Thursday, December 21, 2006

Education Vs. School

The purposes of 'education,' and the purposes of 'schooling' are quite different.

Education is the process whereby people learn to craft and use the tools of intellectual life which they will apply to their life's problems and the issues which will occupy their attention for their entire lives.

The purpose of schooling, on the other hand, is almost entirely assimilative: to induct 'students' into the culture of obedience, acquiescence, and complicity with the interests of corporations.

One does not "get" an education; one MAKES an education out of the appreciation, interpretation, and analysis of experience. One does, on the other hand, get 'schooled' in the needs of the status quo ante.

Schooling exists to prepare students to become drones in the marketplace; education exists for the purpose of integrating the learner as a critical reader into the shared texts of shared civilization.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Damn, Woody, next thing you know, you're going to be advocating that people do stuff such as think.


Where's eschatonia in exile meeting?