Impact of Schools on Society

“Education is the most Powerful Weapon which you can use to change the world. Nelson Mandela (Former President of South Africa).

 Here I take a moment to compliment what (Late) Mr. Nelson Mandela said and humbly comment on his quote. Mr. Mandela commented Education as Powerful Weapon that can be defined as destructive and non-destructive. Good Education can either make a person or can destroy a person. Learning through education can be defined as powerful weapon to change the world in a better way like of many other scientists and intellectuals or in a worst manner to destroy the humanity through terrorism or nuclarism.

Here I take a humble liberty to comment on his thought by changing words with word like as of ‘Powerful Weapon’ to ‘Powerful Instrument’. An instrument is always a medium of thought to produce something good.

The word Education comes from the Greek word “Edukos”, which means ‘To Draw Forth From Within’ How very different from the schooling system which seeks rather to conform the child’s soul to the demands of a consumer-driven society leaving us stranded… endarkened.

“Education demands, then, only this: the utilization of the inner powers of the child for his own instruction.” As said by ~Maria Montessori

If the education is used in a right way it can lead to a better human life if not it will destroy the humanity. Education brings knowledge to one’s life. Knowledge is a powerful tool for people. It improves in their understandings of things and situations.

The word school is derived from Greek σχολή (scholÄ“), originally meaning “leisure” and also “that in which leisure is employed”, but later “a group to whom lectures were given, school”.

If I turn back the pages of my life back to school days, I would recall school not just as a building or school premises but school as a medium of learning with leisure, a school of discipline with love and respect, and a school of fun-n-frolic, where competition matters but not to an extent that one forgets the human part of life.

Today the question arises in everyone’s mind. Does School make any impact on society or how the schools make an impact on the society? If so, what is or what are the impacts of schools on the society?

In a larger angle of deviation school is no more just an institution of learning rather a point of business where it stands on by removing ‘L’ from learning and making it as a point and a place of earning.

So, to speak schools have deviated the thought from learning to earning.

Unfortunately, an institution known to be the ‘Temple of Knowledge and wisdom’ has turned to be the stock market of life through institutional fees that a common man can’t even think of. It’s because, most of the institutions are owned by the businessman or the corporate not by the educators. They do not understand the value of saying ‘man of letters’ or ‘the man of principles’. They just understand the credits in account statements.

The Effect of Education as an Institution

Education is usually seen as affecting society by socializing individuals. Recently this view has been attacked with the argument that education is a system of allocation, conferring success on some and failure on others. The polemic has obscured some of the interesting implications of allocation theory for socialization theory and for research on the effects of education. But allocation theory too focuses on educational effects on individuals being processed. It turns out to be a special case of a more general macro sociological theory of the effects of education as a system of legitimation. Education restructures whole populations, creating and expanding elites and redefining the rights and obligations of members. The institutional effects of education as a legitimating system are explored. Comparative and experimental studies are suggested.

How does education affect society? The dominant view has it that the schools process individuals. They are organized networks of socializing experiences which prepare individuals to act in society. More direct macrosociological effects have been given little attention. Yet in modern societies education is a highly developed institution. It has network of rules creating public classifications of persons and knowledge. It defines which individuals belong to these categories and possess the appropriate knowledge. And it defines which persons have access to valued positions in society. Education is a central element in the public biography of individuals, greatly affecting their life chances. It is also a central element in the table of organization of society, constructing competencies and helping create professionals and professionals. Such an institutions, clearly has an impact on society over and above the immediate socializing experiences it offers the young.

 Positive and Negative Effects of Education

Education is supposed to be an enlightening process that aims at magnifying our wisdom and store of knowledge. It was a word created to have only positive impacts. However, like every other realm of humanity, education too has its demerits.

Employment, career, etc are possible only if education is present in the equation. Right from the time we are born, it is stressed upon us that education is the key to success in life. We are admitted to a school (or started with homeschooling), regardless of our opinion about it. What demerits can this wonderful and apparently essential process have? We shall discuss further…

Positive effects of education

• Economic Development
  A huge percent of those living in this world come under the category of “poor”. They can’t even afford basic necessities of life like food and clothing – let alone education. However, if educated, a lot of these people can come out of the clutches of poverty – as has been proved by a number of people like Charlie Chaplin and Oprah Winfrey. Yes, indirectly I am pointing at the fact that if you need a job, you gotta get an education!
  While the standard of living of individual increases with a steady job, the economy of the country as a whole develops as well.
• Health
  Education plays an important role in maintaining the health of an individual. With increased store of knowledge, people are often careful of small symptoms and avoid epidemics. Also, the rates of child mortality amongst the educated class are much lower than that amongst the non educated ones. HIV is another issue to combat amongst the uneducated. With education, contraception, childbirth, and mating find a whole new meaning which is advantageous not just for the individual but for the society on a whole. It helps the whole society/ region develop as an unhindered race

