C&T first assignment

It doesn't flow as well as I would have liked, but it's the best I could do given the length:

C&T 100 (TuTh)
25 August 2007
“Why Teach?”     I’ve been in school for the greater portion of my life, and during that time I have consistently seen problems to be corrected and triumphs to be lauded. I believe that education is a necessary institution for democratic societies and that without it democracy cannot achieve all that it sets out to. I believe that every individual has a natural curiosity and a capacity to do great things, that each should have access to high-quality schooling, and that an individual’s socioeconomic status should not be the determining factor in his or her intellectual development.
     With regard to the aim of education, I agree with Mary Warnock that “the essence of teaching is to help people see the world as intelligible (and therefore perhaps to see themselves in the world not as mere passengers, carried along by hidden and mysterious forces, but as able to intervene, to change things and to control).” Our current school system (in my experience) does this rather poorly. It does little to encourage independent thinking and self-study. It does not encourage critical thinking; it becomes an unavoidable rigmarole in the lives of most students. Too often, students become passive receptacles of miscellaneous facts rather than free thinkers.
     I believe that many of the shortcomings in our methods of instruction arise from not making subjects relevant to students. All too often, classes become pedagogic hurdles rather than a means to address modern problems. The current system is excessively bureaucratic and this often interferes with its efficacy. It is also seldom clear in communicating its objectives.
     In short, I’ve seen too many ineffective teachers in my day, and too many students that suffer as a result. I’ve seen a system that is plagued with problems. No individual should be deprived of the opportunity to grow and self-actualize. I’d like nothing more than to spend the rest of my life working to correct the shortcomings of our educational system and improving the lives of students.