Gibril Jobe

ENGLISH 1100
10/15/14
Education and the Good life
"It is not possible to develop a substantial philosophy of education which is adequate for all
societies regardless of time and place. What a philosophy of education gains by broader
applicability, it loses by reduced content. I shall argue that we require a kind of education which
will enable individual to lead self-fulfilling lives in a world of society in which includes different
life styles that are tolerated, changes in economic conditions, different characteristics and
individual differences."
The more diverse a character is the better. Characterize a world in which many people live. The
thing that characterizes a world is a high degree of diversity and change. Individuals will have a
better chance of leading a self-fulfilling life with either a changed view about how it is to be
realized or with economic changing conditions, if they have the abilities and skills to adapt to
new life styles. The dominant aim of education is to contribute to the good life of individuals.
Education is the key to success, with the will to learn and the will to succeed education will take
a person beyond and above.
The kind of education which would satisfy is one which in the elementary years should impact
skill and knowledge for most life possibilities. It includes comprehension, mathematics, general
science, either a little history or a cultural subject and some arts and craft or a sports activity for
enjoyment. Secondary education is more selective and specialized; it needs a lot of focus or

attention. It is upper level work, but it should not stop a person from taking or participating in at
least two things they like to do.

Mary Warnock born in Winchester, United Kingdom an author of many book and considered
one Britains great philosophers. She has recently considered education in relation to the good
life but her she was not clear about whether education should contribute primarily to the good
life of everyone or the common good. What is the good life? To say that the dominant or global
aim of education is to contribute to the good life is to say something which will have no
implications for the practice of education unless we portray some conception of the good life and
or we indicate some conditions for its possible and even better, its probable, attainment. The
good life is about self-fulfillment and by self-fulfillment; I mean something that goes with
Aristotles eudaimonia which means well-being.

Warnock then added, The good life is one which is characterized by virtue, imagination and
work. Yet this is very unsatisfactory because she did not explain it to the core. She did not
include pleasure. The good life is about learning what you like and making something out of it.
Warnock said some satisfactory things, for example work. She said life without work would
always be less good than life which is contained. She went as far as saying even if a person is
working at one of the worst jobs, it is better to keep it than quit. She believes that not working
hard and being jobless, accepting support from the government will damage the pride and selfesteem of a person.

Education is a terrible risk Bertrand Russell, a British philosopher said. To rear a child in the
wool of a carefully planned regimen and then turn him loose to the mercies of a public or private
school, later on college and expect to see him or her return home with all your most fervent
expect to see him or her return home with all you most fervent expectation realized is to hazard
all confidence in the present scheme of organized education. What Bertrand said was true, we
as humans trust in the system too much. For we were all born in the system of learning and for
some of us, our parents sent us away to go learn and we came back safe. We will do so to our
children, believing the system will take care of them and not a single finger or harm will be laid
on them.
Education and the good life can be seen as searching for your true self. We as a modern world
are passing beyond class room education we are stepping towards things that we want to
discover about ourselves. Education is about searching and finding through something new, a
new experience means you are leaning. Doctor Mayer, a European philosopher believed that
educational contents must bigger, that methods must be made so that teachers and teachings will
achieve a new status. Education and the good life go together, like Mayer mentions in this
nation we all know, we value education, but we distrust educators. We want to have new ideas
but we have contempt for the intellectual, such attitude spells disaster in the atomic age which
represents a perilous race reason and fanaticism. To gain deserved status, instructors must
master teachings and take advantage of new methods, such things are offered by television. In
this modern era, we students are television fanatics; instructors should take advantage of that and
see if they can turn those opportunities into something teachable and enjoyable to the students.

Education and the good life are paired together, they go together. Life without education will be
difficult, it will be very hard. But as Aristotle stated, be eudaimon be self-fulfilling. Do
something you find pleasurable and as Russell mentioned education is risky, sending your child
away and expecting them to come back learning and doing the things they learn without harm on
them is a risk. The good life is about finding work, even though the job is terrible and hard as
Warnock mentioned, it is better than to be jobless and relying on the characteristics of others.
The good life is about learning from your students, is about finding out things that interest them
and using that resource to teach them.