The Role of Education in My Life

Education has been a key point in my life and it has opened me the doors to many different experiences. Thanks to education I have had the opportunity to choose what I wanted to do in my life and decide where I wanted to live. Education has given me more freedom to make decisions. Plato said that education should be mandatory for everyone because is the only way to develop a just society (The Republic). The author defended that education is the process that enables man to become aware of the existence of another reality (Allegory of the Cave).

I agree with Plato that there is another reality. In my opinion there are many realities as there are many perspectives of the world. However, I think that knowledge is not enough to understand the other realities and it is needed the experience to realize that there are more things behind our reality. In my opinion, knowledge allows me to make my own decisions with freedom but I am able to understand the other realities through experience.

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Although philosophers insist that education is the process of learning different concepts and skills required to understand another reality, I will argue that experience has played a more important role in my education than the knowledge learned from others. In addition, I think that education’s role should be helping the people to choose freely rather than developing a just society. In my opinion, education and freedom are two very correlated aspects. I don’t understand education without freedom and vice versa.

If I don’t have the freedom to study what I want I will not be able to make my own decisions in the future. My academic background started in Spain where I graduated from high school and I started studying Business Administration in college. The education that I received from school and family allowed me to decide that I wanted to study in another place in order to have new experiences and learn different things. I did an exchange program for 6 months in Vancouver. The business concepts learned in Canada were very similar from the ones that I learned in Spain.

However, my experience living in a new country with a different cultures and people was a step forward in my education. I didn’t learn new things in my degree, but I learned how to look the world from another perspective. My experience allowed me to see the things different, to see another reality. I discovered the sport college world and the opportunities that it offers for athletes. When I came back to Spain from my exchange program, several universities offered me the possibility to play for their soccer team and study my degree with a scholarship.

I decided to come to Winthrop and fortunately I will be here for the next two years studying Business Administration. My education has played an important role in my life because it has given me the freedom to make my own decisions and choose my future. However, my education has been enriched more by my experiences in different places than by the knowledge learned. Analyzing Plato’s education system, different controversial ideas raised to me. The author argued that education means learning mandatory fields such as music, gymnastics, and mathematics, in order to know and discover the real true (The Republic).

But is education only the transmission and learning of concepts and ideas? What is the role of experience in education? If education is mandatory for everyone, is the education an element that limits my freedom? Reading what Socrates said in the Apology of Plato help me to do an exercise of “self-examination” and question myself what I really know. My attitude toward formal education has changed because I realized how many things studied before and I cannot remember now. I question myself if I’ve been learning in the most appropriate way.

He also proposed that the focus should be on the concept rather than the way we say the things. Does it mean that the way we communicate the knowledge is not important? Do I learn with the same facility with all the professors? I agree with Plato that education should be based on the knowledge learned. However, I believe that this knowledge is not enough to understand the other realities of the world. I need experience to be able to question my reality and learn other perspectives of life. Without experience I can imagine how the other realities could be but I cannot understand them.

When the prisoner of the cave goes outside and experiences another reality he is being educated through experience! Then, he can explain to the other prisoners what he saw, but the other prisoners cannot understand them because they haven’t had the same experience. When reading Plato I though: “Ah-ha! My reality is not the only one true! ” However, I do not agree with the way he proposed to educate the society. I’m not going to believe on something it has been imposed me to study. I think that education cannot limit my freedom and cannot be mandatory for everyone.

Referring to the Socrates words, I think that the way we say things is as important as the concept. In my opinion communication has a very important role in education. Knowledge and experience are two concepts that go hand in hand when it comes to education. Knowledge makes me realize that there is no single reality, and experience allows me to know other different realities in the world. Philosophers argued that education is necessary for the society development but I added that there is no development without freedom.

However, both Plato and Socrates made me change my attitude toward formal education because I realized that learning is not only assimilating concepts. My decisions will be based on my knowledge of the things, but if I don’t know myself I will not be able to make the right decisions. WC = 1. 035 words Works Cited Page Plato. The Allegory of the Cave. The Human Experience: Who Am I? Tapestry Press. 7th Edition. Plato. Apology. The Human Experience: Who Am I? Tapestry Press. 7th Edition. Plato. The Republic. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. http://classics. mit. edu/Plato/republic. html.