What is Education for?

1. Vocational Education

1.1. Education should prepare students for jobs and technical careers.

1.1.1. Will reduce income inequality

1.1.1.1. "arguments from economists—that vocationalism generally and STEM in particular are the solutions both for inequality and for America's ostensibly precarious global economic standing—have been widely adopted at the highest levels of government."

1.1.1.1.1. skills that are the level of competitivness in the economic state of the country allow for those problems to be solved and to "compete in a global economy"

1.1.1.2. President Obama - 2013 State of the Union Address

1.1.2. High paying job opprotunities

1.1.2.1. "The dominant policy para­digm attends almost exclusively to education’s vocational purpose...goal is to ensure that young people, and society generally, can compete in a global economy."

1.1.2.1.1. this promotes inequality in its own seperate section because it goes back to the idea that vocational education is given more focus than the civic side of education.

1.1.2.2. "By the early 1990s, econ­omists had identified technological change, which biased available jobs toward high-skilled workers, as the primary culprit."

1.1.2.2.1. technical jobs were and are on the rise, and more opprotunities were given to workers that distributed the skills that fit these job descriptions

2. Civic Education

2.1. Education should prepare children to participate in politics and society.

2.1.1. Promotes equality through schooling

2.1.1.1. Participatory Readiness

2.1.1.1.1. Critical to Democracy

2.1.1.2. "Thus an education focused not merely on technical skills, but also on what I call participatory readiness, provides a distinct and better way to promote equality through schooling."

2.1.2. Allows for a wider distribution of skills

2.1.2.1. Both are essential for success in the workplace

2.1.2.2. Both types of skills are connected and work with one another

2.1.2.2.1. Technical Skills: knowledge and abilities needed to perform a job

2.1.2.2.2. Interpersonal Skills: the qualities that help people interact with others.

2.1.2.3. Students/people are more well-rounded

2.1.3. Primary purpose of education

2.1.3.1. Provides students an understanding of their rights and freedoms

2.1.3.1.1. "twenty-four state courts have explicitly held that preparation for capable citizenship is a primary purpose of public education, and no state court has disputed this prop­osition.”

2.1.3.2. Allows students to know the basis of what they should know about their world and society

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