Gre analytical Writing issue essay Topic 101

GRE Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Topic - 175 
"For better or worse, education is a process that involves revising the ideas, beliefs, and values 
people held in the past." 
GRE AWA Analytical Writing ISSUE Essay Sample 
Solution - 175 
Education is a process of teaching and learning which seeks to improve knowledge and skills. In 
other words, education can be called a step towards progress and development since it aims at 
making the society knowledgeable and skilled. In the process, education involves changing some 
of the long held ideas and beliefs. I agree with the statement that the values, beliefs and ideas of 
people in the past get revised as the society gets more educated. It may or may not lead to a 
better society in future, but it is a slow and continuous process in which the old beliefs get 
replaced by new ideas that are more practical and convincing. 
In the primitive times people were not educated. They would believe anything that they would 
see without understanding the logic behind it. If there were something that was unexplainable to 
them and beyond their knowledge, they would relate it to the supernatural and form ideas and 
beliefs regarding those phenomenons. However, as science progressed and explanation was 
found behind most of the things happening around us, the shallowness in these beliefs became 
exposed. This is how new ideas and beliefs replaced the older ones. Therefore, it is only with the 
increase in knowledge that the older beliefs get replaced with new thoughts in the minds of 
people. 
In the previous ages, when man did not know the art of cultivation, a natural phenomenon like 
rain was considered a heavenly fury instilled on mankind. However, slowly as man got the 
knowledge of cultivation, this heavenly fury changed into a blessing for farmers. They would 
depend completely on rain gods to water their fields. This saw a change in the beliefs held 
towards a simple phenomenon like rain. As times progressed, people came to know about the 
facts like scarcity of water, contamination of drinking water and global warming. This has 
changed the whole perspective of people towards rains. Now, people do not only view rains as a 
natural phenomenon, but they are also knowledgeable about the factors that control rains. 
Therefore, there are increased efforts made by environmentalists towards planting more trees and 
stopping deforestation. 
Similarly, there have been many versions of people regarding the origin of the solar system. 
While earlier people had no idea about the outer space, they believed that earth is the center of 
the universe. Slowly, the theories like big bang came to be known which shattered the older 
beliefs of people. It is only with more awareness that people shun their previously held beliefs 
and adjust to the changing times. 

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Most of this change brought due to education is for a better and advanced future. However, some 
changes in values can also prove to be dangerous. For example, with education, the world is 
coming closer. As a result, there is a greater influence of developed countries on the young 
minds. Children are more exposed to an open culture where their traditional values get replaced 
with these western values. Such a change makes them take to bad habits like drinking and drug 
addiction at a younger age. It has been seen that the more developed a nation is due to its 
advancement in knowledge, the more its children are involved in drug abuse. 
In the end, I would like to sum up by saying that with advancement and progress, the change in 
ideas and beliefs of people in inevitable. I agree that education, which leads to this advancement 
of a society, involves the change in the way people think and also the way they believe. 

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