People constantly complain about the American education system and want it to get "better," and I sympathize. But what do people mean by "better?" If you ask 10 different people you will have 10 mutually exclusive opinions. And solving this fragmentation of definitions can't happen until people develop coherent notions of what the purpose of education should be, which, I suspect, even the most opinionated commentators will be unable to articulate. So it seems that any discussion of education has to begin with an inquiry into what the purpose of education should be.

My preliminary stab at it:

Education for the most part should be about training and nurturing the skills and temperaments necessary for scientific inquiry and technological innovation. This purpose will not, of course, suit everyone, since anyone can see that only a small minority of people possess the "spark." My cynical side says that the remainder of the population can at best be trained to take direction from the innovators and to stay out of prison, but unless the good people here are willing to come up with something more "humane," that is the conclusion I am left with.

Last edited by zevrem (10-12-2014 12:45:25 PM)