What is the purpose of education?

[GDC]

I am spending the next week and a half in NYC at a conference. Before I leave I am supposed to ask some folks who are not educators the question in the title of this thread. TIA.

[Viking Kitten]

To take ignurnt little a**holes and put some facts in their empty brains so hopefully they can get a decent job that doesn't involve fryer grease.

[NormanPride]

k-12? Citizen training. Basic math and science.

College? Vocational, mostly. Problem solving and group work.

Post-grad? Deeper subject study for specific purposes, whether it be to further human knowledge or to fulfill a specific role in society that needs in depth knowledge of a particular set of subjects. Lawyers, doctors, city planners, economists, etc.

[The]

Indoctrination.

[Sooner Tri]

To realize how much there is to know in the world, and how little of it you will ever know.

[pphilfran]

I was going to say the same thing as Norman...but he said it much better than I....

[My Opinion Matters]

Nothing.

It's all a charade perpetrated by the liberal educo-industrial complex.

[silverwheels]

To take ignurnt little a**holes and put some facts in their empty brains so hopefully they can get a decent job that doesn't involve fryer grease.

Hey, my degree involves fryer grease.

[badger]

I was led to believe that good grades were very important from an early age. I was in big trouble if I didn't get good grades. Thus, I'd have to think that K-12's purpose was to be a kid perceived well by adults.

By college, grades were important, yes, but not as important as knowing the deadlines for assignments and exam dates, and in some cases, being in attendance. So long as you knew when you were supposed to have stuff done or know stuff by, and just be there when needed, it was suffice. So, I'd have to say the purpose of college was to master the use calendars and clocks and make both your beyonces through extreme planning and management skillz.

[GDC]

Shouldn't the central purpose of education be to help students develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and expose them to things they might not have been otherwise?

[Viking Kitten]

Hey, my degree involves fryer grease.

Sticking your hand in it or strategically planning the most beneficial uses thereof?

[pphilfran]

Shouldn't the central purpose of education be to help students develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and expose them to things they might not have been otherwise?

Yes...though in the early grades it is more the forming of the groundwork to get to the problem solving...

[silverwheels]

Sticking your hand in it or strategically planning the most beneficial uses thereof?

Sticking food in it, mostly.

[Viking Kitten]

Dude, I still have scars on my hands from my blissfully brief food service days. I got an education specifically to get me out of the kitchen/mall.

[soonerchk]

To take ignurnt little a**holes and put some facts in their empty brains so hopefully they can get a decent job that doesn't involve fryer grease.

This.


Shouldn't the central purpose of education be to help students develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and expose them to things they might not have been otherwise?

It should be, but it seems that the purpose of education right now is to pass tests and get the schools more money.

[silverwheels]

Dude, I still have scars on my hands from my blissfully brief food service days. I got an education specifically to get me out of the kitchen/mall.

Well my degree in the culinary arts suggests that I work in a kitchen.

[pphilfran]

It should be, but it seems that the purpose of education right now is to pass tests and get the schools more money.

Purty damn good response....

[pphilfran]

Well my degree in the culinary arts suggests that I work in a kitchen.

McD's or BK....

[silverwheels]

BK. It's classier.

[soonerchk]

Purty damn good response....

I are an excellent test taker.

[Viking Kitten]

Well my degree in the culinary arts suggests that I work in a kitchen.

"Arts" suggests something more than the minimum wage schmuck manning the fryer. Maybe the guy who hires the minimum wage schmuck manning the fryer?

[silverwheels]

"Arts" suggests something more than the minimum wage schmuck manning the fryer. Maybe the guy who hires the minimum wage schmuck manning the fryer?

Not yet. I love to cook so I'll do the managerial thing when I'm too old and slow to cut it on the line.

[MsProudSooner]

Shouldn't the central purpose of education be to help students develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and expose them to things they might not have been otherwise?


Yes, plus the 'readin', writin' and 'rithmatic are the building blocks for everything else.

[soonerchk]

Not yet. I love to cook so I'll do the managerial thing when I'm too old and slow to cut it on the line.

Tony Bourdain??? Is that you?

