose to teach elementary school:

You value the building blocks of education.

Elementary school is where it all begins. A child’s first teachers are the people who will set the bar for learning. They have the ability to instill a love for school, but also to foster feelings of negativity in a child if not careful. Often times, it’s a child’s first experience with socializing outside of family, following a specific routine or experiencing rules and consequences from someone other than a parent. These are all extremely important facets of education, as they set the groundwork for a child’s success in later years, both behaviorally and academically.

You have a broad appreciation for a variety of subjects.

You love the energy and excitement that small children display., you want to help children with special challenges..

Many parents of students with disabilities or disorders do not know their children are different until they begin school. It’s not until they are with other children their age, in a similar setting, that the challenges begin to show up. Elementary teachers are often the first people to recognize such differences. They work closely with parents, specialists and administrators to identify problems and come up with the best solutions for the child.

You will develop special relationships with many children.

Teaching the same group of kids all day, all year long, helps foster a strong bond between teacher and student. The teacher is, in a sense, the parent away from home, so the child can develop a bond that is unbreakable. The student will learn to trust the teacher, much like a parent, and might even share important events with the teacher throughout life. Many teachers are invited to graduations, weddings and even baby showers of students they had many years before.

The school schedule fits with your lifestyle.

One important thing to remember is that becoming a teacher doesn’t immediately ensure free weekends and summers. Although teachers do get weekends, holidays and summer vacations off from the classroom, most spend great deal working on upcoming lessons, curriculum for the following year or just revising and recreating lessons they’ve already taught. The myth that teachers spend their summers basking in the son doing nothing is just that, a myth.

You want to be a lifelong learner.

Many teachers love the idea of continuing to learn throughout their careers. Most states require teachers to recertify their licenses every few years, which means credits must be accumulated. It’s a way for teachers to stay abreast the changes in education, as well as the concepts being taught for the different subjects. Teachers can attend professional development classes or conferences throughout the year, or they can take classes through a university, but either way, they must continue to stay current with their knowledge of the different subjects.

You enjoy being around children more than adults.

Let’s face it; some adults are difficult to work with. Inter-office politics, drama between co-workers, backstabbing and gossip at the water-cooler are all well-known problems that can take place in corporate America. It can be difficult to work with many other adults, who are all set in their ways and unwilling to compromise, without feeling out of place or mistreated. Some people just don’t do well with these types of work environments or the negativity that adults can sometimes bring to the table, and that’s why they would prefer to work with young children who are eager to learn.

You are optimistic.

A teacher should not be “glass half empty” type of person. There will be days when it feels like nothing is working and the work is all a waste of time. These are the days that teachers go home, take a deep breath and come back the next day to try something new. They do it because they know what’s at stake, and they are passionate about the importance of teaching students. There is no room for giving up in the education profession, because that is not the example that should be set for students.

You understand the importance of education.

Not everyone values education. Some children come from households where school is not a priority. If teachers do not relay the message that school is important, and that an education is a valuable asset in life, those students will never get that message. Teachers must show children that school can be fun, and exciting, but also challenge students to better themselves and understand the importance of hard work.

No matter what the reason is for becoming an elementary teacher, the end goal should always be to touch the lives of children and develop lifelong learners who appreciate and value school. It takes all types to educate children, and not every teacher will go about it the same way, but when a person decides to choose teaching as a career path they are taking on a huge responsibility and will experience many rewards for their choice.

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The importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning.

Delve into the crucial role of curriculum development as we unravel the multifaceted landscape of curriculum decisions and their impact on students and teachers. From defining terms like curriculum and curriculum development to examining the stakeholders involved, this blog navigates the complex terrain of educational policy, answering questions such as "Why is curriculum development important in teaching?" and "How does the curriculum affect the teaching and learning process?" Join us on this educational journey to understand the dynamic and iterative curriculum development process.

Curriculum’s Reach Extends Beyond the Classroom

Curriculum decisions have far-reaching consequences for students and teachers in K-12 schools. The decisions made in public schools are often hotly debated. The triggers for controversy include societal issues and agendas, the goals and effectiveness of the education, and funding. These debates underscore the importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning.

Put another way, curriculum decisions impact how we shape our society through the way we mold our future adults. Curriculum decisions include technical and policy components, covering everything from the best ways to teach multiplication or the parts of speech to the philosophical frameworks for teaching history and science.

Understanding the context of curriculum development can help educators who want to become more influential in the development of educational policy and practice. This post begins by defining some terms, then considers the stakeholders involved in approving curricula in U.S. public schools and the importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning.

Defining Terms: Curriculum

Dictionaries define “curriculum” as a course of study. Educators and those concerned with educational policy have a more nuanced, comprehensive view of the word’s meaning, as definitions from an international organization and a state-level agency illustrate.

The International Bureau of Education at UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, says, “In the simplest terms, ‘curriculum’ is a description of what, why, how and how well students should learn in a systematic and intentional way.” 1

The state of Rhode Island defines curriculum as “a standards-based sequence of planned experiences where students practice and achieve proficiency in content and applied learning skills.” Rhode Island’s definition also says, “The structure, organization, and considerations in a curriculum are created in order to enhance student learning and facilitate instruction. Curriculum must include the necessary goals, methods, materials and assessments to effectively support instruction and learning.” 2

Both the above definitions can apply to the learning plan for a single class, for a grade level, or for the entire span of a K-12 educational journey. One writer used the metaphor of a puzzle, in which the learning from individual courses connects to and builds on that of others to create the final picture of the students’ education. 3

Another way to conceptualize the term is to think of curriculum as an operations manual for the school system, designed to help educators transport students from one intellectual state to another. To summarize key concepts in the above definitions, a curriculum answers the following questions about a subject of any scope:

• What is covered
• In what order
• To what purpose
• How it’s framed or contextualized
• What materials to use
• How to measure success

Defining Terms: Curriculum Development

As global change continues to accelerate, the importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning grows. The world is changing, and how we prepare students to take up their roles and responsibilities must change apace. In its “Education 2030” position paper, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) asserts, “The concept of ‘curriculum’ should be developed from ‘predetermined and static’ to ‘adaptable and dynamic.’ Schools and teachers should be able to update and align the curriculum to reflect evolving societal requirements as well as individual learning needs.” 4

So curriculum development is an ongoing, dynamic process with a focus on the individual student’s success and a scope broad enough to accommodate progress in basic science and technology as well as changes in culture, politics and the environment. In the iterative process of curriculum development, the design and implementation of the curriculum are preceded by the analysis of current conditions and followed by evaluation.

Analysis and evaluation are critical to the success of curriculum development. Analysis helps connect education to current events and connect teaching across disciplines to deepen student learning. Evaluation informs future cycles of development and provides feedback to administrators and policymakers as well as students, parents and teachers.

Given the dynamics of global change and the importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning, a systematic approach to managing development is central to creating desired outcomes. 5

In summary, curriculum development is:

• Evolutionary
• Evidence-based
• Comprehensive in scope
• A tool to improve learning outcomes

The importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning outcomes comes into focus as the term is defined. Considering the many players involved in setting curriculum sharpens the focus.

Who Determines K-12 Curriculum?

In the United States, responsibility for setting educational policy rests with the states, with the federal government influencing policy through funding and judicial oversight. The U.S. Department of Education has estimated that federal money makes up 8% of elementary and secondary school funding. Federal courts also hear cases related to education and curriculum. For example, in the 1963 case, School District of Abington Township, Pennsylvania v. Schempp , the Supreme Court ruled that a Pennsylvania law requiring the reading of bible verses at the opening of the school day violated the First Amendment. 6, 7

States supervise the work of their public school districts and have “the authority to impose limits and obligations on both local school districts and parents.” Locally elected boards typically manage school districts and delegate direct responsibility for curriculum development, among other administrative functions, to their school superintendents. The school board approves curriculum as part of its responsibility to set policy. 8

Government entities are not the only stakeholders in K-12 education. Students, parents, and teachers all have a direct interest in the process. Stakeholders with a less direct but still keen interest include community members and businesses who help fund the schools and interact with students. Advocates for various issues also seek to influence elementary and secondary school curricula.

Such widespread interest in the process is proof of education’s importance to society and the importance of curriculum development in enhancing teaching and learning.

Curriculum as a Reflection of Culture and Values

Curriculum requires careful thought because education reflects and shapes the values of a society. We teach our children what is important to us and that education shapes their worldview. The distributed structure of U.S. education oversight, with several stakeholders influencing locally elected boards of education, is an excellent example of how culture and values affect curriculum. The system encourages the intense interest of disparate stakeholders because people who valued a pluralistic approach to policy-making designed it. 8

Other examples of cultural influence on curriculum abound. Countries or school districts placing a high value on volunteerism may codify that value in high school graduation requirements. Likewise, societies or schools valuing science and technology, or social justice and equity, encode those values in specific curriculum requirements.

We can think of the impact of curriculum and curriculum development as flexibly as the terms themselves can be defined. A curriculum can cover a narrowly focused subject for a grade level or be a comprehensive educational plan spanning K-12. Similarly, curriculum impacts both the broader culture and individual students' learning through the work of individual teachers.

A well-developed, current curriculum provides several benefits for students and teachers. A curriculum that lays out course objectives and content sequencing lets the teacher focus on designing specific lessons and assessments to teach individual students effectively. See The Importance of Lesson Planning for Student Success for more on this topic. A regularly reviewed curriculum benefits from teacher feedback and incorporates new topics, technologies, and issues. A well-developed curriculum enhances teaching and learning in myriad ways.

• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from ibe.unesco.org/en/glossary-curriculum-terminology/c/curriculum-plural-curricula
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from ride.ri.gov/InstructionAssessment/Curriculum/CurriculumDefinition.aspx#:~:text=Curriculum%20is%20a%20standards%2Dbased,access%20to%20rigorous%20academic%20experiences.
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from classcraft.com/blog/why-is-curriculum-important/
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from oecd.org/education/2030/E2030%20Position%20Paper%20(05.04.2018).pdf
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from simplyeducate.me/2014/12/13/the-meaning-and-importance-of-curriculum-development/
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from oyez.org/cases/1962/142
• Retrieved on January 28, 2022, from kappanonline.org/legal-balancing-act-public-school-curriculum-underwood/

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Top 10 Reasons Why Is Education Important

Updated: February 1, 2024

Published: April 15, 2020

Most of us have grown up being taught the importance of education. But why is education important? Through your frustrating school years, you may have thought that it was a waste of time, or was just something that you needed to do in order to get a job. Truth be told, however, education goes so much beyond just getting a job and making your parents happy. In fact, it’s one of the most powerful tools out there.

What Is Education?

Education means studying in order to obtain a deeper knowledge and understanding of a variety of subjects to be applied to daily life. Education is not limited to just knowledge from books, but can also be obtained through practical experiences outside of the classroom.

Top 10 Reasons: Why Is Education Important?

There are many different understandings and definitions of what education is, but one thing can be universally agreed upon, which is the importance of education — and here’s why.

1. Provides Stability

Education provides stability in life, and it’s something that no one can ever take away from you. By being well-educated and holding a college degree , you increase your chances for better career opportunities and open up new doors for yourself.

2. Provides Financial Security

On top of stability, education also provides financial security, especially in today’s society. A good education tends to lead to a higher paying job, as well as provide you with the skills needed to get there. Educated and well-informed individuals also know how to use money-saving tactics. They are more likely to use coupon websites like EMUCoupon while shopping online to save their hard-earned money.

3. Needed For Equality

In order for the entire world to really become equal, it needs to start with education. If everyone was provided with the same opportunities to education , then there would be less gaps between social classes. Everyone would be able to have an equal chance at higher paying jobs — not just those that are already well-off.

4. Allows For Self-Dependency

The importance of education is evident when it comes to being self-dependent. If we are we educated, then it’s something that belongs to us, and only us, allowing us to rely on no one else other than ourselves. It can allow you to not only be financially independent, but also to make your own choices.

5. Make Your Dreams Come True

If you can dream it, you can achieve it. An education is the most powerful weapon you can possibly have, and with it, you can make all of your dreams come true. There are of course certain exceptions, depending on what you’re aiming for, but generally an education will take you as far as you’re willing to go.

6. A Safer World

Education is something that’s not only needed on a personal level, but also on a global level, as it’s something that keeps our world safe and makes it a more peaceful place. Education tends to teach people the difference between right and wrong, and can help people stay out of risky situations.

7. Confidence

Being self-confident is a major part of being successful in life. And what better way to gain that confidence than with an education? Your level of education is often considered a way to prove your knowledge, and it can give you the confidence to express your opinions and speak your mind.

8. A Part Of Society

In today’s society, having an education is considered a vital part of being accepted by those around you. Having an education is believed to make you a useful part of society, and can make you feel like a contributing member as well.

9. Economic Growth On A National Level

An educated society is crucial for economic growth. We need people to continue to learn and research in order to constantly stay innovative. Countries with higher literacy rates also tend to be in better economic situations. With a more educated population, more employment opportunities are opened.

10. Can Protect You

Education can protect you more than you know, not only on a financial level, but it can help prevent you from being taken advantage of by knowing how to read and write, such as knowing not to sign any bogus documents.

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Education is important for children.

Children are the future of our world, making education crucial for them. Their knowledge is what’s going to keep our world alive and flourishing.

At Childhood

During the childhood development stages, the importance of education is stronger than ever. It’s a time for children to learn social and mental skills that will be crucial for their growth and success in the future. Education at childhood also offers a chance for self-discovery and to learn about their unique interests.

The importance of education in our lives goes far beyond what we can read in a textbook. Education also provides childhood with knowledge such as how to produce artwork and make music. Education allows us to analyze what’s in front of us, and even learn from our mistakes.

Goal Building

By learning from a young age, children are given the chance to start building goals for themselves. Education means having the logic to set your mind to something and achieve it.

Importance Of Education In Society

For a modern society, education is of utmost importance. There are so many influences coming from all directions, and education can help us decipher what we should take as true, and what we should take with a grain of salt. Education can mold people into functional members of society with the right kinds of values.

Productivity

Education is needed for a productive society. Our population only continues to increase, and in turn, so do our needs. We need a strong and efficient workforce of educated people to provide us with the services we need for everyday life.

Why Is Education Important For a Nation?

The importance of education is seen in every aspect of life, and is especially crucial for the growth of a nation.

The Impact Education Has On The World

With education, people can become better citizens, knowing right from wrong, allowing for a better society where laws are followed. An educated nation knows about the importance of voting, doing so with the knowledge not blindly, but also having an understanding of what their party truly stands for. Education can also help people get jobs, which is what a nation thrives on.

Inspiring Quotes On What Education Truly Is

Why is education important, and what is it exactly? While every person has a different understanding of its true meaning, here are some of the most inspiring quotes by some legendary people.

• “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” — Nelson Mandela
• “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” — Malcolm X
• “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin
• “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” — John Dewey

What Are Some Other Reasons Why Education Is Important?

There are endless reasons why education is so important, especially since it also has endless connotations and meanings.

Mind And Body

Our mind and bodies are connected more than we know. With a powerful, well-educated mind, so too are our bodies.

We can not only know how to best take care of ourselves, but we can feel confident and good about ourselves, which will likely have a positive effect on our physical well-being . Education has even been proven to add years to our life . To be exact, each additional year of education was found to add as much as 1.7 years to our lives at the age of 35.

Personal Growth

The importance of education even extends itself to our personal growth. By constantly educating ourselves, asking questions and wanting to know more, we can move forward and achieve things we never imagined before.

Get To Know Yourself

Education can allow us to get to know ourselves better than ever. We can learn things about ourselves, whether it be through books, courses, or even consulting with a professional.

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Worldwide value.

Education is the best way to ensure a positive world value and view. Without a proper education, how else do we know what’s considered appropriate and how to behave?

While world peace may unfortunately seem like a far-fetched concept, with education we can get closer to this goal than we know. Education can teach us about our place in this world, and about our responsibility to humanity.

Teaches Values

Values are taught through education! Education exists far beyond the classroom or an exam. It’s taught at home, through what our parents and peers show us, and although not necessarily written down somewhere, such a teaching method is still a large aspect of what education entails.

Sharpens Your Thinking

Education is needed to think sharply and clearly!

Makes You Informed

Education makes you informed about the world around you, what’s going on and what kind of people are around you. Education can help you be more self-aware about your strengths and weaknesses, showing you were to shift your focus.

Logical Reasoning

When in an argument, if you aren’t well educated and don’t have your facts straight, then you aren’t likely to win. If you get upset about something, then being educated can also help you logically work through the situation and make sense of it, understanding all aspects.

Stay Focused

Education can help you stay focused and on track in the right direction by knowing what the right path is for you.

Allows For Innovation And Creativity

When it comes to being creative, in any way, shape, or form, the mind can only really reach its full potential if it’s been fed with the knowledge it needs to think outside the box.

Develop Life Skills

Education is the foundation of basic life skills and street smarts. While education might sound like a fancy technical term, it’s really everything we learn in life about how to best conduct ourselves from day to day.

Education can be the most freeing and empowering thing in the entire world!

Live Life To The Fullest

Truly living life to the fullest means being well-educated and holding a vast amount of knowledge about the world around us. It also means we continue to learn every day in all kinds of forms, whether it be from the people around us, newspapers, experiences, research, or traditional classes.

Breaks Barriers

Education breaks barriers between people, and allows people from across the globe to be empowered.

University of the People, a tuition-free , online university, is one powerful example of how education is being revolutionized – they offer students of all socio-economic backgrounds an equal chance at education.

Once upon a time, such a thing wouldn’t have been possible, but today such places like UoPeople have proven that these barriers truly can be broken through to receive higher education.

You Become Your Highest You

Education can allow you to become the best, fullest version of yourself, learning about what interests you, what you’re good at, becoming self-aware and conscious about the world around you. It can help you establish your place in this world, and feel complete.

Education In The Modern World

Education today is more important than ever before, and has reached new heights with new understandings of what it truly entails. Ask yourself “Why is education important?” and it will surely not be the same as anyone else’s answer.

While in modern society, holding a college degree is considered to be highly beneficial for a successful career and to be socially accepted, it is not the only means of education. Education is all around us in everything that we do, so use it wisely!

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• Essay on Importance of Education

Importance of Education Essay

Education is one of the key components for an individual’s success. It has the ability to shape one’s life in the right direction. Education is a process of imparting or acquiring knowledge, and developing the powers of reasoning and judgement. It prepares growing children intellectually for a life with more mature understanding and sensitivity to issues surrounding them. It improves not only the personal life of the people but also their community. Thus, one cannot neglect the significance of Education in life and society. Here, we have provided an essay on the Importance of Education. Students can use this essay to prepare for their English exam or as a speech to participate in the school competition.

