One of the many reasons why I think educations is so important because education allows us to advance in the world and create many wonderful improvements to our lives. I often utter to my kids; a direct effect of education is knowledge gain. Education is important because it equips us with the expertise that is needed in helping us realize our career goals and fetches better prospects of career growth. Additionally, education gives us knowledge of the world around. It develops in us a perspective of looking at life. It helps us form opinions and develop a point of view. Visibly, the information we are constantly bombarded with, cannot be converted into knowledge without the catalyst called education. Education makes us capable of interpreting things rightly and applying the gathered information in real life scenarios. Education is not limited to lessons from textbooks. Real education is obtained from the lessons taught by life. Education is the ground work for making advances in every part of our lives, allows us to make informed decisions, society can improve and we can learn from our past. Determining what is right and wrong comes from informed decisions; education provides us with the basis for informed decisions. For example, when faced with a tough decision, whether to use drugs or not, education arms us with the knowledge what drugs will do to our bodies when we use them. Bottom-line, a well-informed decision enables us to make our choices in life so that we may pursue our dreams of success.
It’s true that free speech has limits, but I firmly believe that free speech allows the truth to surface and prevail; it is the core of a progressive society. A progressive society constantly keeps improving itself. This improvement can come only through new ideas, or reform in previous ones. Furthermore, unhindered speech is a safeguard against abuse of power, allowing journalists and others to expose corruption and tyranny. In fact, the right of individuals and companies to say (or express, or perceive) anything they want without fear of censorship or reprisal, barring a defined exception. Recognizably, “even when holding these protected values people have some threshold for when it is appropriate to hold this values and when it is appropriate to trade it off” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, p. 254). Some speech may require filtration. We carve out exceptions for fraud, libel, extortion, divulging secrets, and incitement to imminent lawless action. These exceptions must be strictly delineated and individually justified; they are not an excuse to treat speech as one fungible good among many. My kids are no different, I give them the latitude to express their concerns with respect to censorship. It’s important for them to realize that they can share their feeling without fear of repercussions and from freely expressing their honest opinion. However, a balance must be struck between the ability to be unrestricted in the free expression of thoughts and ideas, and the need to ensure that influential figures are able to efficiently carry out their function while preserving the rights of individuals.
The only thing that can hinder us is our own decisions (Gilbert, 2005, video file). Last month we learned that our oldest child Avery was Type one diabetic and this has changed our lifestyle towards one that not only supports her needs but at the same time is allowing us to make better choices and a better decision about what we eat as well. Tina is always saying a healthy lifestyle should be a way of living, and not just a temporary fix for a cold or to negate a gluttonous weekend. We all want to live a long, happy, healthy life with an abundance of energy and vitality, having the ability to perform well both mentally and physically with emotional balance and free from disease and disorders. Leading a healthy lifestyle is one of the best decisions you will ever make, one which will impact on all aspects of your life (i.e. physical, mental, and emotional) and the issue of healthy lifestyles is an important one for me and my family. A healthy lifestyle is a valuable resource for reducing the frequency and impact of health problems, enabling us better to cope with life stressors, as well as improving our quality of life. Noticeably, once you get into the habit of maintaining a healthy routine, you will be able to see, feel, and experience the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.
When I think about my own values, and what I want to leave with my two girls in terms of "life lessons" that they can live and grow by I must ensure that my choices and my decisions are living by example. I must also remember that “people are very bad at estimating both the probability and value of their decisions” (Gilbert, 2005, video file). Protected values are problematic because they imply that one value is infinitely more important than others, and other problems arise when protected values conflict. “People hold values that inform their decisions, including decisions in the marketplace and those concerning public policy” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, 2001, p. 255). A man’s values are his foundation. My personal values are the general expression of what is most important to me, to Tina, and to my two girls. A value expresses the worth of something, and in this case, what I categorical like and dislike. So they are like categories for all my preferences in life. Again, “people often draw a line in the sand to create values that are protected from trade-offs” (Hoch, Kunreuther & Gunther, 2001, p. 251), it really depends on what’s being weighed against them. I cannot say with certainty I would accept a tradeoff if faced with a particular situation, but I can say I consider these values to be extremely significant in my hierarchy of primaries.
References:
Hoch, S., Kunreuther, H. & Gunther, R. (2001). Wharton on Making Decisions. John Wiley & sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Gilbert, D. (2005). Why we make bad decisions. [Video file]. Retrieved from: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_gilbert_researches_happiness
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