Purpos/ed: what's the purpose of education? Join the debate.

Earlier this week Doug Belshaw, co-kickstarter of Purpos/ed, had a blog post published on the Guardian Teacher Network. Entitled What’s the point of education? the whole post is a series of questions to get people thinking.

We’d appreciate it if you could share the link to the article and comment if you’ve got something constructive to add.

Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/teacher-network/2012/feb/09/purpose-of-education-debate

David Warlick is well-known American educator and change agent. This week he wrote a post summarising his experiences at a conference session:

Then, what really kicked me in the head was when someone said…

“..anyone who is not a programmer is part of the program.”

Sounds of thunder resounded in my skull.  Then one of those startling moments followed, where previously held notions began to breakdown and recombine into something new.

“What is the purpose of education?”  It’s a frequently asked question these days and I have long said and written that the purpose of education is to prepare our children for their future.  Now I believe that,

The purpose of school is to prepare our children
To Own Their Future!

Are we (educators) making programmers, or are we just making software?

In England and Wales, Computer Science seems to be in the ascendancy over ICT. In fact, Education Secretary Michael Gove recently scrapped compulsory lessons for the latter and encouraged schools toward the former.

Comments are open.

Image CC BY-NC Ewan McIntosh