College Admissions Essay: The Power Of Education

The Power of Education Education can be categorized into two forms, formal and informal. Formal educationis what we have come to know as a traditional school setting. It offers an established curriculum with set objectives and a predetermined structure. Informal education on the other hand is learning which occurs outside of established curriculum.It can take on any number of forms. But which of the two yields the greater chance for success and at what level? I contend that the structure-less form of non-traditional education is preferable. Informal education offers a higher potential for success because it offers a broad range of environments, provides greater attention to the individual, and instills values necessary for employability.

Informal

Where else but in a prison could I have attacked my ignorance by being able to study intensely sometimes as much as fifteen hours a day? (X 197) Traditional learning venues were closed off to Malcolm X, due to both his race and lack of freedom. It was his self-driven informal education which allowed him to flourish intellectually and become a great human rights activist.

Malcolm X found his educational niche in prison, but no singleapproachprovides effective learning for all individuals. Maximal learning is therefore dependent on methods which are adaptable to each individual. Formal education attempts to structure itself around the best interests of a group. In a formal setting, even among the more prestigious programs, limited resources force each professor to oversee many students.This limits the time and attention each student can receive.Methods of learning are based on maximal learning possible for the group, not for any particular student.Informal methods, such as homeschooling, provide fewer students per instructor and allow for more one-on-one instruction which caters solely to the

In America, children are legally required to attend school from age 7 until they graduate or turn 18. Additional forces may stem from the family unit. Despite not being part of traditional formal education, many parents establish minimum levels of performance and require academic pursuits outside the classroom. In this manner, informal educationcan feature more individualized attention, ideally promoting greater success. In her article, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”, Amy Chua details the various requirements placed on her daughters beyond the classroom:she enforced hours of music practice, did not allow grades lower than an A, nor did she allow her daughters to pick their own extracurricular activities (Chua 1-4). With Chua’s rules, minimum standards set by the school were thrown out the window, replaced by strict expectations of excellence. Chua describes spending hours working with her daughter on the piano, “I rolled up my sleeves and went back to Lulu…We worked right through dinner into the night”(Chua 4). The additional attention and expectations paid dividends, her children developed into “math wizzes and music prodigies”(Chua 1). The driving element in Chua’s story is a mother’s influence on her children’s educational success, to which she credits her policies outside of formal