Now, for many this can sound like a loaded question. One that is designed to trick you, or question the quality of education you yourself received in school. I assure you, however, there are no tricks here, nor are there any objectively wrong answers. If you polled 100 people, from 100 different countries, from 100 different time periods, you would certainly get hundreds of different answers, and all those answers, or at least most, would be valid. However, even within those hundreds of answers, you would find a common thread: the purpose of education is to learn things. Simple enough, right?  Everyone would agree that the purpose of education, academic or otherwise, is to be fully informed about a topic or concept that you were misinformed or uninformed about previously. Since school is the dominant force of education in America, it is safe to say that receiving your education through American schools, public or private, should accomplish the same goal.

My personal belief about  education is more robust, and idealistic, but I don’t think that’s rare. I believe the vast majority of people who are asked this question would agree that the purpose of education goes far beyond learning information and more towards understanding the world around you, developing critical thinking skills, and being a kinder, more empathetic human being. In my opinion, the purpose of education is this: to create curious, competent, and compassionate individuals who have the skills and streetsmarts to make their country, and the world, a more efficient and empathetic place. Idealistic, I know, but shouldn’t we want our education system to instill these values in the next generation of leaders, regardless of race, income, gender or social class? I believe so, and deep down, I believe the majority of people believe this too. Now, given our foundational belief in the purpose of education, we can answer our next important question: How does the design of our education system hold up to this purpose? In other words: