I commend you Harold for bringing education down to it's core and initiating a thought provoking conversation around the edu-blogosphere.

The one thing I would argue against in some of the other posts and comments is this idea that the current system is all "doom and gloom", and kids are raised to be mindless drones who can't do anything. The reality is that, yes, the current system has many problems, but it does succeed in generally educating the majority of people with at least the basic skills of life. Thanks to great teachers around the world, it usually goes beyond that. I just think we need to appreciate that school is at least working somewhat and has overall made for a smarter, wealthier, and more equal society.

Anyways, I still don't understand how these three pillars are so conflicting. I can find many a situation where in my schooling these goals were achieved.

And if we're talking "what is the purpose of schools", my simple answer would be to raise students that have the capacity to change the world. Obviously, a certain degree of knowledge, and quite a few skills are required to do something so powerful. But that would be my ultimate goal of a school.