Some people believe that the purpose of education is to free the mind and the spirit Others believe that formal education tends to restrain our minds and spirits rather than set them free Write a response in which you discuss which view more closely align

Author presents a topic with two different opinions from people. According to author, first set of people believe that the purpose of education is to free mind and spirit however, second set of people believe that formal education actually restrains our minds and spirits. A formal education can be defined as the learning process by students during preschool and school years. Although the syllabus and course curriculum vary widely throughout the schools globally, the way of education is more or less same everywhere. This trend has been there for a long time and is criticized much. I agree with the second opinion and would present the reasoning to support the same.

As we know,a child goes through alphabets training during pre school days and then during school years, he/she gets accustomed with basics of various subjects such as mathematics,science, history, art, geography etc. Exams are conducted and the students are evaluated annually. Based on their performance, they are passed on to the higher grades or they have to repeat the grade if their exam performance is not satisfactory. This trend in the schools is global and adopted by most of the educational systems. Although, curriculum is well organized and a student's progression across the grades is systematic, there are many loopholes in this system. Most of the times, students study under exam pressure and they focus more on mucking things up rather than learning the basic concepts. With this approach, a student may clear his/her exams with good scores however his/her basic understanding of the subject is not assured. After passing the school, a student goes for higher studies where this pattern continues. This is followed by the job interviews and there also interviewers expect them to be good with their academic scores and questions are asked from the same back to the school questions they have mucked up. This keeps on going during their work however, the real problem starts now. A person who is not used to have "out of the box" thinking faces real problems if he/she comes across a challenging situation on the job. He/she tries to get over with the challenge with his/her earlier learnt methods during school days and those don't work here; Or he/ she may end up with a workaround solution instead of thinking about the problem innovatively. This habit continues not only on the job but in other spheres of life of the person. Then there comes a point where a person feels restricted and suffocated with limited options he has learnt. Reason for this is the way of a person's restrained thinking which is deep rooted inside him/her from school days. Pity is, sometimes a person is not even aware of this trap he/she is inside.

On the other hand, there are many examples from world history where a school dropout made significant progress which revolutionized the world. Great scientist Albert Einstein was told during his early schools that he does not have ability to learn and hence was not allowed to study further. Einstein did not have interest in subjects taught in the school except mathematics. So, he took up mathematics and started studying it at home. He studied mathematics himself and later he revolutionized the world by his scientific contributions such as theory of relativity and the most famous equation "E=MC2". Had the education system flexible enough to accept the student's special talents and train him accordingly, he would not have to rely on his own toil. Bill gates is another such drop out who has made an unprecedented impact on computer industry. There may be many other such students even today who have similar talents but due to faulty education systems, their talent is going waste. The examples mentioned above reveal how significant impacts free thinking can make not only on the person's life but to the whole society.

Conclusively, we can say that the existing educational systems put the restrains on our minds and spirits, impact of which is life long. We need to have major educational reforms where a student is inspired to think in non traditional way as human mind is limitless.