Education: Purpose?

The first full week of school has come and gone. As in the case every year, it was a very tiresome week, very busy, but it went by very fast. This is my first year to really incorporate journaling into the classroom and to mass teach. We are an individualized program, so I do more one on one than addressing the entire class. This year, however, I decided to teach and re-enforce basic skills by involving the group. For the first time I taught with a chalkboard! It was a blast to interact with the whole class that way and to watch them respond. They got into it and (little did they know) they helped me teach them. One of the days this past week, I read them an essay entitled "Education, Our Own Work." It addressed the purpose of education. The students had to journal on the purpose of education. The essay answer is: to discipline the mind. Hmmm...I would agree to that, for it certainly takes discipline to educate oneself, but it is more than that. Someone has said that education is lighting a fire and it is! It is interaction with the world and people around us, gaining from life experiences, inspiring others to achieve, and finding in ourselves that desire to stretch just a little bit further. I pray this year, I accomplish that in my students...inspiration. I am already seeing their eyes light up, and I am thrilled to be just a small part of all of that!