What’s the Purpose of Education?

TLDR: The purpose of education is to cultivate a person’s potential, help them discover who they are, and empower them to create something beautiful in the world.

First, what does the word education mean? It comes to us from Latin: ‘e’ means ‘out’ and ‘duco, ducere’ means ‘to lead or draw’ (like a horse draws a carriage). So, education is a leading or drawing out… of what? Of a person’s potential. Of all the good lying dormant within us.

When we’re young, two of the most important educational milestones are fundamental numeracy and literacy – specifically arithmetic and reading. Math helps us think and language helps us communicate.

Why is it important to think? Because life is full of problems to be solved, and the stronger our abilities of reason, the more elegant the solution we’ll produce. More effective solutions, more efficient, more beautiful. Art too requires thought and problem solving, as do athletics, especially at the highest levels. There is no arena in which the ability to think well is a disadvantage. Math helps teach us how to think. It teaches us order. It serves as training weights to help the mind grow strong.

Why is it important to communicate? To begin, communication is bidirectional: we both send and receive. The written word is a particularly powerful medium of communication, and literacy grants us access to this medium. It’s important to be literate because it empowers us with the ability to learn anything we wish simply by reading. Strong reading and writing also enhance our abilities of self-expression, the ability to organize what’s within us and present it crisply to the world. But most practically, language empowers us to connect with others. To share our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and dreams with each other, to cooperate, and to enjoy each other’s company.

So then thinking and communicating… about what? About whatever we want. And what do we want? The answer to this question lies within the individual. We must come to know ourselves. Once we begin to understand who and what we are, what we want grows clear. It feels natural, like water feels to a duck. We must come to understand who and what we are and move toward what feels natural to us.

Of course, that begs the next question: How do we come to know ourselves? By exploring. When we experience something new, we like it, we don’t like it, or we’re indifferent toward it, but we learn a little something about ourselves along the way. So by exploring and trying new things, we discover the things that resonate with us, things that excite us, that energize us, that make us feel most like ourselves. The water to our duck.

This is the purpose of education: to help the individual discover themselves and to help equip them for the task of drawing out and actualizing their potential. Self-knowledge and the ability to think and to communicate are extremely advantageous – effectively necessary, really. But are they alone enough?

Science is also highly beneficial, an absolute fundamental. Why? Because science is the study of the natural world, and we are each pieces of that natural world, and we all live in that natural world. This is the game we’re all stuck in, and science is the ruleset. Science is an exploration of the substance and mechanisms of nature; what it’s made of and how it works. And this knowledge can be usefully applied in essentially every arena.

If someone wishes to work with animals or on a farm, biology would make their efforts more effective and efficient. Chemistry has applications in everything from house paint to nail polish to pharmacology – and doctors benefit from both bio and chem alike. Cars, trains, airplanes, and basically all of our electronics come from physics. Engineering is physics applied. Science is practical, applicable knowledge which if used wisely can tremendously amplify the potency of our efforts. It can help us make our dreams come true.

Science is useful in business and in entrepreneurship as well. Most anything a person may wish to create or invent or design, then ultimately sell, has its roots in science. Revolutionary new farming techniques to increase yields (and profit), the hottest new nail polish that dries in 30 seconds without chipping, or the sleek new cellphone running the fastest chips on the sharpest screen – this is all based on science. Science is powerful, and if we can harness some of that power, we can make the impossible possible.

Ok, so math, language, and science, these are all of the mind. What about the body, physical education? Athletics are the classic means of cultivating the body, and they’re also an excellent vehicle for personal development – especially competition. A healthy, fit body helps the mind focus more sharply and think more clearly, and the self-confidence begotten by athletics alone is worth the whole experience.

The Roman poet Juvenal said “Mens sana in corpore sano”, “a sound mind in a sound body”. The Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said, “It is a shame for [one] to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which [their] body is capable.” These notions have held true for thousands of years, and will continue to hold true long into the future. Mind and body both must be cultivated, their potentials each fulfilled.

Then what about the heart? Humans are certainly emotional creatures, and so the emotional aspect must too be cultivated. Here we turn to art: painting, music, theater, sculpting, dance, cinema, and all the other media of artistic expression. No education could be called thorough or complete without feeling, without art. As with all educational and self-exploratory endeavors, it helps to expose the individual to a variety of experiences, then let them choose what to explore further based on what interests them. One of the ideal outcomes of an education in art is the establishment of an emotional and creative outlet for the individual, a way to fluently express feeling from within oneself.

So the mind with math, language, and science, the body with athletics, and the heart with art. But what about the ghost in the machine? The one who moves our body, who thinks our thoughts, and who feels our feelings? This aspect of a human being, the self, must too be developed. Who am I? What am I? What do I want? How will I get it? What is the meaning of all this? All knowledge ultimately leads to self-knowledge. Wisdom is the application of knowledge to achieve a desired end. It’s seeing a picture clearly, and in that clarity, choosing what’s best – one of the highest forms of knowledge. And so we arrive at philosophy.

Philosophy comes to us from the Ancient Greek: ‘philo’ means ‘love’ and ‘sophy’ means ‘wisdom’, so philosophy is a love of wisdom. When we take any endeavor or discipline far enough, it becomes philosophical. A PhD, for instance, is a philosophical doctorate, and ‘doctor’ means ‘teacher’ in Latin. We can get a PhD in generally any subject, like math, chemistry, physics, biology, computer science, engineering, music – the list goes on. Philosophy is the capstone of a great body of work, and philosophical thinking can lead us to new realms of exploration and mastery.

For the individual, philosophy is a study that helps us in our attempt to answer life’s big questions. It provides a framework to help us organize our inner world and to see things more clearly. It helps us learn from the experience of others and to make wiser decisions in our own lives. But most importantly, it teaches us to think critically; to ask sharp questions and to distinguish between the subtleties.

So math, language, science, art, philosophy – mind, body, heart and the self. This is a well-rounded education. Now, this is all good, but what becomes of it all? All toward what end? What’s the purpose of all this education?

What are good middle schools proud of? Primarily they’re proud of how well-prepared their students are for high school. They highlight what sorts of high schools their students matriculate into and how they perform at that next level.

What are good high schools proud of? They too are proud of how well-prepared their students are for the next level, namely college. They too highlight what sorts of colleges their students matriculate into and how they perform at that next level.

Then what are the top universities proud of? Similarly, they’re also proud of their students’ matriculation into next-level programs, but if we take this to the farthest degree, what do these top universities ultimately tout? Say an individual is already at the best university for their field of study and they’re in a PhD program, the highest level of study. Of what will this university be proud?

Universities are proud of what their graduates go on to create, to invent, to build, to found, to produce. They’re proud of what their students go out into the world and do.

The purpose of education is to help the individual discover themselves and to help equip them for the task of drawing out and actualizing the potential within themselves. But at the end of the day, the student must ultimately go out and do. We cannot stay in a classroom forever. We must spread our wings.

Give the kids sound foundations and trustworthy tools to build whatever their hearts desire. Give them the means to express themselves, a means to help bring out and share with the world what is uniquely within them. Empower them, and teach them to use their powers for good. Prepare them for their path, then watch them walk it. This is education.

The revolutionary artist Pablo Picasso said, “The meaning of life is to find your gift, and the purpose of life is to give it away.” When an individual has educated themselves, when they know who they are, what they are, and what they want… All that’s left is to make it reality. We all become artists in the end.