Education: What is the point?

Note: Café Philo is a way of meeting interesting, inquiring people who enjoy talking about life's big issues and conundrums in a convivial atmosphere, rather than a heavy-duty philosophy seminar. Read more about our approach here.

Twenty years ago, you may have wanted your child to learn Mandarin. Ten years ago, you probably wanted them to learn how to code. Now, with the advent of AI, you might find yourself asking: what is the point of teaching them anything at all?
Since the Industrial Revolution, schools have been viewed as “factories” for social cohesion and skills transfer–designed to fashion young, productive workers. But the landscape has shifted. Just as the arrival of the car made the skill of shoeing horses obsolete, AI threatens to render much of our traditional curriculum redundant. Yet, much like the invention of movies created entirely new creative industries, technology also opens doors we can’t yet see.
In the UK, we face a specific paradox: we have high academic performance and push 50% of youth toward university, yet we suffer from stubbornly low workplace productivity and a critical shortage of technical skills. Are we training students for a world that no longer exists?
What is the role of education in the 21st century? Is it to enshrine core values? If so, why do we pay so little attention to practical ethics, or indeed practical life skills like tax law and personal finance? Or is the “school of life” something that belongs outside the classroom?

Questions for Discussion

• Obsolete Knowledge: If an AI can recall facts and solve equations instantly, does a human still need to learn them?
• The Factory Model: Are schools still training factory workers for a world without factories?
• The UK Paradox: Why do we have so many university graduates but so few technical skills compared to our European neighbours?
• Breadth vs. Depth: Should a coder be forced to read Keats? Should a poet be forced to learn Python?
• Life Skills: Why can most 18-year-olds solve a quadratic equation but not file their own taxes?
• Social Cohesion: Should schools integrate us into one culture, or do religious and cultural groups have a right to educate their children separately?
• The Future: If AI takes the “thinking” jobs, should education shift purely to leisure, philosophy, and art?

Recommended Reading & Viewing

• Article: Teach Computer Science to Humanities – A short read on the debate between specialized vs. rounded education.
• Video (11 mins): Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms – The classic animation on why our “factory model” system is failing.
• Article: What explains the UK’s productivity problem? – An analysis by The Productivity Institute on why the UK lags behind the US, France, and Germany.
• Video (15 mins): How AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education | Sal Khan | TED – A counter-argument suggesting AI might personalize, rather than end, education.

At the end of the day, how might we apply this?
If we accept that the “factory model” is dead, how do we treat our own ongoing education? Do we learn for utility, or for the sheer joy of being human?