by Antonia Williams

Created on: August 06, 2008

Education has been defined as "systematic instruction intellectual and moral training development of mental powers" (Concise Oxford Dictionary). But how important is it? Perhaps this can best be answered by examining the question: what is education for?

R. Wilson (Times Education Supplement, 2005) has suggested that education's purpose is threefold: to equip individuals with skills, to instil shared values, and for its own sake. Similarly, M. Blank (ibidem) argues that education prepares young people for a role in society. Their basic tenet is that education of the individual benefits society at large. However, both commentators appear to suggest that education is a tool' for moulding the young.

On the contrary, I would argue that education is a life-long formal and informal process. Its purpose is to engender a strong, outward-looking society through the personal fulfilment of the individuals who comprise that society. With continued education individuals can adapt to the shifting requirements of society; populations can evolve and mature.

Such ideas have not always found universal favour and, indeed, may yet meet opposition in some quarters. For example, soon after Foster's Education Act introduced compulsory education for children in 1870, Mr Bearman of Shoebury requested that his ten-year-old son be permitted to leave school to work in the fields. Mr Brooks of the School Board supported him, saying: "What encouragement is it to a working man to send his boy to school?" We do not know what became of young master Bearman. Perhaps he left school and was content to work the fields for the rest of his life, as his father envisaged. However, compare his lot with that of his contemporary Dale Knapping, also a farmer's son brought up in Shoeburyness, who had the benefit of a private education. Dale purchased the freehold of his formerly rented family farm. As farm incomes declined he turned his fields over to a brickmaking industry, swapping his plough-teams for transport barges. He brought employment to the village, made his fortune and travelled the world, eventually becoming the Lord of the Manor of Shoebury. The opportunities he grasped were revealed to him through his education, and this pertinent example demonstrates how the education of one individual benefited the whole parish.

Should not all boys and girls (and, indeed, adults like Mr Bearman) have had their eyes opened to such opportunities through education?

J. Wade simplifies the definition of education: "for understanding who I am" (Times Education Supplement 2005), and thus conveys education's key role in the human condition. Indeed, to deny education would be to negate the achievements of past generations and to fail build upon the foundations they have laid down for the progress of mankind.

Education, therefore, is for the maximising of the potential of the individual with the intention of enhancing society as a whole and, ultimately, for the progression of mankind. If this role of education is accepted then, it follows that it must be unequivocally accepted that education is of vital importance to the human race, perhaps only second to food and shelter. Without it mankind can only stagnate.

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