Educating the New Generation - Our Youth

The Importance of Education to Today's Youth

Education elucidates the difference between the right and the wrong and helps inculcate good virtues. What is the importance of education to youth? Let's discuss.

Youth is that phase of life when you dream big, hope for only the best to happen to you and look forward to a bright tomorrow. It is that phase when nothing seems impossible; you want to be successful and you believe you will. You feel you know exactly what you want from life and you believe you will get it. During these years, life looks bright and beautiful. You feel you can win the world. It's an important phase in your life - youth - when you turn into someone different. Turning from a child to an adult is a transition - a big transition. There's added confidence, added responsibility, there's growth, there's life - a new life. It's when you begin to understand yourself, discover your potential, know when opportunities knock your door and dream of only success. It's the time to reinvent yourself and redesign your personality. And that's where education has a big role to play. Let's understand the importance of education to the life of a youth.

Rotary believes education is the best tool to bring a positive change in society, to develop a generation of responsible individuals and contribute to the development of good human beings. The fundamental purpose of education is to gain knowledge, understand the forms of proper conduct and acquire technical competency in specific subject(s). Education serves as the means to develop oneself physically, mentally and socially. Here's how education makes a difference.

Gives them Wings: The importance of education to youth manifests itself in the need to cultivate youths to become mature individuals. Youth is the growing stage of their lives. It is during these years that they develop from kids to become mature and responsible individuals. It is during this phase that they make career decisions and begin pursuing their goals.

Tells them Where to Fly: Education to youth should consist of training and development in their field(s) of interest. Education should help the youths define their career objectives, decide what they want from life and enable them to achieve what they wish to. Education for youths must aim at helping them build a skill set and work on the skills acquired to develop subject expertise. Education for youths should include courses that can help them develop a career. The education should open doors for new opportunities in different fields. It should help the youths find avenues to pursue their interests. It should enable them to venture into new fields and explore new areas. Education must help the youths set reachable goals and realize them.

Makes them Socially Aware: It is important that education for youths aims at developing social awareness in these adults-to-be. The training given to them should consist of environmental education and social values. They should be made aware of the current social and environmental issues. The steps they can take in dealing with the issues should be explained. Education should expose youths even to the darker side of society; the problems that eclipse it, the prejudices that shackle it and the superstitions that blind it. Youths should be encouraged to come up with ideas and devise ways to better the society that they are part of.

Makes them Self-Aware: Overpopulation, unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, abortions, unprotected sex and teenage pregnancy are some areas of growing concern today. Incomplete knowledge in this regard or wrong notions about sex breeds psychological problems in teenagers. This underlines the importance of sex education to youths. Education should make the youths self-aware.

Tells them what's Right, what's Wrong: While instilling the good in youths, education should also give them the ability to reject the bad. It should enable them to choose good against bad. Education should empower them to take decisions and make choices - each time preferring right to wrong. Education should give them the strength to accept the mistakes made, mend them and most importantly learn from them. Education should give them the courage to rise after every fall and turn every failure into a success.

The fundamental purpose of education is to create good human beings. Education is vital to the healthy growth and development of one's personality. In producing human beings out of raw individuals lies the importance of education.