Importance of Education

The importance of education in life is immense. It facilitates quality learning for people throughout their life. It inculcates knowledge, belief, skill, values and moral habits. It improves the way of living and raises the social and economic status of individuals. Education makes life better and more peaceful. It transforms the personality of individuals and makes them feel confident.

Well said by Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon to change the world”. To elaborate, it is the foundation of the society which brings economic wealth, social prosperity and political stability. It gives power to people to put their views and showcase their real potential. It strengthens democracy by providing citizens with the tools to participate in the governance process. It acts as an integrative force to foster social cohesion and national identity.

In India, education is a constitutional right of every citizen. So, people of any age group, religion, caste, creed and region are free to receive education. An educated person is respected everywhere and well-treated in society. As a kid, every child dreams of being a doctor, lawyer, engineer, actor, sportsperson, etc. These dreams can come true through education. So, investment in education gives the best return. Well-educated people have more opportunities to get a better job which makes them feel satisfied.

In schools, education is divided into different levels, i.e., preschool, primary, secondary and senior secondary. School education comprises traditional learning which provides students with theoretical knowledge. However, now various efforts are being made to establish inbuilt application-based learning by adding numerous experiments, practicals and extracurricular activities to the school curriculum. Students learn to read, write and represent their viewpoints in front of others. Also, in this era of digital Education, anyone can easily access information online at their fingertips. They can learn new skills and enhance their knowledge.

Steps Taken By Government To Promote Education

Education is evidently an important aspect that no government can ignore in order to ensure the equitable development of a nation. Unfortunately, some children still do not have access to education. The Government has thereby taken initiatives to improve education quality and made it accessible to everyone, especially the poor people.

The Government passed the Right to Education Act 2009 (RTE Act 2009) on 4 August 2009. This Act came into effect on 1 April 2010, following which education has become the fundamental right of every child in India. It provides free and compulsory elementary education to children of the age group of 6-14 years in a neighbourhood school within 1 km, up to Class 8 in India. On similar lines, there are other schemes launched by the government, such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan , Mid-Day Meal , Adult Education and Skill Development Scheme, National Means cum Merit Scholarship Scheme, National Program for Education of Girls at Elementary Education, Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya, Scheme for Infrastructure Development in Minority Institutions, Beti Bachao , Beti Padhao, etc.

For our country’s growth, we require a well-educated population equipped with the relevant knowledge, attitude and skills. This can be achieved by spreading awareness about the importance of Education in rural areas. There is a famous saying that “If we feed one person, we will eliminate his hunger for only one time. But, if we educate a person, we will change his entire life”. Henceforth he will become capable of earning a livelihood by himself.

This essay on the Importance of Education must have helped students to improve their writing section for the English exam. They can also practice essays on other topics by visiting the CBSE Essay page. Keep learning and stay tuned with BYJU’S for the latest updates on CBSE/ICSE/State Board/Competitive Exams. Also, download the BYJU’S App for interactive study videos.

Frequently Asked Questions on Education Essay

How can the literacy rate in india be increased.

People in rural areas must be informed about the importance of providing education to their children. Also, with the COVID-19 situation, the government should take steps by providing laptops/phones for children to follow online classes.

Are girl children still denied their right to get educated?

Although awareness has now improved, there are still many villages in India where girl children are not provided with proper education or allowed to enrol themselves in schools. This mentality has to change for the betterment of the society.

Teaching subjects/academics alone is enough, or should students be introduced to other forms of educational activities too?

Extracurricular activities, moral value education, etc., are also as important as regular academic teachings.

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Why Is Early Childhood Education Important for Children?

Early childhood education (ECE) plays a vital role in children’s development. It provides a strong foundation for later academic, social, and emotional growth.

During these formative years, a child's brain is like a sponge, absorbing new information and experiences at a remarkable rate. According to VeryWellMind, this critical period of brain development brings rapid cognitive, emotional, and physical growth for a child. It paves the way for greater learning capabilities.

Early childhood education programs and ECE educators prove invaluable during this critical time, offering structured, creative environments to nurture the developing child. Engaging in well-designed ECE programs equips children at this stage with the essential tools and skills they will need throughout their academic journey and life.

Cognitive Development in Early Childhood Education

It is important to provide children with stimulating environments and projects to enhance their cognitive abilities during their preschool years.

A key benefit of early childhood education is the support it provides to prepare children for entering kindergarten. Many ECE programs teach children to reason by incorporating problem-solving tasks, which helps to develop their critical thinking skills.

Effective childhood education also encourages children to explore their surroundings, which fosters curiosity and a sense of wonder. Imaginative play, such as pretending to be a doctor or a chef, allows a child to exercise creativity and develop an imagination.

In fact, a great deal of early learning takes place when young students are involved in different forms of play:

• Hands-on activities: These activities involve sensory play, art projects, science experiments, and construction using building blocks. Such activities encourage exploration, creativity, and an understanding of basic scientific concepts.
• Storytelling, reading, music, and dance: Reading and storytelling foster language skills, comprehension, and a love for literature. They also enhance imagination and listening abilities, while activities like singing, dancing, and playing simple musical instruments help young students to develop motor skills, rhythm, and self-expression.
• Group projects and collaborative activities: Working together on projects teaches kids skills such as cooperation, problem-solving, and teamwork.
• Exploration of new cultures and languages: Activities that introduce children to different cultures, languages, and customs broaden their understanding of the world and promote inclusion.
• Technology games and apps: Integrating age-appropriate technology like educational apps and interactive games during playtime enhances learning and tech literacy, which is a practical skill in today’s digital age.

Laying the Foundations for Literacy

A child’s early years lay the groundwork for more advanced literacy skills. During early childhood education, young students develop pre-reading abilities as they practice letter recognition and phonics, as well as building their vocabulary. Even at this young age, children are exposed to a rich language environment, which helps them learn how to communicate.

Long before they enter kindergarten, young students can begin to develop early math knowledge, such as counting, sorting, and recognizing shapes. This rudimentary knowledge supplies children with the necessary tools to sustain themselves academically as they eventually progress through school.

Enhancing Social and Emotional Growth

Social development is closely related to cognitive development. Young students who interact with their peers, share ideas, and collaborate on projects develop valuable social skills, including empathy, cooperation, and conflict resolution.

These social interactions further enhance cognitive abilities and contribute to children’s overall emotional well-being.

Recognizing Diverse Learning Needs

Quality early childhood care acknowledges young students as individuals whose cognitive development is as unique as their personalities. Educators must understand the importance of creating inclusive environments that cater to the various learning needs of each child.

As a result, teachers should provide differentiated instruction, adapting their teaching methods and lesson plans to suit the diverse learning styles of their students. Personalized teaching approaches ensure all children have the opportunity to thrive and reach their full cognitive potential.

Social and Emotional Growth in Early Childhood

An early childhood education program should provide a safe, nurturing environment for young students to develop their social and emotional skills. This type of environment encourages interactions with peers, teachers, and caregivers to build meaningful social connections and relationships. By integrating collaborative play in early childhood education, young students also learn to share, take turns, and cooperate effectively, which are among the biggest challenges for young students to learn.

Early childhood educators can further promote students’ emotional growth by teaching them how to identify and express their emotions in a healthy manner. This way, they learn how to manage their feelings and resolve conflicts peacefully.

Acquiring the ability to manage emotions and resolve conflicts help contribute to children’s emotional intelligence, a necessity for successfully navigating relationships and developing strong social bonds at any age. 

Key Factors in Early Childhood Social and Emotional Growth

Various factors are involved in a student's social, emotional, and academic growth. They include both direct and indirect influences that collectively shape a child's growth.

From the level of nurturing at home to the social and educational experiences at school, nearly every aspect of kids' lives guides them either closer to or further away from becoming well-rounded and capable individuals. Recognizing this intricate interplay is of the utmost importance for caregivers and early childhood educators.

Building Secure Relationships

Children’s social abilities are greatly influenced by the quality of the relationships they forge with early childhood educators such as preschool teachers. These relationships serve as the basis for a child’s sense of security and emotional well-being.

A child who feels supported and cared for is more inclined to develop trust, empathy, and effective communication. The security offered through their relationships helps to create a positive self-image and gives children resilience to overcome social challenges later on.

Furthermore, healthy relational dynamics allow children to practice cooperation, conflict resolution, and emotional regulation. It builds a strong foundation for their future interpersonal interactions and emotional health.

The Role of Free Play in a Child’s Life and Growth

Social and emotional growth are also fueled by participating in free play. “Free play” refers to recreational time, during which young people engage their imaginations. Free play allows them to explore their emotions, develop their creativity, and practice social interactions.

Whether they’re building a tower with blocks or pretending to be superheroes, kids learn important social skills such as negotiation, compromise, and empathy by playing.

The Importance of ECE Programs and ECE Staff

The importance of ECE programs in social and emotional growth cannot be overstated. These programs often incorporate storytelling, role-playing, and group discussions, through which young people learn how to recognize and understand their emotions.

However, a program of early childhood education is only as helpful as the adults who run it. The best early childhood educators demonstrate passion, creativity, and understanding in their work with young people.

These professionals bear the responsibility of supporting their students' social and emotional development during early childhood education. They must create a positive and inclusive classroom environment where everyone can feel valued and respected during their early childhood.

