Is education about acquisition of 21st century skills? What about learning for learning’s sake?

 

Should learning – and schools – be about learning skills for the employment world or knowledge for knowledge’s sake?

What should the aims of education be? I ask this because I’ve recently come across a number of people who seem to think that education should be all about skills and competencies, about equipping people for the world and enabling them to get a job. That does sound good, but it also seems to lack something. It might just be me, but I feel that there’s a distinct lack of thought about whether children should, perhaps, be acquiring knowledge because of the joy of learning.

The two, of course, shouldn’t be seen as completely unconnected, and this push to link them more closely together does make some sense.

However, as we rush towards a world where there’s funding for people who want to study science as opposed to arts, and the promotion of curricula and qualifications which are all about skills, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that learning can be glorious in its own right. Read more here