Education, especially in recent decades, is one of the most significant aspects of every society that attracts a lot of attention. There are different opinions on what is the best way to educate students. Some people hold the idea that informal education is the most promising way to teach children since it does not impose a lot of pressure on students, and they can study in a relatively friendly atmosphere. Others, with whom I comply, believe that despite the advent of various methods of informal education, the old-school way of education, which is formal, is still the best way to not only educate youngsters but also elevate their level of thinking and spirituality. In what follows, I will delineate my viewpoint on the ground of two persuasive reasons.
Without a doubt, the most consequential point corroborating my stance on this subject is that in formal education, children have to attend classes. They are taught by experts who have a lot of experience and knowledge. Teachers usually assign homework and take exams which make students cultivate some important features in themselves, such as creativity and the ability to memorize details. Moreover, some teachers require students to do a group project at the end of the semester, whereby the pupils improve their capabilities in group working and communicating with others. Above all of the mentioned benefits that formal education brings, the decision about which courses students have to take is made by the most expert and erudite persons who aim at educating students in a way to assure progress in both the pupils' literacy and spiritual level.
Although the previous reason is the first one crossing the mind at first glance, another remarkable point deserving some words here is that informal learning methods do not provide fruitful results for children because children do not take informal methods seriously enough. Since the appearance of informal education over the last twenty years, many people have become proponents of this method. Informal education appears in different shapes; for instance, online courses or home-schooling are the two well-known and widespread methods of informal education. Children cannot attain desirable attributes that they are supposed to achieve through either the two methods of informal education mentioned before or other forms that are not referred to. According to a recent research conducted by researchers at MIT, two groups of students were asked to take a similar course with the same teacher. The first group took that course on campus, and the second group took that course online. The result of the final exam of the two groups was not even close. The average score of the students in the first group was approximately twice the average score of the other group. Therefore, the result of this research shows that informal methods, despite the convenience they provide, are far less effective than formal methods of education.
To make the long story short, reflecting upon the aforementioned grounds, one soon realizes that formal education, even if it is the oldest method of education, still is the best one to educate students who are able to both think out of the box and achieve a high level of spirituality.