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In today's atmosphere of school choice and concerns about the quality of public schools, I don't think it hurts to step back and ask ourselves about the purpose of public education.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/05\/forward-thinking-what-is-the-purpose-of-public-education.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forward Thinking: What Is the Purpose of Public Education?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, I've been devoting some time to writing about homeschooling here on the blog. So, when I started thinking about what my next Forward Thinking prompt should be, I immediately thought about public education. 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{"id":15159,"date":"2013-05-06T17:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-05-06T21:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=15159"},"modified":"2013-05-06T21:29:21","modified_gmt":"2013-05-07T01:29:21","slug":"forward-thinking-what-is-the-purpose-of-public-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/05\/forward-thinking-what-is-the-purpose-of-public-education.html","title":{"rendered":"Forward Thinking: What Is the Purpose of Public Education?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I\u2019ts that time of the month again! Head on over\u00a0to Camels with Hammers<\/a>\u00a0to see Dan\u2019s roundup of the posts written in response to\u00a0his prompt about\u00a0 our ethical responsibilities in the face of shocking public violence<\/a> two weeks ago. You may also want to check out the online philosophy classes Dan is offering using google hangout<\/a>\u2014they sound like an awesome experience! And now let\u2019s turn to our next Forward Thinking prompt.<\/p>\n

Recently, I\u2019ve been devoting some time to writing about homeschooling here on the blog. So, when I started thinking about what my next Forward Thinking prompt should be, I immediately thought about public education. In today\u2019s atmosphere of school choice and concerns about the quality of public schools, I don\u2019t think it hurts to step back and ask ourselves about the purpose<\/em> of public education. There was a time, after all, before public education. It\u2019s not some sort of unchanging thing we\u2019ve just automatically always had. And so I give you this month\u2019s prompt:<\/p>\n

What is the purpose of public education?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I want to invite readers to discuss this question in the comment section and to invite bloggers to respond on their own blogs. At the end of two weeks I will post a round-up of links and excerpts to both blog posts elsewhere and especially insightful comments here. Bloggers should email their links to lovejoyfeminism (at) gmail (dot) com with \u201cForward Thinking\u201d in the subject line if they want to be included in the round-up.<\/p>\n

Happy thinking and discussing!<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Forward Thinking: A Values Development Project<\/a>\u00a0is an invitation to both readers and fellow bloggers to participate in forming positive values and grappling with thorny questions.\u00a0<\/em>Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read the project introduction.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"