35 reasons why education is important

Is education important?

Big names such as Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs were college dropouts but still managed to build very succesful companies. In the video below you learn more about their stories and why education was (not) important to them.

Looking at this, going to school everyday might make you think:

“What am I doing all of this for?”

To answer that, I will first give you 35 reasons why education is important. After that, I will discuss when education might be less important for you and may not be worth pursuing.

Tip! If you are very interested in this topic, I would strongly recommend the book ‘On the importance of education’ by Robert B. Wirts. This is a very interesting read with much depth that I appreciated a lot.

35 reasons why education is important

1. Learning basic skills

Knowledge is very important and the further down the education system you go, the more practical the knowledge you’re being taught becomes.

I think everybody would agree upon the value of learning how to read, write and calculate. I couldn’t have written this blog otherwise, and you wouldn’t be able to read it.

2. Learning to work with tools

Apart from reading and writing, learning how to work with tools is just as important. At school you for example learn how to paint and build things.

It is explained what tools are and what they are used for so you can succeed in vital everyday tasks.

3. Stimulates social interaction

At school you spend many hours with other students and teachers from different backgrounds. This helps to boost social skills and learn how to interact with a variety of people and make friends.

4. Developing general knowledge

From history to geography and languages, at school you are introduced to many different fields of knowledge. Some things you may have never heard of which make your world bigger and more complete.

5. Education is important for sports

School is a place where different sports are being played. This gives you the chance as a student to find something you like and stay in shape and have good health.

Not all parents prioritze sports as much which is why school is extra important for the health of children.

6. Introduction to culture and art

Besides sports, culture and art are also introduced at school. Not all students are exposed to art and culture which makes school an important place to get more familiar with it.

7. Stimulates creativity

By being exposed to so much knowledge and skills, school is an excellent place to let you develop your creativity.

8. Teaches to take responsibility for one’s own successes and failures

School is a place where successes and failures will be experienced. As a students you’re being taught how to take responbility for your own successes and failures which will be vital in life.

9. Introduces children to competition like in the real world

The world is a competitive place. Grades teach students certain standards and competition which will be helpful in the employed life later on.

10. Learning about planning

School teaches you how to plan and deal with deadlines. This is extremely helpful to learn how to organize your life.

11. Stimulating productivity and discipline

Tests and deadlines force students to work productive and efficient. This is useful to manage your private- and workinglife at the same time while getting older.

12. Development of critical thinking

School helps to develop critical thinking. It gives you the tools to distinguish fake news from real news and reliable sources from unreliable sources. This helps to keep you well informed about the world and believe what is factually correct.

13. Helps children to discover their talents

School helps children to discover talents and interests which saves a lot of time of soul searching without direction.

14. Creates a sense of purpose

School can create meaning. It gives perspective that working hard can lead to something good and useful such as a diploma and a meaningful life.

15. Education is important for equality

Education provides basic skills and knowledge which give the opportunity to study later on. This promotes equality for people from different socio-economic backgrounds.

16. Enables social mobility

Social mobility is possible for children from deprived backgrounds. By working hard in school, they can achieve great success in life and on the labor market.

17. Helps to understand the world around you

Why do things work as they do? School helps you to understand the world around you and save you the time of figuring everything out on your own.

18. Learning problem-solving skills

At school, strategies are taught about how to tackle problems. For example by helping you how to plan properly or solve difficult mathematical problems.

This knowledge can be very useful is real life as well when facing difficult and challenging situations.

19. Stimulates independance

Our parents teach us rules but so do our teachers. If we wouldn’t go to school, we would all live in our own homes and only learn the values of our parents and close social circle.

Schools are institutions where norms and values (informal laws) are being taught. Without it, social cohesion (see ebook page 15 ‘social contract’) in our society would be difficult to achieve.

At the same time, it helps you finding what values you stand for yourself and become more independent.

20. Learn from experts in the field

School gives the opportunity to learn from experts in the field. People that have dedicated their lives to certain fields pass on knowledge from which we can build further.

21. Intellectual stimulation

School pushes and explores the limit of what you know and can do. This intellectual stimulation can get you to a whole new level you didn’t know would be possible to achieve.

22. Important for employability

Education increases employability. This automatically decreases crime rates as less people have a need to commit crimes to meet their needs to survive.

23. Landing higher wage jobs

Being educated in a certain field makes you more scarce and gives a peer advantage over those who are not. This gives you more freedom as an employee and a better negotiation position.

24. Learning a knowledge-based profession

Knowledge-based professions such as doctors or psychologists need education to get the knowledge and skills to be able to do their work. Without education, they would simply not be able to do it.

25. Helps to find your passion

School introduces you to many disciplines in one central place. This helps to discover your passions and give direction to your career goals.

26. Education is important for innovation

Education stimulates innovation. Science for example, drives knowledge forward.

The school is a central place for the transmission of knowledge. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel but you can simply build upon where others have stopped.

27. Fights loneliness

At school, you are exposed to people all the time. This fights loneliness and helps to give people the social need they have inside of them.

28. Helps building a community

Parents and children from the local area get together to drop the kids off and pick them up from school again.

This helps to build a community feeling and connect people from around the neighbourhood.

29. It allows parents to work during day-time

When children have something to do during the day, parents have their hands free to spend time working during daytime. This is very useful to keep the society running.

30. Stimulating the economy

The more people are highly educated, the more likely they will have higher paying jobs. The advantage of that is not only the well-being of citizens themselves, it also brings in higher tax-revenues for the state.

31. A counter-perspective

Education provides perspectives that might not be taught at home. It can therefore provide valuable new perspectives on the world.

32. Education can introduce role models

Education can introduce you to what is possible to achieve in the world. The achievements of others show what one can achieve and how far the influence of that achievements can reach.

33. Job variety

In line with the earlier mentioned point, education is the pathway to countless career opportunities. Not only does education present all these different jobs to you in for example social sciences, it also provides the knowledge to train yourself for that profession.

34. Teaches where you fit in history

Education presents us with a timeline of mankind. By learning more about history, it is easier to position yourself in the timeline of human development and how you can contribute to this.

35. The education system creates many jobs

The education system is an enormous employer. From pre-school up until university, a lot of staff is needed to provide us with education. The employment possibilities are therefore enormous, giving many people the opportunity to earn their money with a meaningful job.

When is education not important?

Although it is very difficult to come up with good arguments against education during the younger years, the older students become, the more vague the benefits of education become.

Basic skills such as reading and writing are without a doubt beneficial to everyone, but a master’s degree might not.

Everything depends on the career ambitions of the student. Do you want to be a doctor? Then an educational degree is essential. But do you want to be a succesful business person? Then a degree might not be as necessary.

Especially in a time of academic inflation and rising tuition fees, getting a degree becomes an increasingly relevant question. For example:

“Is it worth taking a 100k+ loan to get a university degree? Maybe not (anymore).”

Depending on your career ambitions and the field you want to be in, studying might be a smart or less strategic decision.

When you’re having doubts about if higher education would be beneficial for you, don’t be afraid to try out the labor market before applying for higher education.

You can try to apply for jobs and if you’re rejected find out why you were rejected. Would an educational degree help to fill the gap? Go get it. Would it not? Save yourself the time and money and overcome the problem in another way.

Education is very important and throughout your younger years essential. After that, it is a choice and should be treated as such based on its potential added value or lack of that.