It’s quite obvious. Right? The purpose of education is to educate, no? Maybe prepare or ensure future success?

Maybe the purpose of education is mere, high levels of learning for all.

Maybe it includes something like, to develop better citizens or give the skills needed for success.

These sound good, don’t they?

Actually, it’s not that simple.

I’m in the midst of studying thousands of words from school district mission statements, and very few of them agree on their purpose. That’s not a bad thing – each community deserves a specialized educational system.

There are a few patterns emerging.

One common denominator among mission statements is one word, students. That’s not groundbreaking, I know.

On the flip side, there are a few words that are surprisingly missing:

• thinking, think, or thinkers.
• creative or creativity.
• humans, family, or happiness.
• wealth, business, or economy.

…just a few observations so far.