There are those who would say the purpose of education is to build up the economy by producing more efficient workers. I say it is the strength of the individuals in a society that make it strong, not just the amount of "stuff" it can produce or buy. Some say the purpose of education is to pick out the smartest people so they can solve our toughest problems. Intelligence is hard to measure though and does not guarantee common sense. Life means nothing without morals , includes the whole world, and requires looking at problems in different ways to find several possible solutions. The purpose of an education is to build a society with civic morals, give an understanding of the world, and develop sound logic . For a society to exist all its members must share a moral code. Morals create order by setting a universal standard of what is right and what is wrong. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his essay The Purpose of Education , "The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason, but with no morals." By examining the past and present state of the world we see the long term effects our words and actions have on the world. We must use our logic and understanding to form morals that alter our decisions and change past behaviors. When we have morals it becomes obvious when decisions are being made with them because our behaviors start having a more positive impact on the world. Morals give us order but we need to understand the world to form them. We have to be able to see where people are coming from to prevent judgment and improve our relationships. How we view the world determines how we live in it. When we start looking at the world as something much bigger than ourselves we start to enjoy the benefits presented in John Henry Newman's essay The Idea of a University, we "feel at home in any society and have common ground with everyone." We need to develop an understanding of the complexity of human behavior , as well as the laws of nature. In a speech to the New History Society, Einstein had this to say , "Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding". Isn't that the goal ,to live peacefully
