Education begins to fail when it forgets that its students are human. But it fails even more when, acknowledging their humanity, it neglects to nurture it.
Throughout history, the central aim of education, particularly in early childhood, has been to shape character. For much of human history, children were educated at home, within the most personal and human of settings, where education was not a mere transfer of information but an integral part of family life that required the cultivation of virtues.
As history progressed, education evolved into a community affair, with local schools replacing the home as the central educational space. Communities sent their children to one-room schoolhouses, where they learned together, sometimes as friends, sometimes as rivals, but always in the same community, walking together to and from school.
Though these past models had their shortcomings, they didn’t fall into the traps of modern education, which has shifted from being a cooperative effort to a coercive one. Today’s education system is largely focused on preparing students for college and the workforce, aiming to create individuals who can succeed in a global economy. But for most of history, education was viewed not as preparation for a career but as the process of shaping virtuous, wise adults.
The analogy of an acorn becoming an oak tree is fitting here. Just as an acorn is meant to grow into a mighty oak, a child is meant to grow into an adult, ready for the responsibilities of family, work, and community. An oak tree may provide shelter or be used for practical purposes, but its value is not only in what it can offer at a moment in time. The modern education system often treats students much like raw material—viewed primarily for the skills and economic benefits they might later produce. This utilitarian approach reduces the child to a mere resource, neglecting the deeper purpose of education.
The modern education system risks forgetting that a child’s true value lies not in their future productivity, but in their future character. Whether a person becomes a carpenter, a civil engineer, or a politician, their true worth will be measured by their integrity and virtue rather than their utility. It is the cultivation of virtue, not just skill, that ensures individuals contribute meaningfully to society.