An early childhood educator or preschool teacher may accomplish this goal by serving as a model of positive behavior, and providing guidance during conflicts. Teachers can also encourage empathy to help children develop healthy relationships.

Studies indicate that children with well-developed social and emotional abilities during their early years tend to achieve greater academic success as they grow older. Similarly, these young people tend to experience fewer mental health concerns.

Social and emotional skills allow young students to maintain healthy relationships with each other and their families, manage stress, cope with challenges, and make responsible decisions.

The Role of Early Childhood Education in Preparing for School

Early childhood education programs serve as a bridge between home life with parental involvement and the more structured world of elementary school with teachers. Childcare centers and preschools provide environments that mirror the classroom to encourage adaptability and prepare children for future academic challenges.

These early educational settings also play a crucial role by imparting various skills necessary for healthy development. Young kids become accustomed to adhering to routines while they enhance their abilities to listen and follow instructions.

In addition, children learn to cooperate with others by actively participating in group activities. This early exposure to structured learning cultivates critical thinking and collaboration, which are essential for their proper development and lifelong learning.

Early childhood education also places a strong emphasis on developing self-help skills. Mastering tasks like getting dressed, independently using the restroom, and maintaining good hygiene gives children a sense of independence and self-reliance.

Moreover, a child’s education is fundamental in building confidence and autonomy. Early childhood education equips students with the self-assurance required to navigate the more formal and demanding environment of schooling. Such holistic development ensures children are ready – academically, emotionally, and socially – to transition to the next stage of life.

The Long-Term Benefits of Early Childhood Education

According to Learning Policy Institute, studies consistently demonstrate that children who are provided with high-quality early childhood education reap enduring benefits that last for years to come. Additionally, Learning Policy Institute notes that that children who have attended preschool or early childhood programs demonstrate better academic performance throughout their schooling years when compared to those who did not.

Early childhood education has also been linked to improved socio-economic outcomes in adulthood, according to Gray Group International. Evidently, individuals who receive a high-quality early education are more likely to graduate from high school, seek a degree, and pursue a career.

Ultimately, early childhood education can have a long-lasting, positive impact on a child's overall well-being and future endeavors.

Is Early Childhood Education the Right Path for You?

Early childhood educators help shape the lives of many young learners. They serve as a guidepost for parents and families during one of the most impactful times in children’s lives.

If you're inspired to begin your own ECE journey, consider looking into American Public University's early childhood education associate degree program. In this degree program, students explore the latest in educational practices and child development theories. Visit our Early Childhood Care and Education program page to explore the curriculum.

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• Why Is Assessment Important?

Asking students to demonstrate their understanding of the subject matter is critical to the learning process; it is essential to evaluate whether the educational goals and standards of the lessons are being met.

Assessment is an integral part of instruction, as it determines whether or not the goals of education are being met. Assessment affects decisions about grades, placement, advancement, instructional needs, curriculum, and, in some cases, funding. Assessment inspire us to ask these hard questions: "Are we teaching what we think we are teaching?" "Are students learning what they are supposed to be learning?" "Is there a way to teach the subject better, thereby promoting better learning?"

Today's students need to know not only the basic reading and arithmetic skills, but also skills that will allow them to face a world that is continually changing. They must be able to think critically, to analyze, and to make inferences. Changes in the skills base and knowledge our students need require new learning goals; these new learning goals change the relationship between assessment and instruction. Teachers need to take an active role in making decisions about the purpose of assessment and the content that is being assessed.

Grant Wiggins, a nationally recognized assessment expert, shared his thoughts on performance assessments, standardized tests, and more in an Edutopia.org interview . Read his answers to the following questions from the interview and reflect on his ideas:

• What distinction do you make between 'testing' and 'assessment'?
• Why is it important that teachers consider assessment before they begin planning lessons or projects?
• Standardized tests, such as the SAT, are used by schools as a predictor of a student's future success. Is this a valid use of these tests?

Do you agree with his statements? Why or why not? Discuss your opinions with your peers.

When assessment works best, it does the following:

• What is the student's knowledge base?
• What is the student's performance base?
• What are the student's needs?
• What has to be taught?
• What performance demonstrates understanding?
• What performance demonstrates knowledge?
• What performance demonstrates mastery?
• How is the student doing?
• What teaching methods or approaches are most effective?
• What changes or modifications to a lesson are needed to help the student?
• What has the student learned?
• Can the student talk about the new knowledge?
• Can the student demonstrate and use the new skills in other projects?
• Now that I'm in charge of my learning, how am I doing?
• Now that I know how I'm doing, how can I do better?
• What else would I like to learn?
• What is working for the students?
• What can I do to help the students more?
• In what direction should we go next?

Continue to the next section of the guide, Types of Assessment .

This guide is organized into six sections:

• Introduction
• Types of Assessment
• How Do Rubrics Help?
• Workshop Activities
• Resources for Assessment

Essay on Importance of Education for Students

500 words essay on importance of education.

To say Education is important is an understatement. Education is a weapon to improve one’s life. It is probably the most important tool to change one’s life. Education for a child begins at home. It is a lifelong process that ends with death. Education certainly determines the quality of an individual’s life. Education improves one’s knowledge, skills and develops the personality and attitude. Most noteworthy, Education affects the chances of employment for people. A highly educated individual is probably very likely to get a good job. In this essay on importance of education, we will tell you about the value of education in life and society.

Importance of Education in Life

First of all, Education teaches the ability to read and write. Reading and writing is the first step in Education. Most information is done by writing. Hence, the lack of writing skill means missing out on a lot of information. Consequently, Education makes people literate.

Above all, Education is extremely important for employment. It certainly is a great opportunity to make a decent living. This is due to the skills of a high paying job that Education provides. Uneducated people are probably at a huge disadvantage when it comes to jobs. It seems like many poor people improve their lives with the help of Education.

Better Communication is yet another role in Education. Education improves and refines the speech of a person. Furthermore, individuals also improve other means of communication with Education.

Education makes an individual a better user of technology. Education certainly provides the technical skills necessary for using technology . Hence, without Education, it would probably be difficult to handle modern machines.

People become more mature with the help of Education. Sophistication enters the life of educated people. Above all, Education teaches the value of discipline to individuals. Educated people also realize the value of time much more. To educated people, time is equal to money.

Finally, Educations enables individuals to express their views efficiently. Educated individuals can explain their opinions in a clear manner. Hence, educated people are quite likely to convince people to their point of view.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Importance of Education in Society

First of all, Education helps in spreading knowledge in society. This is perhaps the most noteworthy aspect of Education. There is a quick propagation of knowledge in an educated society. Furthermore, there is a transfer of knowledge from generation to another by Education.

Education helps in the development and innovation of technology. Most noteworthy, the more the education, the more technology will spread. Important developments in war equipment, medicine , computers, take place due to Education.

Education is a ray of light in the darkness. It certainly is a hope for a good life. Education is a basic right of every Human on this Planet. To deny this right is evil. Uneducated youth is the worst thing for Humanity. Above all, the governments of all countries must ensure to spread Education.

FAQs on Essay on Importance of Education

Q.1 How Education helps in Employment?

A.1 Education helps in Employment by providing necessary skills. These skills are important for doing a high paying job.

Q.2 Mention one way in Education helps a society?

A.2 Education helps society by spreading knowledge. This certainly is one excellent contribution to Education.

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Why Is Education So Important in The Quest for Equality?

Gerald Nelson | April 14, 2022 | Leave a Comment

Image: Pikist

Education is vital. We can all agree on this but where we fall out of the agreement is why exactly education is so necessary for equality. Without education, there can be no progress, no development, and no improvement. 

In today’s world, we are ever more aware of the issues surrounding sexism, racism, and inequality, allowing for a greater understanding of the importance of educating people to avoid these biases occurring in the first place.

What is Educational Equality and why is it necessary? 

Equality isn’t always so simple. Some may assume, for example, that educational equality is as simple as providing children with the same resources. In reality, however, there’s a lot more to it than this. We will check what governments are doing to achieve this goal. What actions they are taking to advance the cause of equality? Education is crucial because it’s a toolkit for success:

• With literacy and numeracy comes confidence, with which comes self-respect. And by having self-respect, you can respect others, their accomplishments, and their cultures.
• Education is the fundamental tool for achieving social, economic, and civil rights – something which all societies strive to achieve.

Educational Inequality is usually defined as the unequal distribution of educational resources among different groups in society. The situation becomes serious when it starts influencing how people live their lives. For example, children will be less likely to go to school if they are not healthy, or educated because other things are more urgent in their life.

