Education is a GIFT not a BUSINESS, my friend........

You have a wonderful discussion here my friend and I would take my time on this one. If I were the farmer's teacher I would teach him Biology and Chemistry first because that is by far very related to his way of life. Why biology? first of all he needs to understand his life its cycle and all the stuff in it because if he learns understand what he is and what he is not then he would value himself more. Chemistry is next because he is a farmer, if he understands something about his plants he could nurture it. I will then teach him Physics and math afterwards if he starts seeking knowledge about stuff outside his field of expertise, farming. In the end its up to him how he applies things in his life. I wont teach him a new technique in farming because that would be spoon feeding and if he does not understands the concept behind those things he wouldn't grow he would be just the basic farmer as he was before. Most of us loves learning new things but only some of us applies it in our lives. Most of us are stubborn and timid. We know things but we fail to understand what it really teaches us so those who are masters of education may know about the greatest formula in the world but most of them are hollow inside because they can't understand the value of their lives and the others around them. Knowledge is a powerful tool specially when used right in our daily lives. I may have written something good here but I know I can't apply it whole heartedly in my own life. Education is indeed a gift not a business but some impossible human beings make business out of it

Hey I met you somewhere - you are that educated geek who thinks correct spelling of kemistry is chemistry and correct spelling of feesix is physics. So how are you doing my friend. :)

kar295 yes education should be relevant to what the student plans to do with his or her life. but to day's modern farmer does need maths and physics and even come chemistry. He needs to know how large a field he needs for what he wants to grow, he needs to know how much seed it takes, and most proba bly how to use a computer too. The more he knows about how to reach real success in farming he has to have more than just new farming techniques, he has to know about how mant bushels of whatever he planted can sustain his business as most farmers have produce to sell and loans to pay off so they also need to have some business educatiom and banking education.So almost all that is offered a really great farmer can make good use of.

I think a farmer must take agriculture as his course or all he has to learn is about farming. There are vocational courses now, so people could learn immediately what they need to and apply the same to the jobs they want, without taking these 4 years course. I heard this from my daughter who's a teacher during her first year of teaching when she feels she's not well compensated, after all, education is not only a profession but a vocation.

Well, I have to say that I completely agree with you to a certain degree. I think that all children are entitled to have the same kind of education when they are young and that is the reason that things such as the "No Child Left Behind" act exist. However, I also think that during the course of one's education you are only to get out of it what you put into it. Thus, if you don't put anything into the education that you receive then you won't get anything out of it.

I do not understand why physics, chemistry and math do not apply to everyday life. The car or bus alone that gets every laborer to their places of work, would not exist without the use of all three. The farmer enjoys a bigger harvest with the use of chemistry through the pesticides and fertilizers that he uses. My grandfather, and so too my father (who incidentally taught math),were both teachers and farmers. Thankfully they did not need to know everything about the subject, but consciously or not, both used chemistry when mixing the proper ratio of their pesticides. Education is behind the fact that I was able to study and learn how to type and use English as a language. It is what I do in everyday life. Education is also behind the fact that I use a computer instead of a typewriter, because there were some people who studied the nature of electrons (Physics), and there were some people who developed a material called "plastic" (Chemistry), and there were other people who figured out the ways to control how this elements or materials relate to each other (Math). Those of us who have had the chance to get it, like you and me, study the different disciplines or subjects in preparation for our daily lives in the future. That is why our early education is a curriculum of different subjects, until we choose which of these subjects we'd like to study further. That is why in college, we have our majors. After that if we so choose, a Master of Arts Degree or a PHd. We study to get awareness of the world around us. The pursuit of knowledge is not just to get a job or to accumulate wealth. Money had been mostly secondary to those who opened our minds to different theories and discoveries throughout history. Erasmus, a well educated man is quoted as saying: "If I have money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes. As it is illustrated above, one of Man's greatest virtue is the fact, that he is able to share his knowledge to others and for countless generations to come. Hence the person who has a Masters in Physics, and one, able to solve problems involving the Theory of Relativity, also helps to create how we know the world today. Our everyday life. I agree that education should not be a business, because having both parents as teachers, I have lived to know that it is a vocation. But, as stated by Erasmus above, you need money to buy books. :-)

Dear friend, I feel how to education in proper way is much needed. Moreover common sense and being a better human being is most needed in this world. One should need education but humanity with better wisdom is mostly accepted with those with a heart.

I absolutely agree with you. We learn and we study not purely for the money. We also want to better ourselves, our thoughts, and our way of living. Through education, we learn a method to think, to grow up ourselves within. We learn the right from wrong, and the bad to good. Although education indeed pave the way to our success and luxury of our future life, we still learn to be clean within.

i think education is above all and it is not about subjects but it is about knowledge. the aim of the education is to build up a mind and we should not concentrate on the things that are mundane. we should not loose our common sense while digging into materialistic knowledge. i want to share an example. a boy with his father went for camping. they fixed their tent there and went to sleep but in the midnight the father was somehow awake and waked his son and pointed his finger upward and said," what is this" and the son replied," these are the stars of the milky way galaxy and the planets and that is the mars planet" and to this the father replied," stupid, our tent is gone"......... so this was the case that the illiterate father was having much more common sense than his educated son. so we must learn but not loose our common sense. education is knowledge to apply in the journey of life, share the knowledge but definitely not business. hope you like the little story, more like a joke..........hehe

I also ask myself sometimes why I spent so much time in school, apart from the fact that I enjoyed learning (when I didn't hate it, that is). When I graduated, I felt I didn't know anything about anything. During the first two weeks at my job I learnt more than in four years at the university. Guess your farmers would feel the same, after four years of biology, when they have to plow a field for the first time. There's no school to prepare you for life in general, unfortunately (the Greeks tried it 2,500 years ago and failed miserably). That part is mostly trial and error, and education by social interaction. I am the sum of people I've met, somebody once said. As for for all the years spent in school, I've learnt one useful thing: that I'll keep making the effort to educate myself constantly, both on a professional and on a personal level, for the rest of my life. And maybe one day I'll know something about something. Not there yet.