Florence Menzies Head of year and media studies, Newport free grammar school, Saffron Walden, Essex.
I don’t think education has a purpose; education is a purpose. Good teachers are usually being educated as well as educating , leading by example and demonstrating intellectual and emotional curiosity. Education is more than training. It fosters a perpetually questioning outlook on life. People who are training for something reach competency and then declare the end of their training. People in education don’t consider themselves to have finished, to “have been educated” - they gradually realise that there is more beyond their existing limitations, and want to explore beyond that horizon. It’s like getting to the shoulder of a hill and realising it’s not a summit after all, yet having the second wind to drive on .