Abstract
A survey taken by 511 respondents dealt with such issues as past and current educational practice preparation, educational purposes in America, core class subjects, and soft skill teachings. Its results revealed a public opinion believing the primary goal of education as teaching students to adapt to any situation they find themselves in. Other results include a lack of preparation in current practices for life beyond education, although workforce preparation is adequate. Also, soft skills ought to see a curriculum of their own and taught explicitly to students in education instead of implicitly enforced, hoping parents alone taught these skills previously. The public also sees a need for technical skills and character building as important core subjects that students need to learn in their education, not just extracurricular options or decided on by individual school programs. These findings give policymakers, boards of education, administrators, teachers, and other stakeholders in education goals to strive for and starting points for objectives to meet these goals. Education no longer needs to prepare students for the mundane tasks and remedial jobs of our history’s past; it needs to prepare students for whatever lies ahead in the future.
Recommended Citation
Shilvock, Krista
(2018)
"The Purpose of Education: What Should an American 21st Century Education Value?,"
Empowering Research for Educators: Vol. 2:
Iss.
1, Article 2.
Available at:
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/ere/vol2/iss1/2
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