Essays About Education: 20 Topic Ideas For Students

Is education important? These 20 essays about education indicate that it is, and they are a great place to start with crafting your essay. 

In America alone, over 50.7 million students attend public schools. The role of education in society impacts nearly every family in the country, and for that reason, it is a vital topic to discuss. 

An educated population can meet its challenges head-on with a greater ability to problem-solve. Yet sometimes, writing essays about education importance is challenging for writers.

This topic is one that most people can agree on, but few people can define and expound on. If you need to write an essay on the education system and is important to society but need an essay writing prompt, this list is a good place to start. Read on to discover 20 essays about education’s importance to spark your writing creativity.

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1. Education Helps Reduce Hunger

Did you know there is a tie between having a good education and having enough to eat? In one study of children in Nairobi, researchers found that a mother’s education significantly impacted whether or not the child would have problems with hunger. The more educated the mother, the better fed the child.

This problem is a complex one. Parental education impacts a child’s nutritional status, but a child’s nutritional status impacts their ability to learn. Human beings need their basic needs met first before focusing on learning about the world, so hungry children will miss out on key learning components in their academic years. This essay topic has many directions you can take it. You can focus on the importance of education to reduce the risk of hunger and the importance of nutrition to improve education outcomes.

2. The Importance of Education on Maternal Health and Child Survival Rate

Statistics show that children who have educated mothers are two times as likely to survive to school age than those who have uneducated mothers. Children born to mothers with 12 years of education are 30% less likely to die before reaching kindergarten than those born to mothers who have no education. Your essay could focus on the importance of education, especially female education, in that it protects the next generation from an early death. In your essay, you can explore the many reasons behind this connection.

For example, educated mothers will know more about child development and appropriate interventions in early childhood than those who are less educated. They are also more likely to have their children vaccinated against childhood illnesses than mothers who lack a high school or college education.

3. The Importance of Education for Economic Growth in a Community

If you want to see a community develop a better economic status, then you need to see an improvement in its education system. An educated population is a key component of steady economic growth within a community. Your importance of education essay can discuss why this is.

When someone is educated, their income earning potential increases; when the people have more money, society also does. You can expand on statistics like this as you build this essay topic.

4. How Education Empowers Females in a Community

Diversity and gender inclusivity are important topics in modern society, and education may be a key component. When women learn to be independent financially, they can take control of their life. In addition, educated females reduce the risk of child mortality, as previously discussed, which benefits the community as a whole.

Women who are educated can better protect their health because they have more information about nutrition and healthcare. They also tend to receive better prenatal care when pregnant, which reduces maternal fatalities. This financial independence and improved overall healthcare make education vital for the modern woman, and you can write about this in your essay.

5. Education Reduces the Risk of Violent Extremism

Violent extremism, especially among religious groups, can catalyst everything from riots to wars. Poor education or no education can limit a student’s worldview to a very defined area, making them prime candidates for extremist philosophies.

Education seems to reduce the rates of extremism and raise a generation across the globe that counters these extreme views. With improved education, rates of terrorism and radical extremism may go down. The population has become more economically stable and culturally tolerant. Your essay can expound on these facts and suggest ways to improve education in challenged countries to reduce global terrorism problems.

6. The Impact of Education on the Environment

As you look at why education matters, one surprising point to consider is the impact of education on the environment. In traditional education, teachers can educate students about environmental concerns and how they can take steps to protect the environment for future generations. In addition, people who hold degrees are statistically more likely to adopt pro-environment behaviors in their lives and business as adults.

This essay prompt can be an interesting idea for someone passionate about the environment. You can explore the idea of environmental education in the classroom and that degree-holders are more environmentally responsible than those who do not hold degrees. Both avenues will show the importance of education in building an eco-friendly community.

7. The Importance of Education for Me

Many essays on the importance of education focus on the importance to society, but you can take a more personal approach to the benefits of education. This essay can discuss why education is important to you as an individual. What do you hope to accomplish with a proper education that you could not do without one?

For this topic, go beyond simply saying something broad like you want to “change the world” or focus on the “betterment of society.” Instead, make it personal. Dig into why education is the key to success for you, personally. This self-awareness will be something the reader will appreciate.

8. Educated People Tend to Be Good Citizens

If you want a peaceful, helpful society, you need to focus on education. People with higher education are more politically active than those with minimal education. They are also more likely to file a complaint if they notice something unsafe or undesirable in their community.

In this essay, you could explore some of these statistics. Then, you could consider why educated citizens are good citizens. Finally, you could discuss how communities can continue to support education to create young people who contribute positively to the greater society.

9. Is Education the Key to Success?

This essay question is a good starting point because the idiom is common. To answer the question, you must first define what you mean by education and success, then show whether or not someone can be a success without education.

For many, this is a complex question. Education can play a key role in a person’s life, but is it the only key to success, or does the person need tenacity, grit, and ingenuity? This essay is an opinion piece, so decide what your opinion is and then start writing.

