Why Do We Educate Children?

What is the reason we educate children? Because of the role of the state and the support of schools with public funds, the most commonly accepted answer has become, “to create an educated citizenry.” Christopher Tollefsen acknowledges that this can be part of the purpose but pushes back against the idea that this is the primary end of education:

If children are to be primarily educated into citizenship , then it might seem entirely natural for the state to have the primary responsibility for doing so. And if children are primarily to be educated for autonomy , then removing children from the religiously, morally, and culturally homogeneous environment of the home might be essential. Finally, if children are to be educated with a view to their best interests , and those interests are understood as in tension with the interests of their parents, then again, the state will seem to be the default educator of children.

But are these the ends of children’s education? And should state schooling be the default position against which others are judged? The two questions are, as we have just seen, linked, and they must be addressed together.

Moreover, these questions need to be addressed against the background of what we might call the ontology of children and the family. Is the family a mere aggregate of individuals—spouses, and children—held together, perhaps by common or overlapping interests, but ultimately independent, in their interests and their being, from one another? Such a picture seems implicated by those who pit children’s interests against the interests of their parents; but it can also seem lurking in the naked assertion of “parents’ rights” as a conclusive justification for the right to homeschool.

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(Via: Insight Scoop )