Ancient systems like gurukuls where students lived with the teacher, embodying discipline, service, self-regulation treated education like it was a sacred duty; a way to uphold societal order through dharma. The eastern philosophy of inner development was the centerpiece. The goal was to produce kings and his officials who are well rounded for their assumed roles.
In the West, Athens taught boys rhetoric, music, and gymnastics to prepare them for democracy; Sparta trained warriors. Rome evolved from a domestic model to a hybrid of Greek philosophy and Roman law, aiming to produce orators, soldiers, administrators. Roles needed for governance.
The common denominator: education served the dominant societal imperative. It was never a neutral tool but a reflection of what power needed.
Then came the Industrial Revolution. I once saw a very creative depiction of the schooling system; conveyor belts. Bells, uniforms, standardized curricula all designed to manufacture punctual, obedient, literate workers. Hidden within this system was a tacit curriculum: conformity. Obedience. Submission to structure. It worked for the factories. The common denominator prevailed.
Fast forward: the late 20th century shifted the frame again. From factories to ideas and from manual labor to mental agility. Suddenly, power dynamics shifted from goods to attention and the industries scaled up; emotional intelligence, creativity, teamwork became the new narrative that led the education system.
The goal of an education system has never been static. It morphs, adapts, reshapes itself; submissive to the currents of culture, politics, economy. And as human civilization reaches this milestone of technological development, we find our culture, politics and economy heavily influenced by AI. The common denominator of the goal of the education system will still prevail.
AI forces us to ask: What is education for? If all we do is prepare students for jobs, what happens when those jobs disappear? In some sense AI has held up a mirror and forced us to reflect on our education system. I am sure “trained minds but neglected souls” can’t be the goal of our education system anymore. The future of education is NOT efficiency. This era is really an opportunity to course correct.
A word salad of the goal of the new education system would probably be; judgment, ethics, the ability to sit with uncertainty, to create from chaos, to feel, to care and to collaborate. I won’t dare predict how the education system would change precisely but my intuition is it will for the better. We have always adapted. We will adapt.