Importance of Education in Society

Education, if looked at beyond its conventional boundaries, forms the very essence of all our actions. What we do is what we know and have learned, either through instructions or through observation and assimilation. When we are not making an effort to learn, our mind is always processing new information or trying to analyze the similarities as well as the tiny nuances within the context which makes the topic stand out or seem different. If that is the case then the mind definitely holds the potential to learn more, however, it is us who stop ourselves from expanding the horizons of our knowledge with self-doubt or other social, emotional, or economic constraints.

While most feel that education is a necessity, they tend to use it as a tool for reaching a specific target or personal mark, after which there is no further need to seek greater education. Nonetheless, the importance of education in society is indispensable and cohering, which is why society and knowledge cannot be ever separated into two distinct entities. Let us find out more about the role of education in society and how it affects our lives.

Purpose of Education in Society

Education is Self Empowerment
Receiving a good education helps empower you, thus making you strong enough to look after yourself in any given situation. It keeps you aware of your given surrounding as well as the rules and regulations of the society you're living in. It's only through knowledge that you can be able to question authority for its negligence or discrepancies. It is only then that you can avail your rights as a citizen and seek improvement in the structural functioning of governance and economy. It's only when a citizen is aware about the policies of its government can he be able to support or protest the change. As a whole, people can bring about development only when they know where improvement is necessary for the greater good of mankind. Education helps you understand yourself better, it helps you realize your potential and qualities as a human being. It helps you to tap into latent talent, so that you may be able to sharpen your skills.

Financial Stability and Dignity of Life
Another importance of education is that it helps you gain sufficient academic qualification so that you are able to get suitable employment at a later stage. A decent employment would be combined with hard-earned remuneration or salary through which you can look after your personal expenses. While you earn for yourself, you gradually begin to realize the true worth of money and how hard it is to earn it. You realize the significance of saving for a rainy day and for unforeseeable contingencies. You feel empowered because there is a new sense of worth that develops within you, and you feel the need to be independent and free from any further financial support. You take pride in the fact that you are earning for yourself, and are not obligated to anyone.

Growth in Personal Aspiration
There also comes a phase when the amount you are earning presently will seem inadequate because your aspirations and expectations from yourself would have grown considerably. After this, you will want to change jobs so as to have a higher profile. However, here is when you need to be prepared. A promotion of this figure can occur in two given situations, which are, that either you have the necessary higher academic qualification or a college degree which allows you a safe passage, or that you have amassed enough practical experience which allows you to be a suitable candidate for the employment you seek.

On the Job Efficiency
This is why college education is very important after high school and must not be taken for granted. When faced with the option of choosing between a highly qualified candidate and a not so educated candidate, the employers will most probably go in for the qualified person. The reason being that, a qualified candidate will not require much investment of the employer's time and money. The organization need not teach him or her the tricks of the trade, or the various ways of functioning and performing the tasks of the workplace. On the contrary, a novice / amateur applicant would need to be taught everything from scratch, which many employer's are usually not willing to do. The same applies for people who seek higher education and get advanced diplomas while working. These people are continuously improving their profile and their knowledge base so as to go higher up on the competitive ladder.

Helps Plan Ahead
Those who have amassed enough education, steer the path of development and progress for their country. It is these individuals who go ahead and become teachers, scientists, inventors, welfare activists, soldiers, and politicians who work together to form the very backbone of the society. Without this pool of intellect, the economic and social framework would crumple and fall, paving its way for anarchy, degradation, and violence. While this intricate balance of growth is maintained, there will be a continuous rise in progress in all quarters of life, whether that be personal growth, or development of the nation as an entity. This progress has a very important role to play for the coming generations, which will reap the benefits of our hard work, as they develop it further. At the same time, the negative impact of our actions shall have its collateral damage on the coming generation as well. Which is why we must be exceptionally prudent about the decisions we make and the actions we take in the present.

