Why Do We Teach?: The Purpose of Education

This post is can be found in on the Philosophy page. This article looks at why we teach, and the overarching purpose of education. 

How many times have you heard the question:

"Will I ever use this?" or "When will I have to know this?"

This is a frustrating question for the teacher, because it is hard to answer. When, in the course of their lives, will our students ever need to know how to use a quadratic formula. I certainly am not tapping into that bit of information everyday.

So why do we teach it? Why are we going over these meticulous facts and observations that we as a human race have discovered throughout our journey?

Why is there this mass regurgitation of world history? Who does care about the ancient Zapotec tribes and how they got to where they were going?

The Internet has made these questions infinitely harder to answer. Everything is already documented on wikipedia (and our students know it). If a student is ever curious about something then all they have to do is google it or search around on wikipedia for 1/2 a minute and they should be able to come across  relevant information on any given topic. Besides an entire lesson on the quadratic formula exists on wikipedia.

So why are we going on with this charade?

After years and years of thought, I reached a conclusion on the purpose of education.....death.

We teach because we die...sort of.

In life we have two basic or fundamental objectives:

1. To live.
2. To live well.

All of the decisions we make revolve around making us happy, although many times our choices do not result in the desired outcome (the desired outcome is to bring us happiness).

Our choices reflect what we believe will make us happy. 

Marketing firms understand this all too well. They attempt to make us believe that having their product will make us live better or happier. If we believe that having a Coke will make us happy then we purchase it.

That is why we do the things we do; to live and to live well. Since the beginning of time we have made decisions that can ultimately be traced back to these two objectives.

Society thrives on innovation. Because innovation keeps us alive for longer and it also makes that life easier.

To relate this to education may take a minute. But while we are getting there think about this:

Who came first the student or the teacher?

The first people who decided to live in a civilization and not be nomadic are dead. There insights into what made them happy (living in one place) did not die with them. Why?  

We build upon that knowledge because we are continually trying to make ourselves happier. We are continually trying to make our lives easier.

We are educating children about things that do not matter on a day to day basis (quadratic formulas and ancient civilizations) so that they can build upon that knowledge and reach greater understandings of how the world operates.

We educate so they can innovate for the future to contribute efficiency, functionality, and production to society and ultimately provide a life lived better.


Why do you teach? What is the purpose of Education?