Definition Essay: What Is The Purpose Of Education?

If someone were to ask you, “What is the purpose of education,” what would you tell him or her? Maybe you would say, “To educate our youth,” “to give our children a chance at getting a job,” or maybe “to give them the opportunities we never had.” All of which are answers to my question, but are they correct? At some level, all three answers are reasons why our youth need educated, but they are not the only answers or even a complete answer. However, if you stop and investigate a little further you may find a superior answer to this question. In order to examine the purpose of education, it is in my opinion, it is best to start with the definition of education and how it started. Education is a tool, which we use to pass knowledge down through …show more content…
Steve Jobs gave the example of when he dropped out of college, but also dropped into different classes. Doing this lead to him avoiding the boring, mundane classes he would have been required to learn while letting him follow his curiosity and to learn things he admittedly craved to learn. Mr. Robinson uses Gillian Lynne as an example of this as well. She had no interest in the boring work, but has a vast amount of passion for dancing, which is not a core subject taught in schools. Why are some subjects treated as more important than others? Why do we penalize some students for their lack of interest in some subjects, when we penalize the subjects they wish to learn? In addition, why is the real problem not fixed by keeping children focused by making school interesting: instead of labeling children with attention deficit disorder and putting them on drugs that could cause severe problems in their life? I believe that the biggest answer is that just leaving the education system as it is and just mediating the students is the easiest and fastest solution, even though it may not be the correct