10. Education Is a Key to Improved Mental Health

The modern world puts quite a bit of stress on people. Interestingly, researchers have found that higher levels of education lead to improved mental health. In your essay, you can discuss why this might be, but keep in mind that this can be a difficult relationship to pin down. The actual reason why it is true may not be something you can find.

Education is closely related to life outcomes, and improved employment and income status often lead to improved mental health. Educated people have more choices about their life paths than uneducated people, and these choices lead to better overall control over their livelihoods. As you consider this connection, you can discuss all of these in your essay.

11. The Importance of Early Childhood Education

Many education essays focus on the over-arching idea of the value of education. This essay topic will look a little more closely at an important segment of education. Children with a solid foundation of early education are better equipped to start their school journeys. These years are when children learn social and emotional skills that will help them in later classroom experiences.

The early childhood classroom also lays the groundwork for teaching children that they can learn from someone other than mom or dad. The early childhood classroom adds a layer of intervention to screen children for developmental delays and disorders that may require treatment to make education successful in later years.

12. Education Helps Keep People out of Prison

While educated and uneducated people alike can end up in jail, statistics show that a good education reduces that risk significantly. The Bureau of Justice Studies found that 41% of people in jail have only some high school education or even less. These statistics show a clear correlation between education and serving jail time.

In your essay, you can discuss why this is. What is it about education that helps keep people operating within the bounds of the law? You can then tie in the importance of education as a safeguard against both unlawful behavior and incarceration.

13. Education is Good for the Economy

As already mentioned in previous essay topics, educated people are more likely to be able to get a job that they enjoy.  Community-wide education reduces the number of poor people in most communities. When people have an education, they can get a good-paying job more quickly. These jobs benefit the economy in two ways. First, good-paying jobs put more money into the community to spend. Fewer people in low-income brackets mean fewer people depending on government support, which costs the government money. Discuss this for an interesting essay topic.

14. Education Is the Key to Independence

For people to grow into independent adults with a good quality of life, they likely need some education. While you will find rags to riches stories of people who made it big without school, most people who have a good job start with a good education. A good job is a starting point to independence because it cares for the financial aspects of life, and thus education seems to be a key to independence as an adult.

This essay topic requires some development, but you can take it quite far if you make an effort. By showing how education is the key to economic stability on an individual level, you can show that it is the key to independence.

15. What is an Educated Person?

Does all education take place in the classroom? Can someone become an educated person without stepping foot in one? If you want to discuss the importance of education, this is a key starting point.

Defining an educated person can help you determine how powerful education is. It can also allow you to discover different avenues of education possible for the modern student. Remember, education is important, but it may not look the same for every person.

16. Eduction Exposes Students to Diversity

One of the benefits of education is the chance that the right school and curriculum have to teach students about other people groups and cultures. This, in turn, creates adults who are more tolerant of people who think or behave differently than them. Of course, this benefit is only possible if the student attends a diverse school or uses a culturally sensitive curriculum, but it is possible.

You could write a lengthy essay on diversity in the classroom and its importance in helping children succeed as adults. You could also discuss how teachers and schools can improve diversity, even if they can’t add more diverse students to their student bodies. With some creativity, most teachers and parents can find ways to incorporate diversity within the classroom and add this important component to their educational goals.

17. Education Teaches Critical Thinking Skills

Education, especially higher education, doesn’t just teach facts. It teaches students how to think for themselves. These critical thinking skills can be hard to learn in real life without some training, so education is so important.

Your essay can point out some critical thinking skills school students pick up on in their schooling. You can also take about how to add critical thinking in an age-appropriate manner. Finally, you can discuss what critical thinking skills are most important to add to the curriculum.

18. The Importance of Earning a College Degree

Many of these essays on the importance of education focus primarily on high school education and below, but a college education is also important to many individuals. You can craft an interesting essay on the benefits of or importance of earning a college degree. Since some people argue that college is no longer important, this essay topic gives you a platform to explore a more controversial topic and exhibit your persuasive essay skills.

Be open to different perspectives as you write this one. While a college degree is often vital to a career, there are careers you can pursue without one. Explain the importance of education at the college level, but don’t be afraid to mention that some people won’t need to take their education that far.

19. The Importance of Education on Social Development

Education today goes beyond simply teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. It also teaches children how to work with one another in social environments. It teaches them to be good citizens, both local and global communities.

All of these are vital to the social development of young children. Your essay can explore the different ways school and the school environment help teach children how to be social creatures, share with others, work with others, handle conflict, and deal with big emotions.

20. How Education Builds Character

Can you think of a time in your education when things didn’t go as planned? Maybe you had a teacher who was harder on you than was necessary. Perhaps there was a concept that you could not seem to grasp, no matter how hard you tried. These experiences build character, which is why education is so important.

This essay topic can be personal if you wish it to be. You can look at how education built your character by teaching you to persevere when the going got tough. Or, you could keep it broad and discuss ways education teaches character development. Either way, you can build a solid case for the importance of education to help develop and mold a child’s character.
 

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips!