Temple University Explaining the Purpose & Meaning of Education Discussion

In this paper, you should explain what you think the purpose of education is. You should explain why this is the most important purpose of education–remember, there are lots of ideas and no correct answer, so make a case for why your purpose is a good one. When doing so, be specific and go beyond generalizations.

Once you have explained what you think the purpose of education is, describe what schools would look like or do if our education system were designed to achieve that purpose.

In your answer, you should use at least two of the readings from weeks 1-4. You can choose how to engage with our readings, for example, by commenting on whether you agree or disagree with a certain idea or using the readings as evidence to support your argument about the purpose of schools.

You can use APA or MLA embedded citations and should include a reference list/bibliography at the end. If you aren’t sure how to cite a source, try looking it up on google scholar and clicking the button that looks like quotation marks(“), then you can copy and paste. You do not need to worry about other APA or MLA formatting things (e.g. no cover page, no running header, no abstract, etc). Just in-text citations and reference list.

Your paper should be 3 pages. You should have an introduction and conclusion and include citations for the sources that you use (that means a works cited or reference list as well).

Use these quotes: “Many of the middle-class children in her study seemed entitled, were easily bored, and fought with their siblings, while the working-class children were more polite and independent and had stronger family relationships.” (SOE 16)

and

“While Payne credits the testing and accountability movement with pushing educators to work harder than ever before, he notes that their efforts often fail because of toxic conditions in the schools.” (SOE 39)