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Webster
defines education as the process of educating or teaching
(now that's really useful, isn't it?) Educate is further
defined as "to develop the knowledge, skill, or
character of..." Thus, from these definitions, we
might assume that the purpose of education is to develop
the knowledge, skill, or character of students.
Unfortunately, this definition offers little unless we
further define words such as develop, knowledge, and
character.
What
is meant by knowledge? Is it a body of information that
exists "out there"—apart from the human
thought processes that developed it? If we look at the
standards and benchmarks that have been developed by many
states—or at E. D. Hirsch's list of information needed
for Cultural Literacy we might assume this to be the
definition of knowledge. However, there is considerable
research leading others to believe that knowledge arises
in the mind of an individual when that person interacts
with an idea or experience.
“The
only purpose of education is to teach a student how to
live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to
deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical,
i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to
understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught
the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and
he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his
own effort.”
~Ayn Rand
“The
aim of education should be to teach us rather how to
think, than what to think—rather to improve our minds,
so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load
the memory with the thoughts of other men.”
~Bill Beattie
“The
one real object of education is to leave a man in the
condition of continually asking questions.”
~Bishop Creighton
“The
central job of schools is to maximize the capacity of each
student.”
~Carol Ann Tomlinson
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