Is education always the answer (to long-term problems)?
Yes - Always
No - Sometimes long-term problems require something besides education to succeed
No - Sometimes long-term problems require no education at all to succeed
0voters
I answered a post today with the assertion that “long-term problems are always solved through education”, and I thought I would post that in Social Sciences to see what folks thought.
I tried my best to come up with options for the poll; forgive me if I left something out. I’m not going to vote yet. I don’t want to vote “yes” and then have someone change my mind later. I’ll wait a little while to see if I get my mind changed.
To address the issue a little: a while ago it seemed to me that every big problem that we have, poverty, pollution, violence, hatred, starvation, etc. could be solved if we just educated certain people a certain way.
It takes for granted that we would need some group of people, whether through governments of other groups, to handle the logistics, but the basic idea that the core solution is education seems very strong.
I agree. But isn’t it still ultimately the best answer (objectively)? I mean, isn’t the answer us trying to figure out what is the best thing to teach?
If the teaching is poor, then it doesn’t work.
(Imp, I’ll try to reply to yours in a minute. This one was just easier to do first!)
Isn’t teaching starving people how to farm a good thing (and devoid of slavery)?
It’s like the old saying, “give a guy a fish and he eats for a day, but teach him how to fish and he eats for the rest of his life”.
It’s the exact same principle applied to everything.
starvation solution:
gov’t = hand out fish
teaching = teach fishing
violence solution:
gov’t = police arrest people
teaching = teaching non-violence (Ghandi comes to mind)
etc.
The kind of “teaching” that I am talking about is the type where people feel impowered to act of their own free will, not the “re-education camps”-type of teaching that autoritarians use to brainwash people.
It’s the opposite of acts that restrict a person. Any outside force that solves a problem I see as inferior to educating those people inside the problem how to fix it themselves.
And the government doesn’t have to be the ones educating. Those people inside the problem can educate themselves.
education I would have to say solves many things, but not all.
however, education doesn’t errase the human instincts that we have, like power, domination etc. so it will not solve everything, though it may suggests ways for humans to “behave,”
So you are saying that education could be the solution to every problem or are there exceptions? It seems that that is the real question here: is there an example of a problem that is not solvable via education?
I’m sorry, I’m not educated to the extent required for answering this question.
A good head on your shoulders is always the ticket! It not only carries your knowledge of what you’ve learned but also your instincts. I think it’s instinctive to learn…so, knowledge is helpful and it can answer everything and is necessary to. I think we make better decisions and come up with better solutions with more knowledge, of course, but it’s not our core foundation for the finding of these answers. After finding answers we become educated and can then make wiser choices.
Any examples of where education isn’t the answer? I’m hoping (sort of) that someone can come up with one.
Otherwise I’m voting “education is always the answer” (I’ve yet to vote). I posted this last Tuesday, and as of today I haven’t seen a strong contrary example.
In response to your question, perhaps something along the lines of confirmational bias cannot be fixed through education.
There are some things, inevitably, that come about through practice. So if you made your system two step, the first being education, the second being practice, it would be effective in every scenario I can think of. Education simply isn’t enough without action.
OK. I see theee are two votes for “yes” so its looking stronger. I’m still keeping an open mind since an example could change it. I’ve voted in polls before and then had someone change my mind (!) and then you can’t change it.
I thiink it would cool if you could change your vote if someone convinces you otherwise.
Hmm. How is my teaching something to someone on the opposite side of the planet “benefiting” me? I mean it may make me feel better personally and be good for human-kind, etc., but in terms of the actual problem (starvation, disease, housing, clean water, whatever), it’s totally for the educatee (I’m not starving, I have housing, etc).
It would make it easier for me if you just provided an example. [-o<
For example (pro education): teaching thirsty people how to build water wells. Isn’t the basic mechanism solving the problem the education? This for me is an example in favor of education, would you agree? I mean, instead of just giving them bottled water (short-term solution), isn’t educating them the long-term “real” solution?