• Malnutrition
  Malnutrition is a major problem, especially in countries that are underdeveloped. Lack of organizational skills, farming capabilities, and nutritional values lead to malnutrition in the youth of an uneducated society. Malnutrition leads to depletion of a race. It strikes a society with various diseases that may be fatal. Education helps fight this problem and make a society see the path of progress. As Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” (Quoted above)

Negative Effects of Education

• Moral Impact
  Education is worsening the level of moral values a child has. It inculcates a kind of competitiveness that borders on unhealthy relationships. Right from the moment, they are admitted to school, children are embedded with an attitude that says personal achievements are everything. They are taught that marks and trophies are everything you need to lead a successful life. The how and why are not so important, just mug up the what – that’s what is taught to a kid. And that’s what he grows up learning. The society has sunk far too deep in this muck to get out now – it is a custom, a tradition to teach our kids to come first in class and no less. This is creating not a wholesome adult but a competitive animal out of our little kids.

• Social responsibility
  Education is killing our sense of empathy. If you’re an Indian pedestrian and are run over by a car, it won’t be the car owner who’d rush to help you. It won’t be the manager of that Haute restaurant or the prim and proper secretary from “Mills and sons” who saw you get run over through the glass doors – no. It would be the local tea vendor, the rickshaw driver, and the security guards who lack educational qualifications to hold high posts who’d rush in to help you. It isn’t the fault of the rich and well-educated ones that they’re incapable of empathy, but it is the fault of school our education system. Modern schools and education systems teach kids to think about themselves – and only about themselves!

• Lack of wisdom
  The modern education system in school is all about getting loads of garbage into a little mind. It expects a student to complete huge portions and that’s what students are doing – but in a wrong way. Rote memory is being stressed on rather than the creative one. This is one of the saddest aspects of modern society – we have knowledge but no wisdom to use it.

Top 10 Effects of school / Education Has on Society

1. Education is important in the creation of any democratic society. 

As Franklin D. Roosevelt says, “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.” People need a good education if they want a good democracy.

1. Education is needed to make a society geopolitically stable. 

Without a proper educational system available to everyone, terrorists could use free education as a way to radicalize people. In other words, geopolitical stability is one of education’s most powerful effects on society.

1. Education leads to economic prosperity in the global marketplace. 

One of the most important effects education has on society is giving the people who live in a society the skills they need to compete in the global marketplace, and the skills they need to produce technological goods that can be sold on the open market. Socrates best expressed this idea when he stated: “Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual.”

1. Education gives people the knowledge they need to elect capable leaders. 

Plato stated, “In politics we presume that everyone who knows how to get votes knows how to administer a city or a state. When we are ill… we do not ask for the handsomest physician, or the most eloquent one.” Education helps the members of society see through the manipulations used by politicians to get votes so that the members of the society can vote for the leader who is best able to run the society.

1. Education helps promote tolerance in a society and helps reduce common conflicts between diverse populations in an urban setting.

Helen Keller said that “The highest result of education is tolerance.” Educating members of society about other people who either live in the society or its neighboring states have the power to reduce many conflicts.

1. Education has the power to help societies, and the world in general, change for the better.

Malcolm X says that: “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.” Education is a powerful tool that can be used to make the world a better place to live in.

1. Education is important because it helps members in a society learn from the mistakes of the past. 

Plato has stated that geopolitical stability cannot be created by forming a democratic government; if the government is established by force or because of overthrowing an old regime, the new government could transform from a government that encourages peace and democracy into a new government that uses force to maintain power. Having an education is important because good education allows members of a society to learn from past mistakes and prevent the same mistakes from happening in the future.

1. Education is the first step a society needs before giving rights to women and other minority groups. 

Education is a powerful tool that enables women and other minority groups to gain fundamental civil rights. It is important to treat women and other minorities with respect in the classroom. Abraham Lincoln stressed the importance that education has in helping people who live in a society to more fundamental civil rights when he said, “The philosophy of the schoolroom in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next.”

1. Education reduces violence and crime in societies. 

Teaching people to read has been shown to prevent people from engaging in crime. In fact, the Melissa Institute for Violence Prevention and Treatment is a charity group uses education to combat violence and crime.

1. Education creates hope for the future. 

Giving people hope that they can improve their lot in life is one of the more powerful effects education has on a society. John F. Kennedy best expressed the power of a good education when he said: “Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation.”  JFK’s words about America apply to every society on Earth.

Education not only about acquiring knowledge, it is also about applying the knowledge for the betterment of society. Described as “future” of every society, it is the responsibility of each school student to bring about major changes in society as a whole through their efforts.

Leaving with the thought of thinking how we are different from the society or in the society or for the society, schooling and the good education matters because our implications are more important than the explications

To quote John F. Kennedy, “The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth.”

Continuing with that thought I want to leave a point for you to think and act…

“Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, not just the set of instructions received for the territory business”