Aducation is not an end, but a means to an end. In other words, we do not educate children only for educating them. Our purpose is to fit them for life.
In some modern countries it has been fashionable to think that free education for all can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough.We find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees refusing to do what they think is lowwork, and. in fact, working with ones hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries. But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor~ we can live without education,but we die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we should get terrible diseases in our towns.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to fit us for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever work is suited to his brains and ability and, secondly, that we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and that it is very bad to be ashamed of ones work. Only such a type of education can be considered valuable to society.
教育不是目的，而是达到目的的手段。换句话说，我们教育孩子不仅仅是为了使他们受到教育。我们的目的是让他们适应生活。
在有些现代国家中有种流行的想法，那就是全民义务教育可以解决一切社会问题、建立起完美的国家。但我们也能看到，仅有全民义务教育是远远不够的。我们发现在
这些国家中，很多拥有大学学位的人拒绝从事那些他们认为低等的工作，实际上，在这些国家里，体力劳动被认为是肮脏、丢人的。但只要我们想一下就能明白，其实那些完全没受过教育的农民的工作要比教授的工作重要得多；没有教育我们可以生活，但是没有食物我们只有死路一条。如果没有人每天清扫街道，把垃圾从我们家中运走，我们的城镇就会感染可怕的疾病。
事实上，当我们说所有的人都必须接受教育以适应生活的时候，意思是我们必须受到这样的教育：第一，每个人都可以做任何适合自己智力、能力的工作的；第二，我们应该意识到所有的工作都是社会的必要组成，为某人的工作感到羞耻是很不正确的。只有这样的教育才能被认为是真正对社会有益的教育。