Effects of Education on Social Life

In most societies, regardless of demography, geo-political influences, or even economic shortcomings, education is looked upon as the main means to a better life. Education has sculpted the roles of humans in the society, organized their relationships, and advanced cultures. However, with this boom in knowledge and know-how it is increasingly clear that our lives will never cease improving, changing and advancing. Technological advancements alone have greatly affected societies as a whole. We are now able to educate ourselves in virtual classrooms without a live instructor, at distinguished universities from around the globe, discover fields that at one time were out of reach geographically, and just experience things beyond our imagination. Yet this advancement has its setbacks. We have become driven by different cultures and like sponges absorbed the useful and the harmful without any filter. Opening up to new thoughts and concepts has manifested itself in our society in both positive and negative ways but a distortion has occurred nonetheless, it is here that we must ask ourselves who will protect and promote what is left of our culture. 

Without doubt our society is constantly changing, antiquating some things while exalting others.  We message each other from room to room even though we live in the same house, rendering some things so common and simple such as conversations around the kitchen table over dinner a thing of the past. A major contributor to this change was, and still is education.

John Dewey the founder of pragmatism, an American philosopher and educator, had a strong belief that schools can be the origin of social reform. Social reform is a type of social movement that aims to make gradual change, or change in certain aspects of society, rather than rapid or fundamental changes. Dewey believed in the great contribution of education in social reconstruction by stimulating students to be the best they could morally, socially, and better political problem solvers to become good citizens in society. To him schools are responsible for ‘serving the main purposes of the community as a whole’, thus acting as a social center. In his book Moral Principles of Education, Dewey mentions that schools are institutions initiated by society in order to enhance the future. He also stresses the role of democracy in schools, by pointing out that the origin of democracy is education, and when that is found in our schools it lays a foundation for democratic reconstruction of society. To trigger this social change we are opting for schools to have the structure of a community, to be ‘a genuine form of community life’,  in order for students to experience, ‘the most natural form of cooperation and association’ to become high members of democratic society. 

However Dewey was often suggested to be overly optimistic and naïve to have “faith in utopian reform through education”. But, schools these days are focusing more on the academic aspect with little focus on the moral and social aspect of education. Thus to set high standards for schools to reach for, can be motivating for educators to work and put effort towards changing the way students think and act, and encourage them to be good contributors to the society. What we allow of traditions will continue, education has the power of change and it is up for us to decide what is good and what is not. 

Knowledge has evolved as a result of human needs- an essential requirement for a solution was sought, and a problem was solved. Education is our tool to deal with problems we face, it shows us right from wrong, and strengthens our judgments. Yet our society sometimes imposes traditions on us, some that seem irrelevant, and some for the good of society. Our knowledge plays a great role in whether we accept these traditions or we reject them. Thus knowledge empowers us to make conscious and enlightened decisions based on facts. This implies that the main purpose education serves is change. Wherever education was propagated it was accompanied by major changes. Education, as John Dewy said is not preparation for life, it is life itself, and he believed that the characteristic of life is growth and change.