[user104658]

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

Genuine Lolling. So well said, but isn't it a pity when 'stating the bleedin' obvious' is both necessary and humorous.

That's a pretty broad statement, though. Is it "An education" in terms of the academic basics of narrow, defined subjects so that they can "get into the world of work and pay their taxes"... or are we talking about a more broad "education" as in actually teaching young people about the world / philosophy / how to think with logic and reason about complex real-world problems.

The aim of the government and current school system, while they like to claim it is that latter, is unquestionably the former of these. They want functional parts for their machine, be that the basic cogs going into min-wage slog or the "more complex parts" going into higher professions or business. At the end of the day, it's rat-race stuff, it's about creating Workers, not Thinkers. Which I personally struggle to define as "an education".

... And like I said, they're not even particularly efficient at that .