What is education?

What is Education? 

 It is often said that what you learn at school is almost useless because you rarely have any occasions to solve simultaneous equations at work. To read classics, to draw pictures, to learn the names of rocks by heart---that is all useless. 
 To be sure, such an opinion above metioned has a grain of truth, however, if the opinion is totally true, education at school is, for the most part, a waste of time and effort. 
 I sometimes wonder whether I learn something in order to work or I work so as to learn something to live for. 
 On the one hand, knowledge at work is what you can learn through work, but, on the other hand, general knowledge such as science, mathematics, history, and literature is what you cannot learn through work. 
 In my opinion, education exists not for the sake of obtaining and using knowledge at work, but for the sake of enjoying your daily life. 
 In short, the bottom line is that education should play a crucial role in stimulating your curiosity, not in encouraging you to work effectively. 
 Even when the knowledge you have acquired is useful at work, in nine cases out of ten, by no means does it follow that all education at school should do is to make students merely learn what is useful at work. 

論旨

　学校で学ぶべきことは、直接的に仕事に役立つことではない。学校教育の役割とは、日々の生活を楽しくするために、好奇心を刺激することだ。

　上の英文には書かなかったが、かつてゆとり教育の中で、円周率を「３」と教えることが話題となった。
　円周率など普段の生活では使うことはマレだし、「３」でも十分だろう。だが、円周率に興味を持つ子どもがいたら、100桁でも1000桁でも教えたっていい。
　これは普通仕事では使わないだろうと言って、古典からも数学からも離れていったら、一体なにが残るのだろう。

　

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#英語
#english_composition  
#教育
#仕事の心がけ
#多様性を考える