Not For Hines Analysis

Accountable. Passionate. Purposeful. These are all facets of effective educators at institutions around the world. Most parents want their children to attend a prestigious university so they can secure a well-paying job. However, this should not be the focus of schooling. Students need to learn skills for living and interacting with others in society, outside of a work atmosphere. This essay will assert that the purpose of education is to foster critical thinking, practical abilities, and career preparation, not moral improvement or only academic knowledge.

The first main goal of education should be to produce democratic citizens who critically think. If the arts and humanities continue to be undervalued, Martha Nussbaum, author of Not For

Students should be required to take liberal arts courses that will make them consider different viewpoints, construct arguments, and learn from mistakes throughout history. With one-sided learning that is not interactive or discussion based, people become accustomed to following someone else’s directions. In Bok’s novel, he states that the vast majority of faculty members considers critical thinking to be “the most important purpose of undergraduate education” (Bok, 2006, 67-68). As both Bok and Nussbaum emphasize, critical thinking is necessary in most careers, from business and healthcare to legal and governmental, so that people can see both sides of a situation. However, it is most worthwhile in helping with decision-making. Also, Nussbaum believes that through “various types of humanistic education,” democracies will be filled with informed inhabitants (Nussbaum, 2010, 9). By taking government and economics courses, people can follow and vote wisely in elections, as well as take a stand on controversial societal issues. Later on in her novel, she mentions that democratic citizens need to have an

According to Derek Bok, incoming freshmen enter college “deficient in their ability to communicate” (Bok, 2006, 67). While it seems as though they should have been learning and practicing this during primary and secondary schooling, the burden of strengthening these abilities falls on universities. To teach students how to compellingly speak and write requires additional time and effort from faculty, as well as financial resources. Though not an easy goal to accomplish, communication skills are vital in the workforce. In Simon and Banchero’s article “Putting a Price on Professors,” 30% of employers did not think their new college graduates had sufficient writing abilities (Simon & Banchero, 2010, 3). This further proves the necessity of learning how to exchange ideas with others before entering the real world. In addition, educational systems should expose students to STEM fields. Today’s society revolves around technology, making it advantageous to understand how to use it. Science, engineering, and mathematics respectively teach the fundamental laws of the universe, problem solving, and how to perform basic calculations. Through education, students should gain utilitarian