Job Seeker vs. Job Provider
There will come a time, when you will no longer feel the need to be working as someone's mere employee. You would want to take charge and control over your own life and income. This is when you will decide to become a self-employed individual, who would like to watch his / her own ideas take realistic form. You would prefer being the one offering job opportunities to others and aid in providing income to them. At this stage of entrepreneurship, you may use your own expertise as well as that of other trained and skilled associates. As a team, you will find your business or venture expanding and yielding good results. You may even gain the confidence and insight, which will help you diversify and spread your expertise into other business arenas, which were previously unknown to you, or you were unsure about. This ability, comes with experience and knowledge amassed over the years.

An Idle Mind is The Devil's Workshop
Education and studying regularly, gives people of all age groups something substantial and challenging to do. It helps them think and use their idle hours, doing something productive and worthwhile. Education need not be purely academic and may include reading for leisure or as a passion for literature, philosophy, art, politics, economics, or even scientific research. There is no limit, to all that you can teach yourself, only if you take the interest to learn and grow as an individual. However, those who treat knowledge as trash, eventually find themselves getting absorbed with thoughts of violence, and jealously against those who are better off than themselves. It is people such as these who turn towards drug addiction, unnecessary rebellion, crime, and plain inactivity. Such people lack the self-esteem, that a good education often provides to its followers.

Education plays its continuous role in all spheres of life. The reason being, that if we are aware of the drawbacks of a decision and we know about the possible contingencies and the collateral damage, our consequent actions would be wiser, which would help us to keep danger at bay at all times.
By Rohini Mohan

Why is Education the Key to Success

Everyone of us is a bundle of unique gifts and talents. Our relative success in life depends on how much we believe in ourselves, trust our own private genius, nurture it and let it grow freely. What education does is that it provides us with the opportunity to unravel and realize our inborn talents, while providing us with the skills of thinking and solving problems on our own. Both education and success are relative concepts in the sense that there is a wide difference of opinion regarding what is real education and what is real success. In this Buzzle article, I present you with my argument about why is education the key to success, based on my own understanding of what real education and true success means.

What is Real Education?

Real education is the one which enables you to think for yourself and apply what you have learned. Purely knowing facts and being able to effectively remember and recall them isn't being educated. To be educated is being able to make your own decisions and form your own opinions about things. It is the imparting of skills that enable you to succeed in any field of human endeavor and make your original contribution. What good education requires is a one-to-one interaction between a good teacher and student.

There are two factors of education which must mold two different aspects of the human psyche - one is analytical intelligence and the other is emotional intelligence. The former deals with the ability to solve technical problems while the latter deals with the ability to empathize, communicate, connect with our fellow human beings. A wholesome education system must educate both these facets of the human psyche to mold a character with all the abilities required to live a happy and successful life.

Why is Education the Key to Success?

Man is what his thoughts make him. Education provides direction to these thoughts. Success is more than just accumulation of material wealth. I believe that success is not a destination but a never ending journey in self exploration. It is unlocking your true potential to make your life itself a work of art. Success has more than one dimensions to it. Acquiring material wealth is not the only one. To what degree have you conquered your self and achieved liberation from wanting and needing things is another indicator of success. Education plays a large role in determining our potential for achieving this success. Here are some of the prime arguments supporting the idea of education as the veritable key to success.

High Educational Qualifications Provide Better Job Opportunities
Specialized knowledge gained through higher education opens opportunities in the form of well paying jobs, with a challenging work profile. While higher education may not guarantee success, it certainly puts you in a position to work with the best in the field and gain valuable experience, which helps you in the long term pursuit of professional success. So graduation through college and working hard to get through graduate school has its benefits.

Provides the Requisite Skill Set to Succeed
Education that enables individuals to succeed is not just the formal kind. The direct education that one gains through hands-on experience and working with the masters in a field, that goes beyond purely bookish knowledge, prepares you for success. Real education begins when you start applying what you learned through formal education to solve real world problems. The discipline, perseverance and ability to apply oneself pave the path to success.