Categorical Educational Inequality

Categorical Education Inequality is especially apparent when comparing minority/low-income schools with majority/high-income schools. Are better-off students systematically favored in getting ahead? There are three plausible conditions:

• Higher-income parents can spend more time and money on private tutoring, school trips, and home study materials to give their children better opportunities. Therefore, better-off students have an advantage due to access to better schools, computers, technology, etc. (the so-called opportunity gap).
• Low-income schools lack the resources to educate their students. Therefore their students tend to have worse educational outcomes.
• Although the public school system is a government-funded program to allow all students an equal chance at a good education, this is not the case for most schools across third world countries – see UNESCO statistics below:

How Educational Inequality is fueling global issues

Educational inequality is a major global crisis. It has played a role in economic problems, amplified the political deadlock, exacerbated the environmental predicament, and threatens to worsen the human rights crisis. If equality in education is not addressed directly, these crises will only deepen because: 

• Educational Inequality is also about  race and gender . Those who are less privileged are condemned to poverty and unemployment because of a lack of quality educational resources. 
• Without a sound education, people have  less knowledge  of the world around them or the issues facing their communities. They are less likely to vote or to pay attention to politics. This leaves them vulnerable to manipulation by those who represent narrow interests and promote fear, hatred, and violence. The result is an erosion of democratic values and an increase in authoritarianism.
• Without correction,  human rights abuses  will continue due to a lack of legal representation among those with no or low education levels.
• Poverty, unemployment, crimes, and health issues: A lack of education and skills forces children into poverty because they can’t get jobs or start a business. It also leaves them without hope and is one of the reasons for unemployment, lower life expectancy, malnutrition, a higher chance of chronic diseases, and crime rates.
• Limited opportunities: The most significant issue is that lack of education reduces the opportunities for people to have a decent life. Limited options increase the division of social classes, lower social mobility, and reduce the ability to build networks and social contacts. Students in poor countries also spend a lot of time working to support their families rather than focusing on their school work. These factors also worsen the upbringing of coming generations.
• Extremism:  Inequality can also lead to increased violence, racism, gender bias, and extremism, which causes further economic and democratic challenges.  
• Inability to survive pandemics:  Unlike developed nations after COVID, underdeveloped countries are stuck in their unstable economic cycles. Inequality causes a lack of awareness and online educational resources, lower acceptance of preventive measures, and unaffordable vaccines, for example. According to the  United Nations , “Before the coronavirus crisis, projections showed that  more than 200 million children would be out of school , and only 60 percent of young people would be completing upper secondary education in 2030”.
• Unawareness of technological advancements: The world is becoming more tech-savvy, while students in underdeveloped countries remain unaware of the latest technological achievements as well as unable to implement them. This also widens the education gap between countries.
• Gender inequality in education:  In general, developing countries compromise over funds allocation for women’s education to manage their depletion of national income. As such, they consider women less efficient and productive than men. Meanwhile, many parents do not prefer sending their daughters to school because they do not think that women can contribute equally to men in the country’s development. However, if we have to overcome this, there should be an increase in funding and scholarships for women’s education.
• Environmental crises:  People are usually less aware of the harmful emissions produced in their surroundings and are therefore less prepared to deal with increased pollution levels. This also affects climate change. The less educated the children, the more likely they are to contribute to climate change as adults. This is because education is not just about learning facts and skills but also about recognizing problems and applying knowledge in innovative ways. 
• A child who has dropped out of school will generally  contribute less to society  than a child who has completed secondary school. A child who has completed secondary school will contribute less than a child who went to university. This difference increases over time because those with higher levels of education tend to be more open-minded, flexible thinkers and are therefore better able to adapt to changing environmental conditions.

Equality in education is therefore essential for addressing international issues including economic inequality, climate change, social deprivation, and access to healthcare. Many children in poor regions are deprived of education (see chart below) which is the only way out of poverty .

Proposed Solutions 

The United Nations Development Program says that access to education is a human right, and should be individually accessible and available to all by 2030. It demands:

• International collaborations to ensure that every child has the same quality education and to develop joint curricula and academic programs. The quality of teaching methodologies should not be compromised and includes providing financial assistance and tools for equal access.
• Running campaigns to discourage race, gender, and ethnicity differences, arranging more seminars to reach low-income groups, and providing adequate financial assistance, training, and part-time jobs for sole earners.  
• Modifying scholarship criteria to better support deserving students who cannot afford university due to language tests and low grades. 
• Increasing the minimum wage so that sole breadwinners can afford quality education for their children.  
• Schools should bear transportation costs and offer free grants to deserving kids from low-income families.
• Giving more attention to slum-side schools by updating and implementing new techniques and resources. 
• Allowing students to learn in their own language with no enforcement of international languages and offering part-time courses in academies and community colleges in other languages. 

Resolving educational inequality has many benefits for the wider society. Allowing children from disadvantaged backgrounds to get an education will help them find better jobs with higher salaries, improving their quality of life, and making them more productive members of society. It decreases the likelihood of conflict and increases access to health care, stable economic growth, and unlimited opportunities.

Conclusion:

It’s been said that great minds start out as small ones. To level the playing field, we need to focus on best educating our next generation of innovators and leaders, both from an individual and a societal standpoint. If we want equality to become a reality, it will be up to us to ensure that equality is at the forefront of our education system.

References:

Environmental Conscience: 42 Causes, Effects & Solutions for a Lack of Education – E&C (environmental-conscience.com)

School of Education Online Programs: What the U.S. Education System Needs to Reduce Inequality | American University

Educational Inequality: Solutions | Educational Inequality (wordpress.com)

Giving Compass: Seven Solutions for Education Inequality · Giving Compass

Science.org: Polarization under rising inequality and economic decline

Research Gate: Inequality and Economic Growth

University of Munich: pdf (uni-muenchen.de)

Research Gate: Effects-of-inequality-and-poverty-vs-teachers-and-schooling-on-Americas-youth.pdf (researchgate.net)

Borgen Magzine

United Nations: Education as the Pathway towards Gender Equality

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Education

This article has been edited in line with our guidelines

Gerald Nelson is a freelance academic essay writer at perfectessaywriting.com who also works with several e ducational and human rights organizations. 

The MAHB Blog is a venture of the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. Questions should be directed to [email protected]

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• December 2021

You’ve probably heard about STEM. The integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics has been a central focus both within and well outside of education. 

In fact, it’s such a powerful concept that it has been hailed as critical to the future — for children, diversity, the workforce and the economy, among other areas. That’s why STEM education has received hundreds of millions of dollars in support from the U.S. government and remains one of the biggest priorities at all levels of the educational system. UTEP also offers a master's degree and a graduate certificate in STEM Education.

But what actually is STEM education, and why is it so important? Here’s what you need to know and how you can help.

What Is STEM Education?

It would be inaccurate to assume that STEM education is merely instruction in the STEM subjects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Rather, the idea is taken a step further.  

STEM education refers to the integration of the four subjects into a cohesive, interdisciplinary and applied learning approach. This isn’t academic theory—STEM education includes the appropriate real-world application and teaching methods. 

As a result, students in any subject can benefit from STEM education. That’s exactly why some educators and organizations refer to it as STEAM, which adds in arts or other creative subjects. They recognize just how powerful the philosophy behind STEM education can be for students.  

Why Is STEM Education Important?

There are several layers to explore in discovering why STEM education is so important. 

In 2018, the White House released the “Charting a Course for Success” report that illustrated how far the United States was behind other countries in STEM education.  

It found that only 20% of high school grads were ready for the rigors of STEM majors. And how over the previous 15 years, the U.S. had produced only 10% of the world’s science and engineering grads. 

Since the founding of the Nation, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have been a source of inspirational discoveries and transformative technological advances, helping the United States develop the world's most competitive economy and preserving peace through strength. The pace of innovation is accelerating globally, and with it the competition for scientific and technical talent. Now more than ever the innovation capacity of the United States — and its prosperity and securit  — depends on an effective and inclusive STEM education ecosystem. - Charting a Course for Success

 That was one of the most news-worthy developments in recent years. It set the stage for many arguments behind STEM in the context of the global economy and supporting it through education. 

Job Outlook and Salary

One of the most direct and powerful arguments for the importance of STEM education is how relevant STEM is in the workforce. In 2018, the Pew Research Center found that STEM employment had grown 79% since 1990 (computer jobs increased 338%).  

What about now? All occupations are projected to increase 7.7% by 2030, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Non-STEM occupations will increase 7.5% while STEM occupations will increase 10.5% .  

The findings are even more pronounced in terms of salary. The median annual wage for all occupations is $41, 950. Those in non-STEM occupations earn $40,020 and those in STEM occupations earn $89,780.  

Even areas like entrepreneurship see the same types of results. A report from the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) found that tech-based startups pay more than double the national average wage and nearly three times the average overall startup wage. They only make up 3.8% of businesses but capture a much larger share of business research and development investment (70.1%), research and development jobs (58.7%) and wages (8.1%), among other areas.  

Diversity and Skills

An important detail in the passage from “Charting a Course for Success” comes toward the end of the final sentence: “Now more than ever the innovation capacity of the United States—and its prosperity and security—depends on an effective and inclusive STEM education ecosystem.”  

Being inclusive is incredibly important once you understand how STEM occupations are such high-demand, high-paying positions. Unfortunately, however, diversity is a significant issue here.  

• The Pew Research Center noted how women account for the majority of healthcare practitioners and technicians but are underrepresented across many other STEM fields, especially in computer jobs and engineering. Black and Hispanic workers are also underrepresented in the STEM workforce.
• In the International Journal of STEM Education, authors noted how women are significantly underrepresented in STEM occupations. They make up less than a quarter of those working in STEM occupations and for women of color, representation is much lower — Hispanic, Asian and Black women receive less than 5% of STEM bachelor’s degrees in the U.S. Authors also pointed out how people of color overall are underrepresented in U.S.-based STEM leadership positions across industry, academia and the federal workforce.  

These issues are troubling when you consider how it undermines students’ opportunities to pursue high-demand, high-paying roles. Yet, it’s more than that. STEM education is about a teaching philosophy that naturally integrates critical thinking and language skills in a way that enriches any subject. Perhaps you’ve experienced or can imagine an education that integrates problem solving and engineering practices into any subject, where technology is seamlessly integrated throughout. Any subject—art, language, social studies, health—can benefit.  

