Knowledge

To me there has always been a deeper meaning to schooling and education. Knowledge is more than just the most valuable thing on earth, it’s a way to build you up and make something for yourself. It’s a way to get around your problems in life or to pull yourself out of poverty and crime. It’s a chance to learn and better oneself. I view education as a form of self-improvement. It can open unlimited doors leading to endless possibilities. Education teaches skills and builds character to help the average citizen achieve their American Dream. . (“Education is the engine that drives the American Dream”) (111). The education system in America has been constantly changing ever since the founding of the country, but the real noticeable changes started taking place after the civil war. There were a lot of things that contributed to the growing and shaping of public education policy. Population growth, immigration, and industrialization are just a couple of examples that affected education and how it is viewed. (“Industrialization gave rise to another kind of uniformity in nineteenth century public education”) (113). New schools are opened up, towns and communities continue to flourish and grow. The layout of this paper is going to be why education is important to people in today’s world, how education changed and will it continue to have policy changes, and what education symbolizes or means to others. Education is important to a lot of people for a simple reason, they view it as a ticket just sitting there waiting to be grabbed. A ticket that leads to a better future and life, a way to start a family and survive the harsh economic realities facing you. It’s a lot easier to face life with a degree because knowledge is power. Even if you do get a degree it is still difficult to procure a stable and well-paying job. If you have the courage to get started and take that challenging road to get that degree, it is definitely worth the time, money and effort. The meaning of