GRE Issue Topic 33

Sample1:

Education is a cornerstone of civilization. It is one of the most important investments a country can make in its people and its future and is critical to reducing poverty and inequality. As John Dewey said, “Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.” Given this, it is important to ensure that students get the proper education so that their talents can flourish. However, having institutions decide which talents a student excels in based on arbitrary criteria of measuring success is a big restriction on their freedom of choice.

First and foremost, most educational institutions already have guidance counselors and admission policies in place to help students discover and decide on potential career paths. The jobs of these people and regulations is to ensure that students can apply to schools that put their talents to the best use, that they are happy with the choice they made, and that their choices reflect not only their abilities but also their personalities. If schools were to use abilities and prior performance as an indicator of success, it’s important to note that often people have abilities that clash with their personalities. In this case, examining a person based solely on their abilities would not be an accurate indicator of success - they would be able to perform the required task, but they would hate it or be too nervous to do it to the extent that perhaps a lesser skilled but passionate person would. In this vein, work ethic should also be taken into consideration, as, for instance, many clever children feel unchallenged and slack off since they notice that they get by with little effort. Meanwhile, some children have to work to maintain the same level of grades – they develop a strong work ethic that should be an indicator of success.

Furthermore, there is no standardized measure of success. Different schools will have different standards, so a student that is rejected for applied mathematics at one school can get enrolled at a different one. Some schools might consider previous academic achievements as accurate predictors of success, whereas others might consider interviews, or additional testing. Assessments of success are subjective, and, as numerous studies have shown, not accurate indicators. The main reason why people are not able to accurately assess success is that they evaluate based on their ideas of how the world works and end up having prejudiced insights. In the example of interviews, psychologists have shown that people are highly influenced by physical appearances, nonverbal communication, and other factors such as social background and speech patterns. The issue with this type of assessments is that people with anxiety disorders, while otherwise competent, will score lower than less capable people that happen to project an air of confidence.

Evaluating potential for success is problematic not just with interviews but when it comes to school records as well. Some people can develop their abilities later in life. For instance, a student can discover a new passion for mathematics at the end of middle school but based on his prior performance records he could end up being dissuaded to attend a math–oriented profile in high school. This also begs the question of when this process of steering should start – from what age? Considering that education systems are geared towards providing more general education for the earlier stages of learning, such measures would at the very least have to be aimed at higher education.

Lastly, it is a question of whether or not educational institutions have the right to interfere to such an extent in a student’s choice. This is a decision that is best left to the students themselves. Schools should offer advice but not limit a student’s options, given that they cannot always have the whole picture or make accurate assessments about a person’s likelihood of success. Thomas Edison was judged as ‘addle minded’ and had to drop out of school because his teachers could not accurately assess his potential. Some of the world’s greatest inventors and artists have been wrongly assessed by their teachers – because their yardstick for measuring success did not apply to them.

Sample 2:

For most students entering university, the question of which field of ones study one should undertake is not a trivial one, for not only he will be studying the subject he chooses for the next three to four years, he will most likely have to work in the same field his entire career.I am in accord with the statement made in the prompt, Indeed I do believe that educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed for the following reasons:

As time progresses, a college education is becoming increasingly expensive for most members of society, parents have to begin saving for their childrens college education as soon as they are born, and if this is not feasible, the student will have to take out a loan in order to pay for his education.These student loans are often available at high interest rates and will shackle the student to the chains of debt for many years after he has graduated from college.As securing a well paying job is one of the biggest motivators to attend college, and If a student chooses to study a field in which he is unlikely to succeed, he is shackling himself to student loan debt which he may never be able to repay.Hoewever, if the institution guides him to pick a field in which he has potential to succeed, he may save himself from being at the mercy of debt collegctors.

Furthermore, most students do not have much real world experience during their student lives.The maximum exposure they may have gotten to a career path is most likely the careers their parents pusued, or if they worked a part time job as a student.Apart from these, they most likely do not have much real experience as to what a day in a particular job may look like.Moreover, most students who do not know what to do and do not have a passion may select a field of study based on unreliable advice off the internet, such as lists of top paying professions or of tv show actors who portray certain fields such as law and medicine to appear glamorous in their show, but in reality are mundane and strenuous.In order for students to not be misled from these unreliable sources, I believe that educational institutions have a great responsibility to their students in order to guide them.Most institutions have a wealth of information about the current and future job market through their alumni, research, committee members, associations with organizations through which they can guide their students to choose a field of study that is best for them.

However, there are some cases where the advice of educational institutions may be unwarranted, and even outright incorrect.Student life is a developmental stage of a persons life and he may change for the better in the future, making him perfectly capable of success in a field that he has chosen in the past.For example, Albert Einsteins teacher told him that he was no good at studies and that he would never amount to anything in his life.In retrospect, his teacher was clearly wrong; without the genius of Albert Einstein, we would not have important scientific discoveries such as the theory of relativity and the famous energy equation.Despite being a failure in school, Albert Einsteins name has now become synonymous with genius.However, Einstein is certainly an exception in this case, as many student whom have failed to take their teachers advice have failed in the real world.

In conclusion, while there are some cases where educational institutions must not interfere with a students decision on his chosen field of study, the majority of students would greatly benefit by educational institutions guiding them in order to choose a field of study in which they are likely to succeed.