Education Makes Objective Thinkers, Not Productive Workers
by Education’s purpose may be to make productive members of society, but it really creates objective, free-willed thinkers.
“Education’s only purpose is to prepare students to take a productive role in society.”
People are educated to do so many things and in such a broad range of subjects the whole purpose cannot be narrowed down to one thing, especially not taking a “productive role in society.” Education is a tool. Like all tools, the tool doesn’t get to decide what it is used for. Consequently, education is both productive and destructive
One of the many purposes of education is to give students information while helping them to develop problem-solving skills. This will prepare students to take an objective role in society. Education doesn’t prepare students to blindly work for their society but rather be critical thinkers in that society. And while teachers generally walk into a classroom with the intention of teaching their students to be productive and free-thinkers, this education can be used for good or evil. With the same basic education that a congressman got, a person could expand their knowledge to be used to build a bomb or design a computer virus. When a teacher walks into his classroom, he can’t determine how his students will use it. It may be that he is preparing his students to play a destructive role in society.
Although some productive roles in society require education, like being a doctor or teacher, people without a formal education, like the garbage man and the construction man, do many of the most productive jobs. A higher paying role in society doesn’t necessarily mean a more productive role.
It seems to me that the very antithesis of education would be to place people in a role in society. If a leader of a country wants his people to work and be obedient, he would not enlighten those people with the words of Voltaire or make them aware by a free press. No, he would do just the opposite. The key to keeping people in line is keeping them stupid. This leader’s best option would be to take control of the educational system. Teach them that their country is a utopia, restrict information coming in from the outside, and limit the database of knowledge they have access to. This will keep the average citizen/worker happy with where he is and ignorant to another option in the event that he’s not happy. Many times it is what people don’t learn as oppose to what people do learn that makes people productive in society. During the holocaust, Jews placed in worker concentration camps were told they would be killed if they didn’t work harder. This is a very morbid example, but still it shows that one doesn’t need to educate a person to make them productive; one just needs to motivate his workers or citizens to make them productive. Threatening death or offering a million dollars are two things that would make people take a more productive role in society rather than if that person were well versed in the works of Socrates.
Education can lead down an infinite number of paths while productivity is more dependant upon motivation. Education and productivity are not directly related.
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