198. The purpose of education

I’ve lately been thinking about the real purpose of education. Our society seems to see it as a way of imparting knowledge, received wisdom, and preparing learners for a useful professional life. This manifests in teachings of what the World is, how it works, imparting a World view which is presented as a fixed reality, with its concepts and limitations, with its constraints. We educate people to accept reality. But the World is possibilities, not reality. It can be approached not as a given, but as a canvas on which to leave one’s imprint, a piece of clay to try to sculpt, to match reality to our imagination. Education should give us the tools for such approach, the critical spirit to not accept what is given, the ambition and creativity to want to improve it, incrementally, or change it, radically. Life will have plenty of time to knock us into shape, to coerce us to accept status quo and reality. But education should demand of us the will to take on the World, and equip us to do it 

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