So when students don’t receive an effective STEM education, they’re not only receiving less instruction in STEM subjects. They miss out on the universal application that high-level skills in STEM subjects can bring.  

How You Can Make a Difference

Take the opportunity to encourage young minds in STEM education. Whether that means volunteering a little bit of your time at a local school or finding age-appropriate STEM literature and activities for your children, you can have an impact.  

You can also consider pursuing a career or enhancing your career as a teacher or leader in STEM education, which represents a major problem right now in education. Researchers in Economic Development Quarterly noted how the current shortage of teachers in the U.S. is “ especially acute ” among STEM educators.  

In just five courses, you can earn an online graduate certificate in STEM education and learn how you can increase STEM literacy through formal and informal learning opportunities across a variety of settings. Or there’s the 100% online M.A. in Education with a Concentration in STEM Education , which helps you to be a leader in STEM education. You’ll be prepared for advancement in roles across public and private schools, community-based organizations, research, nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations.  

UTEP’s programs are focused on preparing today and tomorrow’s educators for working with modern students in multicultural settings who need to find motivation and engagement in their learning. And again, this is especially important. A study in Education Journal found that while students of all races enter into STEM majors at equal rates, minority students leave their major at nearly twice the rate of white students.  

UTEP is one of only 17 Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the country to be designated as an R1 top tier research university. Interested in learning more about how you can engage and inspire students in STEM education? You can discuss that and more with a one-on-one consultation with an enrollment counselor.

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Home — Essay Samples — Education — Importance of Education — Why Education Is Important To Me

Why Education is Important to Me

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Why Is School Attendance Important? The Effects of Chronic Absenteeism

Chronic absenteeism is pervasive: as many as one in six students in the United States miss enough school to be considered chronically absent, according to the US Department of Education. The negative effects of absenteeism on a student’s education can be profound, and they often carry into adulthood.

The harmful impact of chronic absenteeism threatens all students, but the risks are not borne equally. Students of color, students who live in poverty, and students with chronic health conditions or disabilities all experience disproportionately high absence rates.

Examining the causes of absenteeism and the effects it has on school performance, and ultimately life outcomes, provides a deeper understanding of why school attendance is so important.

Why Is School Attendance Important?

School attendance is a powerful predictor of student outcomes. In fact, irregular attendance can be a better predictor of whether students will drop out of school before graduation than test scores, according to the US Department of Education.

The correlation between attendance and dropout rates has important ramifications that go beyond the classroom. Compared to their peers who graduate, students who fail to complete their high school education are more likely to live in poverty, suffer poor health, and become involved in the criminal justice system.

Defining and Assessing Chronic Absenteeism in Schools

Chronic absenteeism is widely defined as missing 10 percent or more of a school year. Schools generally recognize three categories of absences:

• Excused absences are those with a valid reason and that have been communicated to the school by a parent. Student illness or other medical conditions are the most common types of excused absence; other reasons include religious observances, medical appointments, and family emergencies.
• Unexcused absences, or truancy , occur when students miss school without a valid reason. Examples include deliberately skipping school as well as missing school for reasons deemed invalid by the school, such as oversleeping or missing the bus.
• Disciplinary absences are a result of school suspension.

While these categories of absences are relatively consistent from one institution to another, school attendance policies and practices vary. For example, some school policies make little or no distinction between excused and unexcused absences. Similarly, school suspensions may be counted as absences by some school districts but not by others.

Such discrepancies speak to the challenge of collecting accurate and consistent attendance data, which is critical for education researchers and policymakers. Two sources of US public school attendance data––the Civil Rights Data Collection and attendance reporting under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015––merit closer examination.

Civil Rights Data Collection

Arguably the most important study of absenteeism data collected in the US was the Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), a biennial report from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) division. The first CRDC study to collect absenteeism data was conducted during the 2013-2014 school year and released in 2016. It marked the first national study of chronic absences and provided hard evidence of the negative effects of chronic absenteeism.

Chronic absenteeism data is no longer collected by OCR (the Education Department continues to collect absence data through its EdFacts Division), but information collected about absences as part of the 2018 CRDC (2015-2016 school year data) continues to serve as a valuable resource for researchers and policymakers studying absenteeism.

The shift from OCR-collected data to EdFacts also marked an important change to attendance data: the definition of chronic absenteeism went from missing at least 15 days of school in a year to missing 10 percent or more of a school year. This change helps to standardize the metric used by federal, state, and local education authorities.

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015, a reauthorization of the landmark Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, included important requirements for school absenteeism reporting. The law requires all states to include chronic absence data in their school report cards.

It also requires states to select five metrics by which to measure performance in their schools; four of the performance indicators must be focused on academic achievement, but the fifth is a nonacademic metric. Chronic absenteeism was chosen as the nonacademic indicator by 36 states and the District of Columbia.

Such a broad adoption of absenteeism as a performance indicator reflects growing recognition of the importance of attendance. It also lays the groundwork for addressing the problem. ESSA state plans include strategies for using federal funds to improve attendance through such measures as improved health services, greater family engagement, and teacher training.

School Attendance Facts

Even a cursory look at national attendance data reveals that the problem is widespread. The following attendance facts come from the CRDC that was released in 2018:

• More than seven million students in the US––16 percent of the student population––missed 15 or more days of school.
• Approximately 800 school districts reported more than 30 percent of their students missed at least three weeks of school.
• Chronic absenteeism rates are highest in high schools, where about one in five students is chronically absent.
• More than 20 percent of students were chronically absent in six states (Alaska, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington) and the District of Columbia.
• Every state had schools that reported 10 percent or more of students as chronically absent.

Attendance Inequalities

A survey of national absenteeism data also highlights inequalities across school districts and among students. Many of the factors that are known to contribute to chronic absenteeism––limited transportation, poor health, lack of safety––are more prevalent in marginalized communities and areas of poverty.

The 2018 CRDC shows significant differences in the rates of absenteeism experienced by different races and ethnicities. Students of color generally have higher absenteeism than their white counterparts:

• White students, 14.5 percent
• Black students, 20.5 percent
• Hispanic students, 17 percent
• American Indian students, 26 percent

Asian students are the only nonwhite student population with an absenteeism rate, 8.6 percent, that is lower than that of white students.

While a clear correlation between poverty and absenteeism exists on average, not all high-poverty schools have high chronic absence rates. Some have been successful in helping families overcome attendance challenges by using prevention-oriented approaches, according to Attendance Works, an initiative that advocates for improved absence data collection and policy.

One prevention-oriented program that has proven effective is the formation of “attendance teams,” cross-functional groups that work to improve school attendance by monitoring attendance data, identifying causes for absenteeism, and coordinating prevention and support strategies. Typically led by a principal, an attendance team can include teachers, school nurses, guidance counselors, social workers, parent representatives, and other stakeholders.

The success of such strategies, particularly within schools that are at high risk for chronic absenteeism, underscores the importance of identifying schools at risk for high absence rates and taking steps to address the problem.

Causes of Poor School Attendance

Many factors are associated with poor school attendance:

• Physical health issues . Health conditions such as asthma, influenza, diabetes, tooth decay, and obesity are all associated with higher rates of student absenteeism. Nearly 10 percent of children aged four to14 are diagnosed with asthma, a leading cause of school absenteeism. Asthma accounts for a third of all days of missed instruction, according to Attendance Works.
• Bullying . Approximately 20 percent of students in the US aged 12 to 18 experience bullying. Bullying can include emotional abuse (name-calling, insults, teasing), the threat of harm or actual physical abuse (being pushed, tripped, or beaten), destruction of property, and ostracization (exclusion, being made the subject of rumors or lies). In the US, low socioeconomic status is a common factor in bullying, and immigrant youth are more likely to be bullied than locally born youth, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
• Socioeconomic hardship . Socioeconomic hardship can lead to unstable housing or homelessness, as well as limited transportation resources. One child in six lives in poverty in the US, according to Children International.

Academic struggles can also cause students to become disengaged with school, which is one of the reasons that students with learning differences struggle with absenteeism.

Developmental Delays, Learning Disabilities, and Related Disorders

A study conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes found that elementary school students with disabilities served by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) were 1.5 times as likely to be chronically absent as their peers without disabilities. High school students with disabilities served by IDEA were 1.4 times as likely to be chronically absent. (IDEA addresses a broad range of mental and physical impairments, including developmental delays, learning disabilities, and related disorders.) Students with learning disabilities drop out of school at nearly three times the rate for all students, according to the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD).

NCLD notes that students with learning and attention issues commonly experience bullying, struggle with feelings of failure, and often find it difficult to gain acceptance among their peers. All of these factors can put them at high risk for missing school.

A report from the US Department of Health and Human Services also links chronic school absenteeism and selected developmental disabilities. Children aged five to 17 with an intellectual disability had the highest prevalence of chronic school absenteeism at 14 percent, followed by children with autism spectrum disorder at 9 percent, those with other developmental delays at 7.2 percent, and those with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) at 5.2 percent.

Mental Health and School Attendance

Mental health issues are among the factors that contribute to chronic absences, according to Attendance Works. Diagnoses of anxiety disorder and depression are not uncommon in children, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), which reports that as many as 2.8 million children aged 12 to 17 in the US have at least one major depressive episode in a year. Approximately 80 percent of children with an anxiety order and 60 percent with depression are not treated, according to ADAA.

