How Education for Everyone is Important

Education was once only meant for young men of a certain social standing. Women learned to needlepoint, play musical instruments and possibly a few "acceptable" card games. If they learned to read at all, women were expected to stick to only the lightest, frothiest books. Thankfully, times have changed and education is now for everyone, no matter when and where they start out.

All children are required to attend some sort of school program from the ages of five to sixteen. From kindergarten on to high school, children go to schools- public, private or home schooling. The choice is made by location, economic standing and sometimes religious belief. But education does not stop once you earn a high school degree, or at least it shouldn't.

Most parents look down at their newly born infant, sleeping sweetly in its crib and have visions of law school, medical school, maybe both. They do not look at their baby and think, " Now gee, there is a high school dropout, right there." No one wants to think that their child is not going to make something of themselves, but you cannot drag a child kicking and screaming to the steps of the local university either. Once your child has met the law's requirements, any further education has to be by choice or it will simply be a waste of their time and your money.

But you should not think that only the young are deserving or in need of an education. And you should not think that the word "education" implies only college and university programs. Taking enrichment programs at a local community center counts as education. The dictionary definition of the word education is:" The imparting and acquiring of knowledge through teaching and learning especially at a school or similar institution." Every time you learn something new, you have had some form of education, no matter how small. So take the writing course, or the painting, dancing, or cooking course. It does not matter what course you take as long as you continue to learn, to expand your mind for the entirety of your life.

Summing up education and its importance to everybody was perhaps done by Peter Ustinov with this quote from Dear Me (1977). "After all, what is education, but a process by which a person begins to learn how to learn." I think that says it all.