What is the Purpose of Education?
When speaking with new families interested in enrolling their children at our school, we often find that experiences in the school system have made them ask a question they had never previously considered: "What is the purpose of education?"
Most of us never think to ask this question because schooling is such a standard rite of passage for all. However, when we sit down and consider it, some interesting assumptions might become apparent.
Why does the purpose matter?
Something's purpose, or telos (to adopt the old Greek term used by the philosopher Aristotle), helps us to understand what it is and how we ought to use it. We can't understand what education is, and how we should practice it, without considering the purpose of it.
A child typically spends 12 or 13 years in a classroom, through some of the most formative periods of their lives. This precious time should, and can, be spent cultivating those things which will help them to realise their own eternal purpose, as individuals made in the image and likeness of God.
Isn't school just about getting a job?
Well, that's what we've generally come to accept as the purpose of education, often without realising we've come to that conclusion! But a classical education seeks to challenge this idea. Job readiness is undoubtedly an element, but it is one of the fruits of a good education rather than the purpose itself.
True education seeks to cultivate those things which best-equip a soul through this life and into eternity: wisdom and virtue. As C.S. Lewis explores in his work The Abolition of Man:
"For the wise men of old the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality, and the solution had been knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue."
These are means by which we experience authentic freedom, and learn to recognise and love what is Good, True and Beautiful. To use Lewis' terms, it is how the soul can shape itself to the objective reality in which it lives, rather than trying to conform reality to itself.
A good and true education also develops and cultivates those gifts by which we can best serve our society and fellow man in the created world in which we live.
Have you ever sat down and given some thought to this question? You might be surprised by the conclusions you've reached, consciously or not!
Find Out More
If you would like to know more, you can check out the Educating Humans podcast, a show about classical education in Australia, co-hosted by our Principal Kenneth Crowther. The question "What is the purpose of Education?" is the topic of the very first episode of their podcast. You can listen to it here.
