What's the point of education?

What's the purpose of education? Is it inculcation? Is it to pass on important values and ideas?

Or is it more developmental? Is what we're looking for in education the "drawing out" of innate abilities and interests? Is the important thing to find what is unique about every individual and focus upon that? Or is a broad education more important?

Is there one purpose of education? Perhaps there's one particular, fundamental purpose that trumps all of the others? Which of the many 500 word contributions on the Purpose/ed website would you agree with? Would you perhaps concur with Dave White from Oxford University who suggests education is about "disruption"?

Or what about Josie Fraser's idea of giving young people access to things "unimagined and unencountered"? Is the purpose of education to develop "inquistiveness" (Paul Simbeck-Hampson)? Is it to "cradle happiness" (Tom Barrett)? Perhaps it's about "building character" (Cristina Costa)?

Was your education satisfactory? Was the purpose of it ever spelled out? Was there a disconnect between what your parents/guardians thought was the purpose of education and what your school believed? Was the "deep grammar" of schooling different from the explicit aims of the school? What would you change if you could go back and take charge? What would you focus upon?

So, what's the purpose of education? Do you consider it, as we do at Purpos/ed a question worth debating? Would you like to take part in one of our campaigns? Have you got something to say in the comments below? Are you willing to sign a HM Government e-petition calling for a national debate? Would you go to Purpos/ed petition and add your name? Will you spread the word?

Do you see now why the purpose of education is worth debating?

(with apologies to Padgett Powell's The Interrogative Mood: a novel?)

Doug Belshaw is a researcher/analyst at JISC infoNet and is the co-kickstarter of Purpos/ed Community Interest Company (with Andy Stewart). He can be found on Twitter as @dajbelshaw and his website.

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