Sylvia Herrera
Mr. Stephens
ENGL 1302
September 17, 2012
Fundamentals

True education is a culmination of class work and experience, it all begins with fundamentals. The foundation of true education is the ability to grasp all concepts taught to one’s self and then put them into one’s own perspective. In other words, to be taught to learn. True educations function is to teach us to think intensively and to think critically, like Martin Luther King once said provides a perfect example of what true education should strive for. “The end product of education should be a free creative man, who can battle against Historical circumstances and adversities of nature.” –S Radhakrishnan, is another great example. There is a saying, People learn something new every day and everyone is a student of life, I believe in that. True education begins in the classroom then moves on to personal experience, and practice.
Schools serve our needs to a short extent there are many flaws in our education system. Social promotion in schools is a major issue, some students with undiagnosed learning disabilities, or other issues are passed without understanding the curriculum. Social pressures for teachers and students, serves as the main reason for this circumstance. Hands on experience is not provided at most schools. The classroom setting mostly consists of sitting through a lecture. Hands on experience is beneficial because it allows students to better determine what career path to take. Curriculums aren’t geared towards career paths. There is a lack of individual attention advanced students, learning impaired, troublesome, or any other students with disorders receive extra attention and special programs. Average students don’t get the same attention. In result those students don’t reach their full potential. In Emerson’s essay he states, “You have to work for large classes instead of individuals; you must lower your flag and reef your sails for the dull sailors” (105). I disagree with that, our standards shouldn’t be lowered, to better accommodate students at the slower pace, but rather goo normal or fast pace, and allow them to catch up. There is also a disadvantage for ESL students; they are put into classrooms at a slower pace due to language barriers.
True education begins in our earlier years; we have to learn, to learn. Familiarize ourselves as students, so that we may open our minds to lessons. Once we are able to comprehend and understand lectures and experiences. We may put them in effect in our everyday lives when necessary. Metacognition has been popular recently; it is often simply defined as “thinking about thinking”. Metacognition: An Overview states, “Stated very briefly, knowledge of person variables refers to general knowledge about how human beings learn and process information, as well as individual knowledge of one's own learning processes. For example, you may be aware that your study session will be more productive if you work in the quiet library rather than at home where there are many distractions. Knowledge of task variables include knowledge about the nature of the task as well as the type of processing demands that it will place upon the individual. For example, you