Chronic absenteeism has also been linked to trauma, which can include experiences ranging from abuse and neglect to the loss of a loved one. More than half of students will experience a traumatic event by the time they reach adulthood, according to Waterford.org.

Effects of Poor School Attendance

When children are absent from school, they miss out on consistent instruction that is needed to develop basic skills. Children in early grades are particularly susceptible to falling behind in fundamental reading skills, which can have a snowball effect that impacts future learning.

Children who have learning and thinking differences can be especially vulnerable to the impact of absenteeism because missing school reduces opportunities for any interventions that might be necessary. If teachers fail to realize that they need an intervention, they are more likely to attribute a learning difficulty to absenteeism, essentially confusing the symptom for the cause.

Students who fail to read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely than students who achieve proficiency to drop out of high school, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, citing a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Adults without a high school education generally earn lower incomes and experience higher unemployment than their peers who do earn a high school diploma, putting them at greater risk for poverty.

Poor attendance can also have a negative effect on social and emotional development. For example, students who are chronically absent in the early years of their education may not learn crucial school readiness skills (abilities such as critical thinking, problem solving, and creative thinking), and can fall behind their peers in social-emotional development. Excessive absences are also associated with lower scores on standardized tests, which typically assess primary skills and concepts.

While students pay the highest cost if they miss too much school, high absence rates also put a burden on teachers. Making up for lost instruction adds to their workload, and the valuable classroom time it takes up is a detriment to all students.

Addressing Chronic Absenteeism

Just as chronic absenteeism has no single cause, it has no simple solution either. Parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers can all play a role in addressing high absence rates and improving children’s chances of receiving complete and effective education.

Strategies for Parents

Parents who are concerned that their child has a problem with school attendance can employ several strategies:

• Talk with the child . Conversations are the first step to understanding root causes and working toward a solution.
• Contact the school . Teachers, counselors, and administrators may be able to provide additional information that helps determine what is causing a child to miss school. Contacting the school also starts a conversation that can be mutually beneficial, and it demonstrates engagement.
• Consider an evaluation for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan . Both programs can provide special accommodations and support for students who are struggling with disabilities.
• Set attendance goals with the child . Creating a plan and tracking progress can encourage better attendance and provide opportunities for conversations and support. Simple steps such as making sure a child gets enough sleep and taking steps to prepare for school the day or night before can also be effective.

Strategies for Educators

Teachers, administrators, and policymakers can work together to address chronic absenteeism. Such efforts begin with gaining a better understanding of the importance of attendance:

• Raise awareness . Training programs can help educators and administrators understand the importance of attendance and the long-term effects of chronic absenteeism.
• Report and study absenteeism data . Identifying students at high risk and the most prevalent causes of absenteeism helps create evidence-based solutions to attendance problems. Identifying problems early is crucial for success.
• Develop trauma-informed practices . Schools equipped to provide emotional support and resources to students who have suffered trauma can address a major cause of absenteeism.
• Set clear expectations . Both students and their parents need clear guidelines about attendance rules and the consequences for missing school.
• Schedule a meeting or visit with family . Reaching out to families personally (in person or using technology that allows social distancing) can be used to develop an individualized attendance plan for families.
• Recognize good attendance . Celebrating students with good attendance and demonstrating concern (rather than frustration or dismissiveness) when students struggle with attendance creates a positive environment that encourages students.
• Implement intervention programs . Some students may require counseling, mentorship, or behavioral interventions.
• Engage with specialists for case management . Specialists who can offer assistance might include child welfare agency staff, mental health professionals, or other social support system employees.

Turning Negatives Into Positives

Parents and educators who do the difficult work of improving student attendance have powerful motivation. Every negative impact associated with chronic absenteeism has a positive corollary for high attendance. Students who regularly attend school and graduate from high school build a foundation for more positive life outcomes:

• Better academic performance
• More work options and earning potential
• Greater opportunities for higher education
• Higher civic engagement
• More developed life skills that positively influence health and economic decisions

However great the challenge, improving attendance directly contributes to more equitable education and better student outcomes.

Empowering More Effective and Equitable Education

Chronic absenteeism is one of the most critical challenges facing educators. Addressing such a prevalent and significant barrier to education requires administrators with exceptional leadership and policy expertise.

American University’s School of Education prepares educators to create equitable learning environments and effect positive change. It promotes modern education that addresses more than just what students learn––it provides students with opportunities to reach their full potential and lead positive social change.

Suited for education leaders who believe in progressive change in education, American University’s online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership (EdD) program develops students in four primary domains: systems change, personal leadership, social justice and antiracism, and policy and research.

Discover how the online Doctorate in Education Policy and Leadership at American University enhances practical experience and theoretical knowledge, advances education careers, and develops professionals who transform education.

Education Policy Issues in 2020 and Beyond

Path to Becoming a School District Administrator

What’s the Difference Between Educational Equity and Equality?

American Academy of Pediatrics, School Attendance, Truancy & Chronic Absenteeism: What Parents Need to Know

Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Anxiety and Depression in Children

Attendance Works, 10 Facts About School Attendance

Attendance Works, “Data Matters: Using Chronic Absence to Accelerate Action for Student Success”

Children International, Child Poverty in the U.S. Attendance Works, “Mapping the Early Attendance Gap”

The Classroom, “The Effects of Excessive Absenteeism in Schools”

Economic Policy Institute, “Student Absenteeism: Who Misses School and How Missing School Matters for Performance”

National Center for Learning Disabilities, “The State of LD: Introduction”

National Center on Educational Outcomes, “Students With Disabilities & Chronic Absenteeism”

National Conference of State Legislatures, “Pre-Kindergarten-Third Grade Literacy”

PACER Center, “School Attendance Makes a Difference”

Stopbullying.gov, Facts About Bullying

Understood, “Chronic Absenteeism: What You Need to Know”

US Department of Education, 2017–18 Civil Rights Data Collection: General Overview, Changes, and List of Data Elements

US Department of Education, “Chronic Absenteeism in the Nation’s Schools”

US Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Protecting Students With Disabilities

US Department of Health and Human Services, National Health Statistics Reports, “Chronic School Absenteeism Among Children With Selected Developmental Disabilities: National Health Interview Survey, 2014–2016”

Waterford.org, “What Your School Needs to Know About Trauma-Informed Practices”

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Softening the sharp edges in mathematics.

For everyone whose relationship with mathematics is distant or broken, Jo Boaler , a professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE), has ideas for repairing it. She particularly wants young people to feel comfortable with numbers from the start — to approach the subject with playfulness and curiosity, not anxiety or dread.

“Most people have only ever experienced what I call narrow mathematics — a set of procedures they need to follow, at speed,” Boaler says. “Mathematics should be flexible, conceptual, a place where we play with ideas and make connections. If we open it up and invite more creativity, more diverse thinking, we can completely transform the experience.”

“Mathematics should be flexible, conceptual, a place where we play with ideas and make connections," says Professor Jo Boaler. (Photo: Robert Houser Photography)

Boaler, the Nomellini and Olivier Professor of Education at the GSE, is the co-founder and faculty director of Youcubed , a Stanford research center that provides resources for math learning that has reached more than 230 million students in over 140 countries. In 2013 Boaler, a former high school math teacher, produced “How to Learn Math,” the first massive open online course (MOOC) on mathematics education. She leads workshops and leadership summits for teachers and administrators, and her online courses have been taken by over a million users. 

In her new book, Math-ish: Finding Creativity, Diversity, and Meaning in Mathematics , Boaler argues for a broad, inclusive approach to math education, offering strategies and activities for learners at any age. We spoke with her about why creativity is an important part of mathematics, the impact of representing numbers visually and physically, and how what she calls “ishing” a math problem can help students make better sense of the answer. 

What do you mean by “math-ish” thinking?

It’s a way of thinking about numbers in the real world, which are usually imprecise estimates. If someone asks how old you are, how warm it is outside, how long it takes to drive to the airport – these are generally answered with what I call “ish” numbers, and that’s very different from the way we use and learn numbers in school.

In the book I share an example of a multiple-choice question from a nationwide exam where students are asked to estimate the sum of two fractions: 12/13 + 7/8. They’re given four choices for the closest answer: 1, 2, 19, or 21. Each of the fractions in the question is very close to 1, so the answer would be 2 — but the most common answer 13-year-olds gave was 19. The second most common was 21. 

I’m not surprised, because when students learn fractions, they often don’t learn to think conceptually or to consider the relationship between the numerator or denominator. They learn rules about creating common denominators and adding or subtracting the numerators, without making sense of the fraction as a whole. But stepping back and judging whether a calculation is reasonable might be the most valuable mathematical skill a person can develop.

But don’t you also risk sending the message that mathematical precision isn’t important? 

I’m not saying precision isn’t important. What I’m suggesting is that we ask students to estimate before they calculate, so when they come up with a precise answer, they’ll have a real sense for whether it makes sense. This also helps students learn how to move between big-picture and focused thinking, which are two different but equally important modes of reasoning.

Some people ask me, “Isn’t ‘ishing’ just estimating?” It is, but when we ask students to estimate, they often groan, thinking it’s yet another mathematical method. But when we ask them to “ish” a number, they're more willing to offer their thinking.

Ishing helps students develop a sense for numbers and shapes. It can help soften the sharp edges in mathematics, making it easier for kids to jump in and engage. It can buffer students against the dangers of perfectionism, which we know can be a damaging mind-set. I think we all need a little more ish in our lives. 