Provides Access to the Vast Store of Human Knowledge
Just being able to read and write, provides you access to the vast store of human knowledge in the form of books, which is the combined wisdom of ages. A man benefits from the path shown by the great masters of any field by accessing this knowledge store. Distilling knowledge to gain wisdom is the ultimate aim of education. Great minds like Newton have acknowledged the contributions of their predecessors which contributed to their success. Standing on the shoulders of the great giants of men who made magnanimous contributions to human knowledge, we can see further than they did.

Education Through Experience Provides the Real Edge
A college degree or any kind of formal education can provide you with the knowledge required to succeed in your field. It does not ensure success unless you learn to apply what you learned and apply it effectively to find innovative solutions. Education provides you with the means, but the application required to succeed must come from within you. The edge that winners gain over their competitors is through experience and out of the box thinking.

Ultimately Success Is All About Self Belief
No institution can provide better education than life itself. Besides conventional education, the lessons we learn through our day-to-day life, our ability to adapt and self introspect, adoption of a strong value system and most importantly, self belief are the keys to success. The importance of education lies in its ability to forge a man of character.

The real key to success is self belief, which can unlock your inner potential. Education which puts you on the path of self discovery, leading to self belief, adds meaning to your life and provides you with the means to achieve lasting success in life. As rightly put by W.B.Yeats, education lights the inner fire and provides us with the ability to think independently, making success only a matter of time.
By Gray Pilgrim

How to Get The Best Nursing Programs

Nursing is one of the most popular careers. This is because many people view it as a secure profession. Today, there are many institutions offering training in this field. However, not all of them are offering the best quality of education you may want for your loved one.

As such, you need to be cautious when choosing the institution where to study for your nursing programs. This is very important because nursing programs offered by an institution will determine the kind of education you or your loved one get. To ensure that you get the best, you need to consider the following:

• Specialties: You need to consider the specialty you want to choose. Find out if this specialty is available in the institution, you enroll in for your studies. This field of professionalism is more than just a profession. It requires people with passion for helping and caring for the sick. As such, you need to get a specialty that you are comfortable with. A field that you will not have any problem helping the sick.

• You also need to ensure that the institution you enroll in for your studies is accredited. This is very important since no institution can be accredited if it is offering poor quality education. As such, you need to do some research on the institution before enrolling for your studies.

• You also need to find out about the fee. Studying for this profession may be expensive for some people. As such, you need to ensure that you will afford the fee. If you cannot, find out if the institution has any means of helping needy students.

• Make sure that you also meet the required conditions for admission. Some institutions will have pre-admission exams or tests. This is very important as it will help you know if you qualify for the nursing programs that you or your loved one want to pursue.

• It is also important that you find out about clinical rotation. These are very important when completing your coursework. A school that provide enough time for clinical rotation is the best to enroll for your studies. Placement for these clinicals should also be varied properly and offer quality hands-on experience. Getting such information before enrolling for your studies is very important.

• Knowing the pass rate of exams offered by an institution is also very important. This will enable you find out what to expect when you enroll for the nursing programs offered by an institution.

Necessity of Online Education for Older Women

The system of linking students, teachers and learning resources when they are not in the same location is called "distance learning". Earlier, distance learning made effective use of communication technologies like the postal service, and then television programs. However, a huge shift occurred after the advent of the Internet and "online education" was born. This transformed not only the methods of education but also the development and propagation of knowledge and communications between students and teachers. But how did all this effect older women? Technology granted new opportunities for many older women to achieve educational goals and they successfully managed to balance home and education.

Universities now form partnerships with businesses and even each other to compete better, in a greatly expanded worldwide market for students. The growth of online education can be attributed primarily to these reasons -

• You get to choose the class hours according to your discretion.

• Instead of a typical classroom environment, you get to learn in the comfort of your home.

