The Thoughts behind Education

All human societies, past and present, have had a keen interest in education; some have claimed that teaching is the second oldest profession. While not all societies hold sufficient resources for educational activities and institutions, all at the very least, acknowledge the significance of an education, of learning lessons—and for good reasons. For one thing, it is obvious that every child, despite sex, race or rank, is born illiterate and innumerate, and every child is born ignorant of the cultural norms in our society; but with the help of professional teachers and dedicated family members (and also nowadays with the aid of the media and the internet), within a few years a child can read, write, calculate, and act (at least sometimes) in culturally-appropriate ways.
Some learn these skills with more facility than others, with more capability, and so education also serves as a type social-sorting mechanism - for example, the thirty of us sitting here at this very moment have been socially-sorted by the South African Education System; we have been observed and examined and placed beside one another because we are regarded as having a certain mental competence. A mental competence that is not better than any individual outside that door, that’s not what I’m saying at all. The thirty of us sitting here merely share a mental competence that is well-suited to the education system that our country has set.
Yes, undoubtedly the education system and years of schooling has enormous impact on the economic fate of the individual. However, the fact that the thirty of us are sitting in these seats, cannot determine whether we will take the lessons we are learning, apply these lessons in the near future, and thrive by them. To put it more theoretically, at its best, education equips the individual with the skills and knowledge that allows them to define and to pursue their own goals, and to participate in the life of their community as full-fledged, independent