Education has proven to be an important aspect of our daily lives. Most of us have grown up in a system where we think and believe that education is all about cramming and passing exams. This is far from the main goal of learning. Education is supposed to help people understand things, think critically and intensively. Education provides individuals with training that can enable them to see things from a more detailed and informed perspective. As a result, educated people can make informed choices and decisions. Education gives people an open mind from which they can question things, even their own understanding. According to Martin Luther King Jr., the main goal of education is to teach people to think critically and intensively. This article will discuss the exceptional educational experiences that shaped my character and ability to think. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay There are people who have made a significant impact on the education sector. Eric Donald Hirsch Jr. is one of the people who have had an immense impact on the American education system. Eric is an educator and educational literary critic. Eric is known for the Common Core Curriculum which was adopted by most US states in 2015. The new curriculum was developed by Eric after studying composition extensively. Its basic concept is to ensure that students have appropriate background knowledge that will enable them to understand the concepts they read about. According to Eric, the previous curriculum placed a lot of emphasis on readability rather than basic knowledge (Hirsch 23). He argues that possessing basic knowledge will improve students' ability to understand and develop a desire to understand new material. In his latest book, Why Education Matters, Hirsch broadly critiques the iconic American approach to education. It focuses on providing students with the skills to identify the main idea and draw conclusions from the clues they obtain from the text they read. This approach fails to emphasize the content students are expected to learn. Currently, most educational programs encourage students to master specific skills while diminishing the value of the content. According to Hirsch, this approach should be invalidated because it confuses skill mastery with the final content students will possess. Students who master a handful of skills are presumed to have learned, but in the truest sense, they lack the final content (Hirsch Jr. 36). Additionally, the current trend of increased testing has contributed to the narrowing of the curriculum, forcing students to move from subjects that teach content such as science to those that do not prescribe content such as languages. Hirsch argues that students must master certain simple elements before they can move on to other complex subjects. He emphasizes that all children should learn essential content, regardless of the method that is used to teach them. He rejects the inquiry-based approach to learning because he believes that these students will ultimately possess no content. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a personalized essay. Hirsch's works are undoubtedly among the most influential pieces.