Sunday, August 28, 2011

Topic: These days, students study only to attain paper achievements, and not to gather knowledge on their own accord. What is your views?

Learning is an innate human desire to gather information from his surroundings to satisfy his curiosity towards the unknown. It was this desire that has sparked mankind's gradual progression from a cave-living being to the kings guarding our Earth today. From archaeological findings consolidated over years of research, we discover the journey of man. In the early days of our first existence, man lived on raw meat and fruits of trees. But it was our desire for a better life that early man slowly gathered information on accomplishing survival procedures more efficiently. Thus we emerged into the age of hunters and gatherers, where man used weapons like sharp sticks to hunt wild game for food for survival.
Returning closer to our familiar generation, in the 1900s, we can infer several excellent examples of learning and experimenting not for the sake of qualifications, but to achieve betterment for all mankind. Take for example the Wright Brothers. They painstakingly experimented and studied aerodynamics, all for a belief that was refuted by professors of their time: To design and build a vehicle that will carry man through the air for considerable distances. Their purpose? To improve travel efficiency between long-distanced travels, for the benefit and further development of mankind. It was the explicit display of learning not for achieving paper qualifications only, but for improving humankind's welfare.

Sadly, this innate wish for learning for humankind has diminished greatly. with the emergence of rote and controlled learning, distinct of our 21st century generation, which we must endure under our 10 years of basic education, this desire has been diluted with the pressure from society to learn only knowledge that the job sector require, in order to achieve paper qualifications to secure a well-paying job that ensures stability and handsome money. With the skyrocketing increase in our world population, there is also an increased number of job-seekers each year craving for a part of the employment pie, this mounting competition in turn increases pressure which our parents and teachers heap on us to achieve our degrees, honours, masters or even PHds to increase the chance of landing a high-paying occupation which offers attractive pecuniary gains. This is no phenomenon, and the pressure will not dissipate but rather escalate with the emergence of a more advanced education system in previously less developed countries of India and China, vastly increasing the number of graduates eligible for executive jobs in the international market. Thus, the desire and pressure for us to attain a satisfying career has redefined our approach towards education, from the want to attain new knowledge for our own curiosity, to the need to achieve paper qualifications for job applications. Gone by were the days of great innovation in the 20th century whereby the rising wish for a better society which everyone can enjoy saw backward countries reliant on agriculture for nourishment transform into grand cities with towering skyscrapers and industrial factories producing not only daily necessities, but luxuries to even the common man, all in just less than a century.