We finished Post #58 with two questions that education Pre-K/12 must answer in this decade: 1) What is the purpose of education? and, 2) “Why teach social sustainability?” 

Re-interpreting education as a social issue using the values and principles of SS will not only provide education with a purpose and focus to last millennia, but will also become a significant source of personal meaning for educators.  Now that the values of our species’ sustainability have become self-evident, the answers to the questions above also become self-evident. 

Here is where the three values of our species become the core of all education systems, Pre-K/12, in all democratic nations.  1) Quality of life, 2) growth and 3) equality will come into play in the educational system throughout the entirety of our lives in the New Era.  Education will become the primary means for enculturating citizens for living in a society that is moving toward social stability and then to social sustainability.  Education will occupy a premier position in democratic societies as it prepares all citizens with remedial classes to engage the incredible culture change that will take place. 

What is the purpose of education, Pre-K/12?  Its purpose is to prepare each person with the capability of making socially sustainable decisions that improve the quality of their lives, to grow into their innate potential, equally as anyone else would.  Specifically, the purpose of education is to 1) support the sustainability of our species; 2) support the sustainability of the individual/family to become the primary enculturating institution for the sustainability of our species, the children they produce and for the family as an institution of social sustainability; 3) to prepare for the enculturation of all organizations (social, political, economic/financial) with these values so that organizations become capable of contributing to the social sustainability of their common societies, individuals/families and our species. 

When we interpret education as a social issue, the prospect and project of re-writing curricula becomes far more focused and purposeful.  Education, training and skill development that support social sustainability then becomes a revitalized industry.