"Education" is a really broad term, but I'll give it a shot.
From Preschool and Kindergarden, the point is to help kids learn social norms. And not just "how to place
nice," "sharing," or what have you. For example, in the u.s., American ideals are spoon fed to the kids.
The first thing in the morning (at least when I was a kid, I don't know about now) was the Pledge of Allegiance. To
decide what activity to do, the teacher would give the entire class a choice and the majority ruled; this serves as an
introduction to Democracy.
From 1st grade through 8th grade, kids are taught how to function properly in society. Suddenly, instead of fun
activities, there are homework assignments, book, reports, and in middle school, essays. Free time is loosely supervised
so kids learn how to interact and socialize with one another without interference from adults. The academic learning is
of secondary importance.
In high school, there is little to no supervision outside the classrooms. The students are now in a quasi-adult society,
left to fend for themselves. The education is now more job-oriented and aimed to prepare the students for college. Class
elections simulate the democratic process to further ingrain it into the psyches of the students.
College, in my opinion, is when actual academic education begins. For the most part, you're able to choose what
subjects to take outside of general education courses. You can learn what you want to learn. College, more than any
other stages of education, is for learning how to get and keep a career.
Unfortunately, overall, the purpose of education is to learn facts. Rarely do we learn from the "other point of
view." In the u.s., we're generally not taught what Russia was thinking during the Cuban missile crisis; we
don't learn about the Vietnam War from the Vietamese perspective. In Japan, their textbooks omit war crimes
commited by the Japanese government. China to this day has not acknowledged the incident in Tienemen Square. In my
experience, schools teach with a very narrow scope. We learn the ideals and values that our schools and to an extent,
our governments and cultures, want us to have. Very rarely do they teach us to have an open mind.