The Purpose of Education

What exactly is the purpose of education? This is a broad question I know but when put into the context of educating the minds of our children, we are able to narrow the question down and focus on what the purpose of education is for regarding our children. There is a difference between Schooling and Education as a Practice of Freedom. I will attempt to explain both of these.
First, what is wrong with Schooling? The thing that comes to mind immediately is the lack of equal curriculum. There is very little weight given to black, Hispanic, or Asian history in our curriculum. There are usually brief references to the railroad being built with Chinese laborers and maybe a chapter or two on slavery. What about the fact that there were many authors, artists, and musicians within the minority communities that contributed to the development of our nation. Instead, all students get a white world view of society through our education system and often times that history is in accurate. When creative classes are constanly at the bottom of our curriculum how can we pursue true education. Are we not all creative creatures? As teacher we must strive to free our children to learn and not just follow the motions.
Second, what is the true Purpose of Education? To quote the movie the Great Debaters: “keep the body strong, but steal the minds”. That was a reference to what black slave masters attempted to do with their slaves. Why steal the minds? Simply put, educated minds are free minds. Education serves as more than learning or teaching basic skills. Teachers are here to help students learn to be free thinkers and love knowledge and freedom. Another quote from the Great Debaters said by the debate teacher was that he was there to “help them to take back and use their righteous minds". To think of minds as being righteous is significant. When teachers begin to see this truth they begin to see all children as noble and human. The future is always in the hands of the educators and my hope is that true equality will arise as a phoenix and the light of justice will be carried by a new generation of educated, multicultural minded teachers that will not settle for the old institutional ways but will strive and achieve truly equal schools for children of all ages. Our purpose as teachers is to equip our people to charge into the future and accomplish the utmost for mankind. If we fail at that then we will always, as historians are so quick to state, repeat the mistakes of the past.