• Since the actual sessions are never crowded, more attention is focused on you.

• Zero conveyance cost. Also you get to choose a class which fits your personal style and budget.

• Since there is to-and-fro involved, you save a lot of time.

According to a survey, more than 2 million students enrolled in online education courses in 2002 alone. If a recent U.S. government document is to be believed, the average age of online students is 34 years old and they are mostly female.

So why do older women pursue continuing education? According to a survey, the main impetuses of women for returning to education are -

• Expansion of their current career

• Enhancement of current salary

• Changing or beginning careers

• Returning to staff position

• Pursuing personal advantages

Among the women surveyed, 20% belonged to the age group of 41 - 50.

The top online colleges offering scholarships in America are -

(i) Liberty University

(ii) Post University

(iii) Kaplan University

(iv) DeVry University

(v) American Inter Continental University

(vi) Grand Canyon University.

The number of older women currently working to complete courses and degrees online represents a social wonder. Awareness of women's problems and measures to help overcome the tribulations are required to raise the success of both older women and online programs.

Although women are the main users, they are grossly underrepresented in high-tech sectors and among university administrators who are currently influential to online learning. Many adult women returning to college classes have to tackle significant hurdles not usually experienced by men. Many women balance career, community and household tasks against their curricular work. They often have serious economic liabilities too. Customarily, they have grappled with these difficulties while also facing inflexible class schedules and educational policies, incompetent childcare, lack of appropriate lodging, and lack of dependable transportation. Online education seeks to solve all this and more.

Using Jigsaws to Teach Longer Works

We all know what a jigsaw puzzle is, right? It's a puzzle with a bunch of pieces that all fit together to make the whole picture. While the pieces alone might seem to look like nothing, they all seamlessly fit together to make a beautiful picture. Believe it or not, you can actually take the same concept and make it work in your classroom, which can save you and your students a lot of time; while also teaching them communication skills necessary to be successful outside your class.

What are Jigsaw Activities?

Jigsaw activities are exactly what they sound like. You break students into groups and have each group read a specific article or piece of text, and they are responsible for teaching the rest of the class their segment. This can also be done without groups, if you have enough pieces of the text for students to tackle a segment individually. Hopefully, when you're finished, the whole class then has the complete picture of what you wanted them to learn without having to read the entire text or all the articles in the unit.

How to Make it Work in the Classroom

If you grew up in the 90’s, you remember watching Uncle Jesse and Joey try to do this same thing with a book they were reading, only to have it fail miserably because each didn't understand the half the other was supposed to report back on. The lesson here is that trying to cheat by doing only part of the work will always result in failure. However, when you are facilitating a jigsaw activity in your classroom, you can make it successful by requiring each group to complete specific activities relating to their segment of the text. This can be a worksheet, answering several questions, completing a video project - the possibilities are endless and these are just a few. When the groups have completed their tasks, they must present their findings to the class. At this point, it is critical to have the students take notes. Since they did not read their own section of the text, they need to have something to reference in their notes.

End of Unit Activities

After all the groups have presented, it's a good idea to have an end of the unit activity ready to go to check the students' understanding of the topic. You can create a quiz based on the students' presentations and have the entire class take the quiz. You can also have students create their own quiz questions to test the students who have been listening to their presentation. It's also possible to have students complete a project that has one or more elements from each group's presentation. Again, the possibilities are endless, but it is a good idea to follow through with an end of the unit activity just to be sure the students were paying attention to all the presentations.

What does it Teach?

Jigsaw activities not only cover the required material of the classroom, but also teach much more than just reading comprehension and writing. Jigsaw activities require students to present information in such a way that the other students can understand what they are saying. This is much different than just giving a presentation or speech, because the students are not required to just talk at an audience, but rather teach the audience something and be sure they understand what has been taught. This is an important life skill, especially when you consider most jobs in the world require someone to teach something at some point in the workday.
By Buzzle Staff and Agencies