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It also examines Kentucky’s policy emphasis and offers a critique of that prevailing approach.",{"@graph":14,"@context":72},[15,34,55],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/beyond-college-and-career-readiness-educations-broader-purposes/600024/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/beyond-college-and-career-readiness-educations-broader-purposes/600024.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"nayy☆","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-28","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":33},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",{"@type":56,"mainEntity":57},"FAQPage",[58,64,68],{"name":59,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":61},"Why does the essay criticize “college and career readiness” as the main goal of education?","Question",{"text":62,"@type":63},"The essay argues that making readiness the exclusive purpose can deprive students of the problem-solving skills needed for a well-adjusted, flourishing life.","Answer",{"name":65,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":66},"What alternative purpose for education does the essay propose?",{"text":67,"@type":63},"It proposes aiming to produce good people, supported by an education strategy that builds character and practical wisdom for living well.",{"name":69,"@type":60,"acceptedAnswer":70},"How does the essay connect this purpose to curriculum design?",{"text":71,"@type":63},"It claims a rich, text-based liberal arts education with core texts is the best vehicle to teach students how to solve the problem of living a good life.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":74,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":76,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":78,"site_id":7},600024,1792252499,{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":82},"success",[83,87,91,95,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":84,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":81,"data":131},{"doc_id":78,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":33,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":112},962090893153,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_9964176cb1d06d4a9deccf72a44ae3dc","| \u003Cbr>| Beyond College and Career Readiness: Education’s Broader Purposes |\n| --- | --- |\n\nChristopher Beckham, Morehead State University  \nAbstract  \nThis essay argues that emphasizing “college and career-readiness” as the major goal of public education is too narrow a purpose for education. College and career readiness, if pursued exclusively, may deprive students of the problem-solving skills they need to live well-adjusted, flourishing lives. The purposes of education that were identified by diverse thinkers from the past may offer a better goal for education: aiming to produce good people. An argument is made that this goal can be pursued by utilizing a liberal arts curriculum featuring core texts. Examples from secondary literature on the value of such an approach are provided.  \nKeywords: purposes of education; liberal arts education: core texts; problem-solving in education; education for flourishing; college and career readiness  \nWhen my children were nearing the end of their elementary school years, I asked them a question.\"What do you think schools are for?\" Both readily answered: \"To teach us stuff.\" Then I said,\"What sort of stuff?\" My son replied that schools needed to teach students \"important things about how to live in the grown up world.\" I liked how the conversation was going. I wondered, though, just what sort of “things about how to live in the grown up world” he thought he needed to know. So, when I asked him if he could elaborate, he said \"You know, things like how to do my taxes and how to get a good job.\" I was hoping he might have a more philosophical answer—such as“how I can be a happy person,” or “how to be a good person.” After all, I certainly think that if I had to narrow down the purpose of education to just one thing, I would say it has to teach me something about how to live a flourishing life, which I take to be a good one, and a happy one. The answers my son and daughter gave, though, in some ways parallel what the public school curriculum in Kentucky these days is all about. They seemed to be tapping into the larger conversation about education that they heard day in and day out. That conversation served as a catalyst for me to have many further conversations with others and do much thinking about the purposes of education, and how we communicate those purposes to today’s students.  \nThis essay is a brief reflection on the purposes of education and the curricula that serves these purposes. I offer a mild critique of the prevailing view about education in my own Commonwealth of Kentucky, and I enlist some others whose views I share to make this central argument: education should help us with “solving the problem” of living a good life. As part of that argument, I claim that a rich, text-based liberal arts education is the best vehicle to teach us how to do that.  \nThe Current Situation in Kentucky: The Purpose of Education is To Achieve College and/or Career Readiness  \nPolicy-makers and politicians in the Commonwealth of Kentucky decided in 2009 that Kentucky schools had one essential task--to ensure that all graduates were either \"college and/or career ready.\" They gave a name to this goal, calling it \"Unbridled Learning.”1 All students were therefore bound for one or two possible destinations after K-12 graduation--they would either goon to college (where they would presumably prepare for some professional career) , or else they should be ready to go into some job, technical or otherwise (but one that did not require a four year degree) . K-12 schools must prepare students for one of these two trajectories, and this objective defined the mission of scores of Kentucky K-12 schools. Elaborate and complicated accountability measures accompanied this central goal. Determinations by certain benchmarks were made to see if schools adequately prepared students for either or both of these destinations. High stakes testing also formed part of the accountability measures, and this testing dominated","cbCaipiowRm12OQQ","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaipiowRm12OQQ","pdf",256364,12,"English","# Beyond College and Career Readiness: Education’s Broader Purposes\n## The Current Situation in Kentucky: The Purpose of Education is To Achieve College and/or Career Readiness\n## Tensions in Kentucky Over Arts and Humanities Funding\n## Critique and Alternative View of Education’s Purpose","[{\"question\":\"Why does the essay criticize “college and career readiness” as the main goal of education?\",\"answer\":\"The essay argues that making readiness the exclusive purpose can deprive students of the problem-solving skills needed for a well-adjusted, flourishing life.\"},{\"question\":\"What alternative purpose for education does the essay propose?\",\"answer\":\"It proposes aiming to produce good people, supported by an education strategy that builds character and practical wisdom for living well.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the essay connect this purpose to curriculum design?\",\"answer\":\"It claims a rich, text-based liberal arts education with core texts is the best vehicle to teach students how to solve the problem of living a good life.\"}]","Beyond College and Career Readiness: Education’s Broader Purposes | PDF",1792089889]