Reflection Paper 18

I agree that in America education has always been viewed as a vehicle for improving society at large. Even decades ago education had played an important role. For example back when farming was the main source of employment they had to know how much livestock, crops, etc they had so they would know if they were short in anything or were shorted with trading or buying. They would have to measure the amount of grain or whatever product they were selling or receiving to get the proper amount so that the farmers didn’t lose profits. I think that the people who aren’t educated enough as to be able to read and write and are only able to sign their names are a danger to themselves. If a person only knows how to sign their name then they are threatening themselves as well as their family because if they can’t read then they would not be able to know what they are signing. For example if an important document is given to them about their private information and they sign it without knowing what is on it then they could be signing their lives away as well as their assets to strangers thus putting their family in danger. A historical example would be the story of Helen Keller. She was born both visually impaired and hearing impaired and yet with the persistence of education she was able to learn sign language, became the first visually/hearing impaired person to obtain a bachelor of arts degree, and became an author and speaker known throughout the world. If Helen was not educated then she would have never been able to achieve any of the things she did and would have not been such an inspiration to many people. A current example would be our very own president Barak Obama. If education wasn’t such a major role in his life then he would never have been able to become America’s first African American president. As we all know you can’t just wake up and decide one day that you want to be president. There is an abundance of things that have to be known and you have to be very well educated. Without President Obama’s education je would not have even been able to be considered eligible to come near to be a candidate. Education is how we are able to function in the world. Knowledge is essential to success without it I don’t think we would be able to discern right from wrong.