BielerTELLpart1

__**TELL Step 1**__

I believe that the purpose of a college education is for students to have the ability to grow in one area that interests them. Some people may like math, engineering, or speech and college gives the opportunity to expand someone's knowledge on that one topic. It also helps to prepare certain people for their field of interest in that certain job area. Besides academically, college is here to build communication, relationships, and responsibility. These are all important in a college atmosphere and as life goes on. When lessons are learned in college, that education can be taken further in life.
 * 1. What do you believe is the purpose of a college education?**

I believe that being educated means many things. I really believe that it means that you are not ignorant to what others believe. You are able to take knowledge and beliefs that you know and are able to express them, but can also take in the views of others. Being able to have an open mind and listen and respond respectively to others beliefs is really important in the education process. I also believe that education is continuous. As life goes on, more knowledge is gained by everything that you do. It may happen through higher academic education or just by every new thing that is learned in life. However, I do believe that education is what you put in and are willing to learn. If you shut yourself off to the world and others beliefs, you will never expand your knowledge or your education. You need to be willing to try because everything is not going to be easy. I believe that sometimes the best things in life are learned the hardest ways. Sometimes you need to experience things to really get a good understanding of it.
 * 2. What does it mean to be educated?**

Well one thing that influenced me academically is the years of school that I have gone through to be strong in certain academic areas.However, almost all of my beliefs revolve around my family and what they have taught me to believe. My step-dad's parents are both academically educated, one even has a doctorate, but they are two of the most ignorant people that I know. They are the type of people who think that there way is the only way. They think they know best because they have had that academic experience and believe that they know everything. They view success as having a college degree and getting a job that pays a lot of money. They think that if you have a lot of things then you are successful. Then I examine my mom and my mom's sister, who have both never received a degree, but do consider others opinions. My mother is the main one who has taught me that your academic education means nothing if you don't have an open mind and consider others opinions. There may be something that you never thought of before and your mind may just be changed from the new information that you learn. My mother and aunt both prove to me that you don't need an academic degree to have an education.
 * 3. What experiences have you had with education that led you to this belief?**