[silverwheels]

I don't do enough coke to be Anthony Bourdain.

[soonerchk]

Lost interest then.

[silverwheels]

*snooorrrrrrrrttt*

[pphilfran]

BK. It's classier.

I agree...excellent choice...

[SanJoaquinSooner]

My two answers:

1. Three aims: Disciplinary, Utility, Culture.

2. To turn the mind's eye toward the light.

[NormanPride]

Shouldn't the central purpose of education be to help students develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and expose them to things they might not have been otherwise?
Ideally. And the role of government should ideally be for defense and law. And private industry should ideally be a hotbed of responsible competition and earnest hard work to benefit the consumer.

In practice, these things are much different. Kids need to know how to behave in society away from their families. They need to know how to interact with other humans, superiors and subordinates alike. Teaching them about the arts is nice and I fully support it to create a well-balanced individual, but it's not the central goal anymore. There are too many people for us not to focus on how to handle simply being a person.

[3rdgensooner]

Not yet. I love to cook so I'll do the managerial thing when I'm too old and slow to cut it on the line.Men that cook are proof that God loves women and wants them to be happy.


My two answers:

1. Three aims: Disciplinary, Utility, Culture.

2. To turn the mind's eye toward the light.3. So that I can feel superior to you plebians.

[pphilfran]

Men that cook are proof that God loves women and wants them to be happy.

3. So that I can feel superior to you plebians.

Go jump in the Devilbrook...

[SanJoaquinSooner]

.

3. So that I can feel superior to you plebians.

Oh, I thought the question was about K-12, not grad school.

[soonerchk]

3. So that I can feel superior to you plebians.

You needed a piece of paper to do that?

[yankee]

Oklahoma has like the worst public education in the U.S....Just sayin'.

[Mississippi Sooner]

Oklahoma has like the worst public education in the U.S....Just sayin'.

I didn't think much of it until I moved to Mississippi. It's criminally bad down here.

[yankee]

I didn't think much of it until I moved to Mississippi. It's criminally bad down here.

That's true, Mississippi I think is ranked worst, I forgot. Okie is right down there though I know that.

[badger]

Education dollars go where the biggest teacher unions are... and they aren't in Oklahoma or Mississippi.

[NormanPride]

The education in both Mississippi and Louisiana is beyond horrible.

[DIB]

Public education in Oklahoma is very good, if you go to the right school in the right district. Union, Jenks and Broken Arrow have some very good schools. Unfortunately, a lot of the urban and rural schools (not all), are sub par and bring the state average down.

[Mississippi Sooner]

We have so many counties that are "at risk" that you can get a big chunk of your college education paid for if you agree to teach for a certain length of time in one of those counties. Of course, that means you also have to live in one of those depressing places, oh, and not get shot while you are doing your job.

[Skysooner]

Ideally it is to give information to a student that can be used to facilitate the student's schema (or view of the world) in a way that is mostly non-indoctrinational (beyond the information being given).

[3rdgensooner]

Go jump in the Devilbrook...One does not simply jump into Devilbrook.


Oh, I thought the question was about K-12, not grad school.Thinkers gonna think


You needed a piece of paper to do that?Technically, no. But it adds a certain panache.

[soonerchk]

Ideally it is to give information to a student that can be used to facilitate the student's schema (or view of the world) in a way that is mostly non-indoctrinational (beyond the information being given).

I didn't learn enough in the Tulsa Public Schools System to be able to understand this post.

[soonercruiser]

Shouldn't the central purpose of education be to help students develop the ability to think critically, solve problems, and expose them to things they might not have been otherwise?

Unfortunately, after the basic sciences, this must happen in late highschool and undergraduate college work.

By the time we get professional students, they are waaaayyyyyy to regimented into only getting the answers to memorize, an regurgitate.
Even get some kids whose Dads are dentists, who can only say..."my dad says to do it this way"....!! Imagine the indoctrination that must take place!

You expose these folks to a new & different problem, are they are clueless to solve it!

[StoopTroup]

I didn't learn enough in the Tulsa Public Schools System to be able to understand this post.

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