解放军文职招聘考试Education — a Means to an End

 Education — a Means to an End

Education is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them; our purpose is to fit them for life. As soon as we realize this fact, we will under­stand that it is very important to choose a good way of education which will really prepare children for life.

In many modem countries it has for some time been fashionable to think that, by free education for all — whether rich or poor, clever or stupid — one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect na­tion. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough: we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees than there are jobs for them to fill. Because of their degree, they re­fused to do what they think "low" work; and in fact, work with hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries.

But we have to understand that the work of a com­pletely uneducated farmer is more important than that of a professor in a way: we can live without education, but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns. In countries where there are no servants because nobody is willing to do such work, the professors have to waste much of their time doing housework.

In fact, when we say that all of us must be edu­cated to fit us for life, it means that we must be edu­cated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever job is suited to his brain and ability, and sec­ondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be unwilling to do one's work, or to laugh at someone else's. Only such a type of education can be called valuable to society.