Knowledge--gained from study or being creative by practical work

The advent of 21st century has witnessed profound changes in social, educational and technological arenas. The comparison of the importance between the knowledge gained from study and the ability of being creative has been brought to popular concerns. It has to be admitted that there exists a fiercely controversy over the issue whether the success of a person depend on the academic knowledge or due to the practical skills. People from all works of life can hardly reach an absolute conformity on the issue in question. Provided that it is up to me to make an alternative, my view will fall between the extremes for the sake of perfection.

People who in favor of the former view hold their opinion based on following sound reasons. First and foremost, no one can fail to take into account the fact that knowledge gained from books has a wider range than that gained from the experience. We now live in a world that printed matters are readily available. In library, we can learn almost everything if only we have already acquired basic reading skills, philosophy, history, mathematics, literature, and the list will go on. In addition, it goes without any saying that laying a solid foundation is a top priority. The knowledge gained from study is more comprehensive that can deal with a wide variety of problems creatively or individually.

However, others preferring the latter opinion maintain a totally different argument. To start with, we live in a world with fierce competition and rapidly development. The knowledge we have learned in class is not adequate to cope with every practical problem we encounter in the reality, let alone some of them are out-dated. For instance, much of knowledge we learned in computer classes, such as the program of Visual Fox Pro, are not applied to the modern computers. As a result, it would lead to a great deal waste of time and resources. Furthermore it is no denying the fact that through the practical work we can have a clearer realization of self-value. We can gradually find a more accurate position of ourselves and eventually get a decent job.

To put all into one nutshell, all the evidences leads the strongest support to my convincing conclusion that either the knowledge gained from study or the ability of being creative is essential. What we should do is figure out a rational balance between them, bring its strengths into full play and diminish the drawbacks to the least extent.