Do you think education makes people think they are better than other people or does it infact make them better than other people because they show initiative.

Certainly education can improve an individual, but the comparison should generally be between their own before and after, rather than against others.

Also, the kind of education that focuses exclusively on narrow subject areas (such as becoming an expert in one specific field) needs to be supplemented by education that considers broad topics and the relationships between them... that "integration" of multiple subject areas is where some of the most important 'betterment' comes from.

It is not education. It is knowledge make people more powerful. "Knowledge is power" remember?

But power comes with responsibility and responsibility make you humble too. If knowledge make you arrogant, then that is not knowledge.

There is no good and bad people in this world. It's just level of knowledge.

The purpose of education is to make people better! Of course they are. The uneducated can BECOME better. Generally, the more you know, the better your choices.
Of course, stupidity is permenant, ignorance can be cured.
Just because you went to school for a long time, it doesn't make you educated. I know people that have a PHD in Theology that are completely useless in the real world.

Both.

It does in fact give them the opportunity to become better.

But whether or not they actually do become better ....

Bu$h went to Yale and Harvard after all.

Both are Ivy Leagues.

It doesn't help when so many folks insist on being proud of thier ignorance. Or the folks who seek to marginalise their "ivory tower".

But there are no few arrogant pricks, often in the position of professorhoods.

ok lets get real here.

Not all people who have not continued on to college are lazy bums. Some had to take care of families and put their own livees on hold to do so. So I wont group all people with out college like that.

Ofcourse there are those mindless slackers out there that have no drive to better themselves or their situations.

But on the other hand there are also those out there that have educations that feel they are now entitled to the better jobs, and look down their noses at those that do not possess a degree of some sort or other.
Take this not wit for example.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/02/ap/strange/main5205465.shtml

I have found in my short number of years that it is never good to judge people on a group status but on the individual. I myself do possess a degree. I consider myself fairly successful but only because I am driven to better myself.

Some people think they are better because of education and some educated people lack initiative. Some uneducated people resent the educated person and consider them 'know-it-alls'. It's a vicious cycle. I prefer to be educated and know that it doesn't make me a diddly better than anyone else, just maybe prone to use grammar better.

it depends on what you mean by better
it widens the scope of wwhat they can do and become
if ur happy being a burger flipper then there is nothing wrong with it
but you won't have many options if something bad happens
books hide knowledge, knowledge translates into money when applied correctly, money and knowlegde translate into power and power is absolute
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4DGUS_enUS314US314&q=the+art+of+war+machiavelli&aq=0e&oq=the+art+of+war+mach&aqi=g-e1g3

Perhaps not better but doubtless better informed.

I think that the more one learns, the more aware he becomes of how much he still doesn't know, how much is out there that other's know more about. The mroe he learns, the more, the less arrogant he should be.

I am not aware of anything that would suggest that education is related to initiative. Indeed, the old adage is that "those who can do, those who cannot teach".

I'm going to answer the second part of your question. There are many reasons why someone might not seek further education:

1. They don't need it to work in their field.

2. They may have insufficient funds or other obstacles that prevent them from going.

3. Some people do indeed lack initiative, but not all of them.

Secondly, feeling superior to others personality factor, not necessarily a product of education. If the person wasn't arrogant about his/her education, then s/he would probably find something else to be arrogant about. I think that the stereotypes about education and elitism are more harmful than elitists themselves. They are divisive. Degreed and non-degreed people can learn a lot from each other. Knowledge is power, whether it comes from hands-on learning or a classroom textbook. The New York Times had an interesting article about a former academic who decided to take up a trade, and what he learned from that. Here's a link if you are interested:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/27/fashion/27trades.html?pagewanted=all

Neither.

I guess it depends on what method you use to measure the "betterness". Personally, trying to compare two individuals to determine which one is "better" seems like a waste of time to me. Can we settle on "different"?

The education system does work to kind of justify arrogance through indoctrination, yeah.

By education I guess you mean schooling. Everybody gets education and schooling is just one little part of education. First I wud like to say that what one 'thinks' is not necessarily true. If your question was "does education make better" I wud be in a better position to answer you. There are some people out there who have been very schooled but they dont see themselves as better than other people. Better is a term that has to go with something to convey meaning. Better in or at what?

Education doesn't make anyone any better than someone who never went to school. My grandmother never went to school and was a great woman..
Education is highly over rated. It benefits society, but doesn't make one person one iota better than another.
I dropped out of college, but then I have never put someone out of their home and have never put thousands out of jobs.
Now how does education make one better than me?

some people think that they are better than others even if they don't have a great education. and even educated people make dumb decisions too. nobody's perfect. but if they can stay humble and polite than at least they will still be likeable to others.