An education holds significance to many people for a variety of reasons. For some, it may be the route to a desired career or just the next step after high school. For others, attending a university is a way to increase their awareness of other viewpoints through the exposure to the diverse culture represented on a campus. In evaluating the value and significance of my own education, I reflected on the education of the women of the 19th century. Their outlook on education is somewhat different than ours today because of the fact that it was difficult and rare to be an educated woman during this period. Today we posses the freedom to pursue almost any field available. However, in some instances we face lower…show more content…
They wanted to develop universities competitive with men’s institutions not only to help them become self-sufficient but also to subside their “aches and pangs of ignorance.” One women describes the long period of ignoring women’s intellectual potentials as “this depressing sense of a miserable waste of powers bestowed on us by God, and which we know we could use for the lessening of evil and the increase of the happiness of our fellow creatures.” The emotional tone of this statement suggests the act of becoming educated for this woman is critical to her ability to interact with others in a way that can improve her community. To resist would be against what is natural and throwing away the benefits she could bring this world. An education meant a respected place in society, a chance for your opinions the hold significance among your peers. This is similar today. For one’s opinions to be respected, one must appear knowledgeable. Nobody is going to fund a project, listen to a speech, or consider an idea proposed by an uninformed individual. How do we become informed? We take classes from those who are whether at a university, seminar, or workshop. To be educated today as well as then gives us the ability to contribute significantly to our field. Specifically, I can only contribute to the scientific knowledge of immunology bettering people’s lives through advancement in medicine if I
