第一篇:my idea of education范文
My idea of education
——The aim of education
John lock said “I place virtue as the first and most necessary of those endowments that belong to a man or a gentleman;as absolutely requisite to make him valued and be loved by others, acceptable or tolerable to him.Without that, i think, he will be happy neither in this nor the other world.”1 Agreeing with John Locke’s opinion, I believe that virtue is the most important and fundamental quality that a human person should own.Virtue is what distinct human beings from animals.Only if a person owns the quality of virtue, he feels the shame of doing evils, and then he can be loved and accepted by others or even the whole society.Only if a person owns the quality of virtue, he would love to make contribution to his family and his country.Most of the people surround us including ourselves behaving like this that is what make us feel the love and could live in peace.But a person without virtue, or even an evil one, is a great thread to the whole society, especially when this person is clever and owns a great amount of knowledge.So the most important function of education is the cultivation of virtue.The cultivation of virtue should begin early and last for a life time.That is because the cultivation of virtue such as kindness and honest isn’t an easy thing.Maybe the inner part of us is somewhat evil.Everyone has some selfish or other bad behavior.To overcome the inner part of us is hard.So it is a task which may take one a whole life to finish.Though a child is young, he has the ability to observe and learn through observation.As Jean Jacques Rousseau said, “We begin to learn when we begin to live.”2 Virtue should be taught to a person when he is still young.To cultivate the quality of virtue, parents and teachers should not only tell them what virtue is, but “set before their eyes the examples of those things you would have them do.”3 What you tell them, children are too young to understand.And they will even forget what you have said.But what you have done is so realistic to them.It will be easily understood and followed by them.So parents and teachers should pay 1John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, P74, paragraph 135Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or Education, P79, the last line 3 John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, P81, paragraph 82, line2
attention to their behavior and behave well.Following the example that set by the people surrounding the child, he will learn how to behave gradually.The second aim of education is the enlargement of mind.“That only is true enlargement of mind which is the power of viewing many things at once as one whole, of referring them severally to their true place in the universal system, of understanding their respective values, and determining their mutual dependence.”4 To enlarge one’s mind, means cultivate one’s ability to think through viewing many things at once as one whole, image, solve problems independently.Jean Jacques Rousseau said, “Life is not breath, but action, the use of our senses, our mind, our faculties, every part of ourselves which make us conscious of our being.”5Nowadays, parents are paying too much attention to their child.They overprotect their child and do every thing for their child.As a result, the child is spoiled, he lack of the experience on how to deal with every thing and how to live a life.To enlarge one’s mind, don’t means simply filling one’s mind with great amount of knowledge.“Not to load the memory of the student with a mass of undigested knowledge, but to force upon him so much that he has rejected.”6 In our country, students are always forced to remember great amount of knowledge that is hard to understand.And that kind of knowledge is usually old and fixable one.It won’t expand one’s mind, but make one become stupid gradually instead.May be the skill to gain and use knowledge maybe more important than knowing lot of pure knowledge.Another aim of education should be make a person round developed.In mordent society, a person who is round developed is thought highly.And this king of people has the ability to live a better live.He will be satisfied about his own life and never feel that he has miss something in his life.“Each man’s mind has some peculiarity, as well as his face, that distinguishes him from all others;and there are possibly scarce two children who can be conducted by exactly the same method.”7 Every one is born to be particular and has some shining point.What parents and teachers should 4John Henry Newman, The Ides of a University, P106, paragraph 3, line 1Jean Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or Education, P60, line9 6 John Henry Newman, The Ides of a University, P107, line8 7 John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, P75, line last but 8
do is find out a child’s peculiarity and shining point, develop it and make it shiner through education.And as every one is particular, the teaching method should be different according to the child’s own personality.A child also has his weak point.This point should also be found by parents or teachers.Realizing what the problem is, and then it could be solved.To make one round develop, apart from digging out one’s shining point and improving one’s weak point, he should approach to all kind of knowledge and things.He should know something about philosophy, be interest in doing exercise, loves art and music.The most important thing is he should be given enough time to develop his own habit.Education is what makes great difference in mankind.It is so important that if you find out its aim and let it be the guide of your life, you will reach to your destination more easily.广东外语外贸大学
英语教育学院
《Writing》08--09学年度第二学期期末考试答题纸
考核对象: 2008 级
论文题目:My idea of education-
The aim of education
姓名:陈小丹
班级:085
学号:20080900081