What is the purpose of education?

I would have thought that the answer to my question is obvious. Education is to help prepare young people for adult life, intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically.

One of the problems faced by modern teachers is that our system has to provide for many of these without much help from families, or from the educational ideology of many in control.

So, for instance, competitive sport has been ruled out because the very word "competitive" indicates something that is unacceptable. It has not been helped by the sale of many playing fields, to subsidise education, a sale which continues despite government promises.

Family failure, whether from parents too busy or from family breakdown, means that in many cases there is little help or encouragement for personal development, - reading, writing or potty training. We are told that children arrive at school aged five still wearing nappies, with no knowledge of language/communication. Discipline within families has broken down, and parents have no control of their children, which leads to discipline problems at school. Families do not eat together, and children often eat in front of the TV. Families increasingly do very little together.

Children arrive at school with little expectation, and often because their parents and grandparents are without expectation. If middle class families succeed more often, it is not because they are better people but rather because they have a greater long-term vision of what is possible.

Recently it was announced that there are to be lessons in school to encourage children not to inflict violence on women and girls (are men not subject?). As someone suggested, "Why not add lessons on theft, terrorising the elderly or damaging other people's property"? All this on top of lessons on "use of money", citizenship, sex, personal hygiene, environment, etc. In fact, whenever there is a new social issue or problem the immediate reaction is to add it to the curriculum.

The simple emphasis on the "three Rs" is fighting against all sorts of societal problems which are the result of factors outside school, and in many cases are the consequences of ill thought-out policies.