Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

L Cubed's picture

As of now, I completely agree

As of now, I completely agree that “the objective of an education is to acquire the means to create knowledge.” I also agree that structure is in a way ever-present and necessary, whether it be within or beyond the confines of the classroom, in building and creating knowledge. But when, if at any point, does structure inhibit the very knowledge that it is trying create? At some point structure becomes a barrier rather than a means. In many ways, I think that the structure of school, more specifically college, does not adequately support the creation of knowledge. In my own experience, I feel like I have spent way too much time in the classroom listening and discussing and not enough time out in the real world discovering, doing, experiencing. Not that these things cannot or do not occur within some classroom spaces, but they simply do not occur enough. Consequently, there just seems to be a very strong disconnect where nothing is really made tangible and our own creations of knowledge are….invaluable, I’m not really sure if that is the word I’m looking for.    

In response to what some have said, while we do tend to foucs on the ills of the education system, I do think that one of its "things done right" is providing us all with a common foundation and basis for some kind of learning. Like Abby Em said, while this may seem pointless at the time being, it is helping to build skills that are useful in life....But what is useful in life? That seems like a silly question, but I do think that it has some validity and that the answers vary across cultures and even from person to person- just a thought.

Reply

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
13 + 2 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.