What is Education's Purpose - Essay Example

There are two leading thoughts today about the overall purpose of education. The main goal of education is to teach the students what they need to know to go out into the world. But what is being taught in school is not coming across that way. The core subjects of Math, Science, Social Studies, and English are all needed to be taught to every student throughout the time they are in school. How a teacher goes about teaching their students the information is now what's at stake. In “School's Out” by Daniel Pink, he tells the reader that most of the classrooms have the smell of nostalgia, not of the students churning their mind.

He also, shows the reader that public schools are not even up to date with the technology that is in the classrooms, making it that much harder on the teachers trying to help bring the next generations along into the world to be productive citizens of their perspective nations. As education goes on, the students, particularly those in the United States, are not keeping up with other students from foreign nations. Education's purpose is to teach the students what they need to know to go on and be successful in the world.. Daniel Pink shows the reader that even though the purpose of education is to attain knowledge and be successful in the world, maybe learning in public schools is not helping the students after all.

In “School's Out”, Pink tells the reader that the children who attend public schools are being out tested by the students who are home schooled. He goes on to tell us that with the ever changing economy and the collapse of company after company, that more people are going into small business for themselves or becoming the ever growing population of the workforce that is creating its income through the use of the internet. He even goes on to state that some people, who have mainstream jobs, are telecommuting from home to their job site never actually having to leave the home to provide the income needed to run the household.

He states that education may be headed the same way as the job force. “Today’s adolescents would be better off pursuing a college degree, jumping directly into the job market, engaging in public service, or taking on a vocational apprenticeship.” (Pink) Pink goes on to explain the different ideals of home schooling which include: “A renaissance of apprenticeships, a flowering of teenage entrepreneurship, a greater diversity of academic courses, a boom in national service, and a backlash against the standards.” (Pink) Furthermore, he goes on to state that those students who were home schooled, free learners know how to continue their education throughout the rest of their lives.

On the other hand, Maya Angelou was very proud of the day she graduated from high school. She shows the reader through a bunch of similes that she uses in the piece and she describes the graduates of her class “Like travelers with exotic