Of studies By Francis Bacon

Central Argument: Studies are a key factor in a person’s life they help him/her in several areas.

I agree with Sir Francis Bacon when he claims that studies or education helps a person immensely in daily life. His claim is as relevant today as it was two hundred years ago when he wrote his essay “Of studies.” In this essay he basically tells us the value of studies and how to do it correctly. He tells us to be sceptical, he tells us to question things when we should. He asks us to maintain a balance, not study too much, but not too little, and that reading makes a full man, talking makes a ready man while writing makes an exact man. I confirm Bacon’s argument as a high school junior and feel that in today’s world no one in current times can succeed without an adequate education.
In today’s world no one can succeed without at least a high school education, or a college degree. Now that an education in becoming increasingly common and jobs are given only to the best, quality of education is what sets apart the winners and the losers. In an imaginary scenario an educated man who can read, write and talk is competing with another who has none of these skills. Sir Francis Bacon said “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit: and if he read little, he had neeery d have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.” So when we consider the uneducated man to be the average uneducated person, and when we consider the educated man to be the average educated person, we must ask ourselves does the untaught, unschooled, and perhaps illiterate man even stand a chance?
Scepticism is another value that is often urged in contemporary American education, especially in English classes. “Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.” There is a right way to study and a wrong way to study. “To spend too much time in studies is sloth… to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar.” One must compare the Indian and the American education systems to examine the above statements made by Bacon. Ever since an Indian child enters school they are made to mug and through instruments such as the cane children are forced never to even question the education system, even if it is wrong and what do you get, a population of 1.3 billion poor and starving people, and development that can’t compete in the global economy. While in America where kids are free to question whoever and whatever they like, where they can question, judge and consider in a free environment, you get one of the richest countries with one of the highest standards of living around the world. As Bacon suggested, teaching the youth to question and consider is very important as many countries most valuable natural resource (kids) depends upon it.