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Thinking about our discussion and reading other people’s posts got me thinking about the purpose of higher education. It seems that many are trying to reevaluate how important it is for everyone to go to college when there are many jobs that do not require an education. This made me think about my own career path, and the fact that many of the courses that I’ve taken in my college career are not directly relevant to neuroscience or psychology. But then again, that’s not why I chose to take those classes. I took classes throughout my college career simply because I was interested in them and because I wanted to be challenged to think about those particular topics differently. I think that everyone, no matter what their eventual occupation, has the right to have this kind of educational experience if he or she chooses to, and that is certainly not a reality of today’s educational system.

As many others have pointed out, I think the goal of schools should be to teach children how to learn in the best way possible for that individual’s brain. We all think differently and learn differently. I am finding out in my studies of the acquisition of language that even how we learn to speak and understand speech varies from individual to individual, simply because our brains are structured differently in these areas. This leads to differences in how we learn to read, and as a result, how we best are able to learn. There are many attentional differences between individuals too that also affects learning styles. For this reason there should be many alternative means of acquiring knowledge available to children. I think many would argue that this is not plausible because of the way schools are currently structured, but I think Montessori schools are a good example of how this obstacle can be overcome. As I said during our discussion, I understand the need to standardize the material learned at lower levels of education, but think that as students grow older and learn more about their interests, they should be able to choose how to build on their foundation of core knowledge. At higher levels, there should be opportunities (such as there are in liberal arts colleges to diversify one’s own education, and the method of learning should as always be the choice of the individual. In a way, I feel like this is how college (at least at Bryn Mawr) currently works. Some students learn better through lecture, some through reading, and the way that we choose to study for exams is completely individualized. However, this system only works for those who know themselves and know how they learn best. For this reason, providing this basis of “learning how to learn” at early ages is important. Also, creating a society full of individuals who are experts at their own learning process would be useful no matter what profession is chosen as an adult. Every job is a learning experience as the world is constantly changing and all professionals must learn new skills and ideas in order to keep up with it.