Children go to school each and every school day in which in most circumstances, children are blithely unaware of the real purpose of school, nor are their parents much more knowledgeable about this. The general feeling by the public is that the purpose of education is to educate children so that they will have the general skills to function at a literate and competent level in society, and if they are so inclined to want to pursue additional education, for reason of better employment prospects and degree achievements, they can henceforth go on to college.
The real purpose of public education goes far beyond the mere educating of children, to which even the minimum qualifications of knowing how to read, write, and doing arithmetic, are superseded by the obligation that each one of us has to another, by virtue of the fact that we live in a society that is governed by a Constitution and that as citizens of the State, we have obligations not only to find the means and wherewithal to gainfully support ourselves but also an overriding obligation to be a full and functioning member of society that unites in its common belief, that we are all one people.
This means that one of the major purposes of school, is not simply education, but to build a foundational base consisting of moral and ethical codes in harmony with society, and that as good citizens, we have a duty to do the right thing as opposed to the wrong. A practical understanding that decisions not only matter, but that your decisions should be sensible, thought out, and come from a common source of sage wisdom is imperative for all of our children. If children are not taught the difference between right and wrong, and are not taught how to differentiate right from wrong actions, nor the importance of knowing right from wrong, than it becomes problematic that they will actively pursue the right thing when pressed to do wrong.
It is one thing for children to do the wrong thing, but knowing better, whereas it is an entirely different thing for children to do the wrong thing, not really knowing any better. It is therefore a fundamental purpose of all education in conjunction with the actual learning and mastering of subject matter to bring up children in a manner that they will be able to know consciously right actions from wrong, and thereby be far more capable in forestalling the inevitable charlatans and evil-doers of this world.
So too, mere rote memory or subservience to authority isn't really education, it is, in fact, indoctrination. Our children should be given the skills to learn how to think, to argue constructively, to stand upon their own two feet, and to have the confidence and the audacity to challenge and to question things that do not appear to add up right. A child that has a strong moral code as well as underpinning of thinking for themselves will be far more able to withstand demagogues and the cheaters of this world.
Each generation must pass the baton on to the succeeding generation, to wit, each generation must understand that they are not an island unto themselves, that they live and must function in a society, as a mutual member of that society, with all its attendant duties, obligations and rules that help to support and sustain such a society. An education that makes its abiding mission to bring up its children with the understanding that thoughts and actions have consequences, will endeavor to make sure that the children that they educate know right from wrong, behave accordingly, and that by so doing will make for a society set on the right path that it will not depart from.