College Education Essay

Assignment: Should a college education focus on cultivating and encouraging the imagination of students or on teaching basic facts and standards so that we all share a certain amount of common knowledge? Katherine Paterson once stated in The Spying Heart, â€Å"Our fundamental task as human beings is to seek out connections—to exercise our imaginations. It follows, then, that the basic task of education is the care and feeding of the imagination. Our task as teachers and writers, artists and parents is to  nourish the imagination—our own and that of the children entrusted to our care. † This means that our goal as human beings is to build their imagination. The the job for education is to feed the imagination. An adults job is to help the children to build their imagination. A college education should focus on cultivating and encouraging the imagination of students instead of on teaching basic facts and standards so that we all share a certain amount of common knowledge. One reason why a college education should focus on building imagination is because dreams  are stronger than facts. Albert Einstien once said, â€Å"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. † Also Robert Fulghum states in his book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts On Common Things, â€Å"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death. † If Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Did not dream and was based only on facts, I don’t think the United States would have been the same. This is why colleges should focus on the imagination of their students and not how much they know. Some people believe that college should solely be based off facts and knowledge. Aristotle once said, â€Å"All men desire knowledge†. But is that knowledge needed to live life. The students should learn what they are majoring in, but should also use imagination to a class or two. Remember â€Å"education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world†.