[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]There is no need to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.
You comments Dexter.
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Why me in particular I wonder? The first sentence I'd say is false, assuming I've understood it correctly. I presume it means either that "There is no need to educate," or that "There is no need for education," both of which I'd argue are false. The other two are true.
It might depend a little on what you mean by education though. The process of formal education the law requires us all to undergo up to a certain age, which seems to be what the second sentence is about, doesn't necessarily actually result in anything we might call an education. All it means is that you've learned enough to pass the examinations, doesn't mean you really understood anything or will retain any of it. Passing examinations is not the primary goal of formal education, it's merely the method used to measure success. It's often not a very good one, but that's another issue.
Formal, legally mandated minimal education is necessary for most people if they're ever going to have any hope of understanding the world around them, and as children they're not in a position to know what they need to know, so it's prescribed for them by adults. The purpose of education, at least at that level, is to give everybody the same foundation, and a basis for going on with whatever interests them if they choose to. And there's more. Who among us does not have at least one beloved teacher, a person who really made a difference? I've done enough teaching to know that I wasn't just teaching the subject, I was also teaching about me, and the handful of really inspired and inspiring teachers I've had in my life were obviously doing that too. Teaching about themselves, I mean, not me.
I'm sure most of us have sat in a boring class and wondered, "Why do I need to know this stuff?" and sometimes some smartass will actually ask that question. Both my children came home from high school math classes in which somebody'd asked it, and the answer from the teacher was, "Because you can't graduate from high school without it." That's about the worst possible answer, even though it's true. The real answer, in that particular case, is that most people don't need to know that stuff, except for the few who will go on in math and science, but more generally, it's part of the common intellectual history of humanity and if you want to call yourself educated you should know something about it, even if it's only a vague awareness that the subject exists and can provide solutions to certain problems. Moreover, if you know nothing of math and science, there are certain important public issues you'll never be able to get a handle on. Much of the debate about global warming, for instance, in these pages and elsewhere, is driven by people who have no idea what they're talking about and don't understand how science works. The information was there in their high school curriculum, or should have been--it certainly was in mine a hundred years or so ago it seems now--but they didn't get it. Whose fault is that? Probably everybody's.
Well, that got a little more long-winded than I expected when I first sat down to compose an answer. There's a lot more to be said about this, but I have things to do this morning, so I'll stop now.