You also argue that mathematics should be taught in more visual ways. What do you mean by that? 

For most people, mathematics is an almost entirely symbolic, numerical experience. Any visuals are usually sterile images in a textbook, showing bisecting angles, or circles divided into slices. But the way we function in life is by developing models of things in our minds. Take a stapler: Knowing what it looks like, what it feels and sounds like, how to interact with it, how it changes things — all of that contributes to our understanding of how it works. 

There’s an activity we do with middle-school students where we show them an image of a 4 x 4 x 4 cm cube made up of smaller 1 cm cubes, like a Rubik’s Cube. The larger cube is dipped into a can of blue paint, and we ask the students, if they could take apart the little cubes, how many sides would be painted blue? Sometimes we give the students sugar cubes and have them physically build a larger 4 x 4 x 4 cube. This is an activity that leads into algebraic thinking. 

Some years back we were interviewing students a year after they’d done that activity in our summer camp and asked what had stayed with them. One student said, ‘I’m in geometry class now, and I still remember that  sugar cube, what it looked like and felt like.’ His class had been asked to estimate the volume of their shoes, and he said he’d imagined his shoes filled with 1 cm sugar cubes in order to solve that question. He had built a mental model of a cube.

When we learn about cubes, most of us don’t get to see and manipulate them. When we learn about square roots, we don’t take squares and look at their diagonals. We just manipulate numbers.

I wonder if people consider the physical representations more appropriate for younger kids.

That’s the thing — elementary school teachers are amazing at giving kids those experiences, but it dies out in middle school, and by high school it’s all symbolic. There’s a myth that there’s a hierarchy of sophistication where you start out with visual and physical representations and then build up to the symbolic. But so much of high-level mathematical work now is visual. Here in Silicon Valley, if you look at Tesla engineers, they're drawing, they're sketching, they're building models, and nobody says that's elementary mathematics.

Click to enlarge: A depiction of various ways to calculate 38 x 5, numerically and visually. (Image: Courtesy of Jo Boaler)

There’s an example in the book where you’ve asked students how they would calculate 38 x 5 in their heads, and they come up with several different ways of arriving at the same answer. The creativity is fascinating, but wouldn’t it be easier to teach students one standard method?

That narrow, rigid version of mathematics where there’s only one right approach is what most students experience, and it’s a big part of why people have such math trauma. It keeps them from realizing the full range and power of mathematics. When you only have students blindly memorizing math facts, they’re not developing number sense. They don’t learn how to use numbers flexibly in different situations. It also makes students who think differently believe there’s something wrong with them. 

When we open mathematics to acknowledge the different ways a concept or problem can be viewed, we also open the subject to many more students. Mathematical diversity, to me, is a concept that includes both the value of diversity in people and the diverse ways we can see and learn mathematics. When we bring those forms of diversity together, it’s powerful. If we want to value different ways of thinking and problem-solving in the world, we need to embrace mathematical diversity.

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Why writing by hand beats typing for thinking and learning

Jonathan Lambert

If you're like many digitally savvy Americans, it has likely been a while since you've spent much time writing by hand.

The laborious process of tracing out our thoughts, letter by letter, on the page is becoming a relic of the past in our screen-dominated world, where text messages and thumb-typed grocery lists have replaced handwritten letters and sticky notes. Electronic keyboards offer obvious efficiency benefits that have undoubtedly boosted our productivity — imagine having to write all your emails longhand.

To keep up, many schools are introducing computers as early as preschool, meaning some kids may learn the basics of typing before writing by hand.

But giving up this slower, more tactile way of expressing ourselves may come at a significant cost, according to a growing body of research that's uncovering the surprising cognitive benefits of taking pen to paper, or even stylus to iPad — for both children and adults.

Is this some kind of joke? A school facing shortages starts teaching standup comedy

In kids, studies show that tracing out ABCs, as opposed to typing them, leads to better and longer-lasting recognition and understanding of letters. Writing by hand also improves memory and recall of words, laying down the foundations of literacy and learning. In adults, taking notes by hand during a lecture, instead of typing, can lead to better conceptual understanding of material.

"There's actually some very important things going on during the embodied experience of writing by hand," says Ramesh Balasubramaniam , a neuroscientist at the University of California, Merced. "It has important cognitive benefits."

While those benefits have long been recognized by some (for instance, many authors, including Jennifer Egan and Neil Gaiman , draft their stories by hand to stoke creativity), scientists have only recently started investigating why writing by hand has these effects.

A slew of recent brain imaging research suggests handwriting's power stems from the relative complexity of the process and how it forces different brain systems to work together to reproduce the shapes of letters in our heads onto the page.

Your brain on handwriting

Both handwriting and typing involve moving our hands and fingers to create words on a page. But handwriting, it turns out, requires a lot more fine-tuned coordination between the motor and visual systems. This seems to more deeply engage the brain in ways that support learning.

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"Handwriting is probably among the most complex motor skills that the brain is capable of," says Marieke Longcamp , a cognitive neuroscientist at Aix-Marseille Université.

Gripping a pen nimbly enough to write is a complicated task, as it requires your brain to continuously monitor the pressure that each finger exerts on the pen. Then, your motor system has to delicately modify that pressure to re-create each letter of the words in your head on the page.

"Your fingers have to each do something different to produce a recognizable letter," says Sophia Vinci-Booher , an educational neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University. Adding to the complexity, your visual system must continuously process that letter as it's formed. With each stroke, your brain compares the unfolding script with mental models of the letters and words, making adjustments to fingers in real time to create the letters' shapes, says Vinci-Booher.

That's not true for typing.

To type "tap" your fingers don't have to trace out the form of the letters — they just make three relatively simple and uniform movements. In comparison, it takes a lot more brainpower, as well as cross-talk between brain areas, to write than type.

Recent brain imaging studies bolster this idea. A study published in January found that when students write by hand, brain areas involved in motor and visual information processing " sync up " with areas crucial to memory formation, firing at frequencies associated with learning.

"We don't see that [synchronized activity] in typewriting at all," says Audrey van der Meer , a psychologist and study co-author at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. She suggests that writing by hand is a neurobiologically richer process and that this richness may confer some cognitive benefits.

Other experts agree. "There seems to be something fundamental about engaging your body to produce these shapes," says Robert Wiley , a cognitive psychologist at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. "It lets you make associations between your body and what you're seeing and hearing," he says, which might give the mind more footholds for accessing a given concept or idea.

Those extra footholds are especially important for learning in kids, but they may give adults a leg up too. Wiley and others worry that ditching handwriting for typing could have serious consequences for how we all learn and think.

What might be lost as handwriting wanes

The clearest consequence of screens and keyboards replacing pen and paper might be on kids' ability to learn the building blocks of literacy — letters.

"Letter recognition in early childhood is actually one of the best predictors of later reading and math attainment," says Vinci-Booher. Her work suggests the process of learning to write letters by hand is crucial for learning to read them.

"When kids write letters, they're just messy," she says. As kids practice writing "A," each iteration is different, and that variability helps solidify their conceptual understanding of the letter.

Research suggests kids learn to recognize letters better when seeing variable handwritten examples, compared with uniform typed examples.

This helps develop areas of the brain used during reading in older children and adults, Vinci-Booher found.

"This could be one of the ways that early experiences actually translate to long-term life outcomes," she says. "These visually demanding, fine motor actions bake in neural communication patterns that are really important for learning later on."

Ditching handwriting instruction could mean that those skills don't get developed as well, which could impair kids' ability to learn down the road.

"If young children are not receiving any handwriting training, which is very good brain stimulation, then their brains simply won't reach their full potential," says van der Meer. "It's scary to think of the potential consequences."

Many states are trying to avoid these risks by mandating cursive instruction. This year, California started requiring elementary school students to learn cursive , and similar bills are moving through state legislatures in several states, including Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina and Wisconsin. (So far, evidence suggests that it's the writing by hand that matters, not whether it's print or cursive.)

Slowing down and processing information

For adults, one of the main benefits of writing by hand is that it simply forces us to slow down.

During a meeting or lecture, it's possible to type what you're hearing verbatim. But often, "you're not actually processing that information — you're just typing in the blind," says van der Meer. "If you take notes by hand, you can't write everything down," she says.

The relative slowness of the medium forces you to process the information, writing key words or phrases and using drawing or arrows to work through ideas, she says. "You make the information your own," she says, which helps it stick in the brain.

Such connections and integration are still possible when typing, but they need to be made more intentionally. And sometimes, efficiency wins out. "When you're writing a long essay, it's obviously much more practical to use a keyboard," says van der Meer.

Still, given our long history of using our hands to mark meaning in the world, some scientists worry about the more diffuse consequences of offloading our thinking to computers.

"We're foisting a lot of our knowledge, extending our cognition, to other devices, so it's only natural that we've started using these other agents to do our writing for us," says Balasubramaniam.

It's possible that this might free up our minds to do other kinds of hard thinking, he says. Or we might be sacrificing a fundamental process that's crucial for the kinds of immersive cognitive experiences that enable us to learn and think at our full potential.

Balasubramaniam stresses, however, that we don't have to ditch digital tools to harness the power of handwriting. So far, research suggests that scribbling with a stylus on a screen activates the same brain pathways as etching ink on paper. It's the movement that counts, he says, not its final form.

Jonathan Lambert is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance journalist who covers science, health and policy.

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