By LEAH MONTEJANO
Staff Writer
An ongoing and constant debate over such a simple question: What is the purpose of Education? There are several answers to this objective question, but many still fight over who is “correct”. The purpose of education is to equip students for a number of different things, this could be socially, academically, for college, it all depends on the person you are asking and the life they have lived. For some students, school may be a living nightmare, and for others, it may be an easy escape from the “real world”.
A Narrative Essay titled “The Sanctuary of School” written by Lynda Barry shares her own experience in school. Overall the Essay gives the audience insight into how school was for a student with a damaged home life. In this Narrative, Lynda tells the reader that a child gone unnoticed at home will do anything to be noticed and school was her safe space. “For the next six hours, I was going to enjoy a thoroughly secure, warm, and stable world,” Barry states in the 11th paragraph of her essay.
Throughout my personal experiences in high school, I can relate to this wholeheartedly. An adolescent needs their own time to take a break from the stresses they struggle with at home, and school is the perfect getaway for that. In some cases though, the educational system can do the opposite by adding to the other stresses teenagers already have but, that is another reason why education is important. Deadlines, time limits, and due dates are all a part of life after high school so homework and projects prepare us to adapt to those deadlines in the future. Another source by Martin Luther King titled “The Purpose of Education” talks more in-depth about the importance of school in general. Martin Luther King stated “It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform of man and in society: the one is utility and the other is culture” and it could not have been said better. The purpose of education is not to understand the Pythagorean theorem inside out or know the difference between your and you’re, the purpose of education is to prepare a student to achieve their customized aspirations and goals for upcoming years.
A frequent argument many say in response to the purpose of education is that education is pointless and serves no purpose to a child’s future. An article I found that opposed the need for education titled “Why We Need To Bring Back Vocational Training in Schools”. An argument the author made was the statistics of how many students actually graduate after high school. The text stated “68% of high school graduates attend college. That means 30% graduate with neither academic nor job skills.” The source said that more students go to college after school than the 30% that do not. Even though, many may not finish college entirely they were still well educated enough by their high school education to move on to the next level of their life which is college.
Regardless of a student’s opinion of their education, it still prepares children for the next level in their life contrived by the goals and skills they have acquired. We, the students choose what school can provide for us academically or socially. Before asking for the reason for education, ask yourself “How does this apply to my own future?”