GMAT Essays (AWA)

" Schools should be responsible only for teaching academic skills and not for teaching social ethical
values"

To what extent do you agree or disagree
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Many people may say that the schools should restrict their teaching only to academic skill, there are quite a few scenarios where formal education in social values and ethics can benefit student and society as a whole.
With relevant examples and facts, the following essay will illustrate why schools should teach ethical and social values on top of academic skills.

The main reason for my view is that today's students are tomorrow's leaders, scientists and sportsmans. These students are going to make significant contributions to the society as they progress in their career.
Hence, we want to make sure that they get formal education in ethical and social values. Take the famous examples of Enron and Madoff scandals. In both the cases, these leaders would have abstained from the wrongdoing they did had they been taught the social and ethical value. I am not saying that such education would prohibit them but would certainly reduce the probability of such leaders following the wrong path.

Also, all the students may not have the same background and family values. There is a chance that such values have different meaning in each family. The family members or any other colleagues of students may not take enough interest in talking about and teaching these values. If schools take up these responsibility, we can at least make sure that all the students receive a standard and basic set of education in this area. Moreover, the relative expertise of teacher will make it more likely that the tough questions from students get answered correctly. One of my friends in high school came from a relatively poor and uneducated family. He grew up in an environment and neighbourhood and environment that was filled with crimes and wrongdoing. For him, stealing petting things was normal. When our school actually introduced the lessons on ethics and moral, he understood their importance and discontinued his behavior.

Some may argue that families can themselves can take care of such education. But that may not always be the case as explained in the example above.

In sum, schools should certainly provide education ethical and social values so that the students coming out of schools have at least have basic knowledge of these values and the implications of not having them. The lack of consistent family background and environment also makes schools to be a good place to provide such education.