In my last post I asked a question:
What is education for? What is the end of education?
I find it interesting to read mission statements of various
schools and educational bodies. Some of these statements are inspiring,
illuminating even. Others leave me cold. The most recent Common Core Standards
fall into the second category. I profess myself ignorant of the efficacy of
their “means.” Whether or not their standards are rigorous, clear, enforceable,
I do not know. But their ends seem suspect to my eye. “The standards,” we read,
“are designed to ensure students are prepared for today’s entry-level careers,
college courses, and workforce training programs.” The end of education (at
least as far as they are concerned) seems to be a narrowly defined
“success,” which itself is connected with ideas of productivity—specifically in
an economically measurable form. It seems as if today’s children are viewed by
their country and their educators as (potential) economic producers…and in some
fundamental sense—products.
I have nothing against vital careers or economic “success”
per se.
But—is this all? If education merely provides financial gain, the mere continuation the society and the physical comfort of the members of society, has
it done its job?
Is standardization of knowledge, increased efficiency,
heightened productivity what education is for?
Education is, by definition, the impartation of knowledge…
But what kind of knowledge and to what end? And here I begin to suspect that
the question “what is education for?” may not in fact be the best place to
start either. Maybe, before we ask “what is education for,” maybe we should
ask, like Wendell Berry “What are People For?”
Big question. But, I will argue, until we get a
glimpse of what we are for how can we know what we should learn?
What people are for?
What makes us human?
*Aren't the grapes (pictured above) lovely? Alas, every *single* one was gone not three days after this photo was taken. Who is the culprit? We do not know.
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