The first things to ask ourselves, whether a parent, a teacher or a student, are what education means and what is its purpose?  The questions seem straightforward enough at first, but the answers to them can get complex.  What matters most, is for the teachers, parents and students to be on the same page in regards to our answers.  Our aim is to agree on our definition.

As a society, we have gotten through different time periods and yet the concept of education has stayed with us as a powerful weapon.  At each point of our history, people made decisions on what should be taught to the new generation and how it should be done.  Education could mean preparation of the new generation for a specific career, the transfer of cultural values, the general disciplining and code of conduct, or the exploration of new ideas and the notion of independent and critical thinking.