So for a class I'm in this semester, we're having a discussion about education and what it's purpose is (obviously), and I was wondering what some other people might think. Since we have a generally pretty intelligent community on this forum, I figured I'd pose the question here.

Not necessary to read, but here is the assignment:


(I know it says to argue your point, but let's keep it civil. I'd like this to stay open.)

University is a place of learning, but first it is a business.

More educated people typically lead to more, better jobs.

From my understanding school is about learning social skills first, then discipline and application, and lastly knowledge and skills.

Primarily to prepare people for jobs and to function well in the economy. Enlightening and the instilling of virtue is also a goal, but secondary.

Right now education serves a purpose up to the 9th grade at which point things start to trickle down. With the age of computers people can learn 10x faster than at school in certain circumstances which is more than what I had during the 90's. It wasn't until the late 90s to 2000 when I had a cable modem which provided me with a reliable way to search the internet. However getting back on topic when you get into the 9th grade it seems like education starts to split apart.

Math is a good example of this where people just need simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to get by. To take it a step further sometimes you need to figure out how to get X by going through Y which stretches it to some degree. Beyond the regular world in the "Science" areas yes you do need to know specialized math to assist you. Though I strangely find these people in the minority at times since not everyone is looking for a job as a physics professor or an engineer.

Grammar is taken to the extreme end and don't really know where to begin. The internet has really destroyed the aspect of grammar making it hard for people to put things in proper order. English was never my forte to begin with and the grammar nazi picked it apart whenever they got.


Sad thing i'm seeing now is people don't just want education they also want work experience. This work experience sometimes overrides the necessity for education in the first place which concerns me. One job I noted could be filled by a person with a GED which really svcks to be honest. What's even worse is that person with the GED has experience someone with a Bachelor's Degree doesn't the GED person will probably get picked.


To put it bluntly I think education for K-9 serves as a way for people to learn. They learn the necessities of living and interacting with people but beyond that it becomes icing on the proverbial cake. Sad thing is that education from 9 and onward in this day and age doesn't me jack squat unless you have work experience to back it up.

"Or if education is an outdated institution, why does it exist as an institution and what could be done instead?"

Formal education has been around for over 2000 years, so it'd be hard to argue it's outdated. It exists in some form in every society, even hunter-gatherers. E.g. aborigine "dreamtime" rituals that are aimed at preserving knowledge.

It can be interesting to look at how people with no education turn out. There is a book called "Seeing Voices" by Oliver Sacks that goes into this, but I'm sure there is a lot written on it. They have a lot of trouble with abstract thinking such as planning and hypothesizing.

Western education is very much focused on teaching logical anolysis. IMO it's about hooking up the language capacity of the brain with other anolytical capacities to make them more powerful and flexible.

I have been thinking a little bit about this lately since listening to some of Ricky Gervais' radio stuff with Karl Pilkington. Karl is a radio engineer who worked with Gervais and became friends with him. He had very little formal education, and he has a lot of problems with logic and probability. However, he understands "social logic" very well since he was educated in this by his family naturally, and he translates logic problems into social situations to help him understand them, which often turns out unintentionally funny.

Money money money

Education is supposed to get us all educated for better jobs, but it seems that all the world wants is scientists and math magicians.