Issue 51

"Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."

The speaker states that to make education truly effective, we should design it to meet the individual needs and interests of each student. The speaker makes a clear demand to the education condition of modern society, which is filled with uniformed education courses and methods. Considering the present circumstance, I generally agree with the statement that we should emphasize individual needs and interests rather than conformity of education. However, this direction that the author mentioned must take equal risk that it may meet a failure of cultivating an individual student to a wholesome person, if proper methods were not provided.  

First of all, generalized education system concerns most ordinary students, but also erases the talents of excellent students. We must admit that in such modern society that emphasize efficiency and pragmatism, education is based on a elemental unit--school, where many students get together to learn well-organized knowledge. Most people have to go to school and learn the same thing with all the classmates so that students can compete with each other, and for most important reason, can be justified with the same ruler. All the students are quantified but not qualified. Considering that the number of teachers never surpasses that of students, school has to make a generally efficient way to educate students. As this condition is amplified to a nation or to worldwide society, a generalized efficient and pragmatic education system is carried out by seeing each student equally, teaching everybody the same knowledge, making individuals behave in the similar way, and infusing solid value judgments. For example, a commonly accepted view is always taught to us that to enter a university is the best way to find a good job and earn enough money. As a result, too many students limit the time they spend on their hobbies, even talents, to concentrate on the necessary subjects for college entering examination but never useful in future life; and too many of them have the same aim to be a lawyer, a programmer, an engineer, a doctor or a public employee; and too many of them give up their dreams of a musician, a painter, an inventor, or a sports player. Consequently, some student with excellent talents on arts may become an ordinary engineer. When they have earned enough money to restart their interests, they may never find their talents again, because talents need consistent stimulation and training. Therefore, leading an ignorance on students’ talent development, to generalize the education methods becomes a big lose both of the individual and the society.

On the other hand, by teaching an individual with certain methods on a specialized field, the students’ talents can be well developed. Several examples would prove this statement. For instance, since some famous musicians were born in a family of music, such as Strauss family, they had a well-established circumstance within the family, and their interests on music were inspired in the early age, and the seniors taught them specially designed education. At last, they became well-known musicians who made more splendid achievement than their seniors. Besides the arts field, many scientists achieved success just because they had trained specially outside the school. For example, without enough experience on experimental work at childhood, Michael Faraday might never discover Faraday’s law, and Thomas Edison might never invent a bulb, if they both accepted a generalized school education. We can obtain a conclusion that specially designed education will help students to develop their talents.

However, if the specially designed education system is introduced to most school, we must face several critical problems and risks. First, how to inspect the true talent and interest of an individual comes up, and the teacher who helps the students must know them well enough. Children tend to choose funny things rather than hard work. There may be 90 percent of boys will prefer playing basketball to working on mathematic questions, but there may be no one of them has the ability to be a top player, so the teachers must take their responsibility to find students’ true interest. In fact, teachers have little time and energy to take care of every student’s interests, and the new method cost a lot time and money. Secondly, without general study of fundamental knowledge, too much specialized education may limit a student’s ability and possibility. Since taking views from totally different field always makes new discoveries, it is necessary to learn something beyond their interests. For example, an excellent photographer must know the law of light and the mechanism of camera which need physics knowledge, historical background as well which enrich the content of photos, and the art training, of course. Thirdly, the student who is taught by specialized education has fewer choices of jobs, friends, and communities. They must realize the risk that they can do little things when they cannot get a job of their interest. Therefore, we must take much attention on the risks of such education system.

Finally, although it is a dilemma of concerning most ordinary students to some talent students, I tend to suggest that we should make proper progress on individual education to extract students’ talents. At the same time, the specially designed education program must be well examined to avoid such risks mentioned above.