Brett Mecrones
9/1/17
English 110

                                                       Purpose of Higher Education First Draft   

The purpose of higher education is beneficial towards your own self. School and learning

is important because it challenges the mind to become active, competent, and thoughtfully

critical in a complex world. I think that school is necessary in life because education can get you

anywhere in life.  I support both Barnett’s and Nussbaum ideas because they both believe that

you have to be challenged and school and it’s meant to be difficult. Nussbaum states that

challenging the mind makes you active and important in a complex world. In which I agree on

because being challenged makes you think even harder and it makes you creative in what you’re

learning. There are no final answers according to Barnett because everyone expresses their

answers in different views when they are challenge, which pushes students mind to become more

creative.

 

Barnett’s view on higher learning is that it’s unsettling and it’s not easy to learn

everything and understand everything right away. It takes time to learn something new. The

more you learn and create good habits on learning the more you’ll understand. Also I think

creativity is a big aspect towards higher learning in Barnett’s views. He thinks higher learning is

difficult and not supposed to be comfortable. No matter how much effort is put in there are no

final answers.

 

Nussbaum’s explanation of the U.S educational system, relates to Barnett’s views because

Barnett suggests that higher education is meant to be challenging and not easy and comfortable.

Nussbaum’ s explanation of the U.S educational system states that students are required to take

as many different and variety of courses. Also the U.S educators want to connect the students

early on to become independent and caring democratic citizens in the future. Barnett’s and

Nussbaum’s passages both express different views that the U.S educational system is very

straightforward and it’s a tradition that emphasis on active participation and child in inquiry and

questioning. While Barnett ideas are mainly focusing on higher education is not easy and that

there’s no final answers,  no matter how much work and research is put in.

Therefore, I have experienced my own experiences and observations of learning and

education. I think my own experiences reflects with Martha Nussbaum. I believe that in order to

get to the purpose of higher education you have to challenge the mind to become active,

competent, and thoughtfully critical in a complex world. For example I always have struggled

with math. But the more I do it and challenged myself I ending up understand it better. In this

specific math class in highschool I had to pushed myself and work extra hard to understand a

specific topic. Also I would go after school for extra help like everyday. I was challenged in

math but I learn that nothing is easy in life and you have to work for it. This affected my

education because I was challenged and learn not to give up. I ended up passing the class and

now I could use what I learn in that class and use it in the future and apply it to the real world.

 

The one thing that will advance my view on school and learning is responsibility. I think

being responsible is very important in school because you can’t rely on anyone else. Its up to you

to get the work done and be accountable for what your learning and doing in the classroom.

I think being more responsible can  advance my view on school and learning. Once you get older

in life you have more responsibilities and tasks to do in order to be successful. I also think

that technology should be allow in the classroom because it might be easier for people to learn

and comprehend better than others. Technology also beneficial to teachers because are changing

the way they used to teach like lectures six hours a day and providing students with the tools

that will take them into the 21st century. Also I believe technology in the classroom makes

learning more fun. That being said there are many other arguments to advance your own views

on school and learning.