Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adult... — Erich Fromm

Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?

Author: Erich Fromm

Insight: We live as if learning stops after graduation—as if your brain gets stamped "complete" at 22 and then you're supposed to coast. But most of us actually become more capable thinkers as we age. We have real problems to solve, relationships to understand, careers that shift unexpectedly. Yet society treats education like a one-time investment in young people, then abandons everyone else to figure things out alone. The practical problem is obvious: the world changes too fast for one education to last a lifetime. Someone trained in 2005 marketing is lost in today's economy. But there's something deeper Fromm is pointing at. Learning isn't just about job skills—it's about becoming a more thoughtful person, understanding yourself and others better, questioning what you've been told to believe. Those needs don't end at 30 or 50. If anything, they matter more when the stakes of your choices are highest. The real tension is that we've treated education as credentialing rather than as something ongoing and human. We spend enormous resources getting young people through school, then watch adults struggle alone with confusion, misinformation, and intellectual isolation. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we decided growth wasn't society's responsibility anymore—and we're all worse for it.

Source: The Sane Society, p. 330, 1955

Learning never stops, society does

We live as if learning stops after graduation—as if your brain gets stamped "complete" at 22 and then you're supposed to coast. But most of us actually become more capable thinkers as we age. We have real problems to solve, relationships to understand, careers that shift unexpectedly. Yet society treats education like a one-time investment in young people, then abandons everyone else to figure things out alone.

The practical problem is obvious: the world changes too fast for one education to last a lifetime. Someone trained in 2005 marketing is lost in today's economy. But there's something deeper Fromm is pointing at. Learning isn't just about job skills—it's about becoming a more thoughtful person, understanding yourself and others better, questioning what you've been told to believe. Those needs don't end at 30 or 50. If anything, they matter more when the stakes of your choices are highest.

The real tension is that we've treated education as credentialing rather than as something ongoing and human. We spend enormous resources getting young people through school, then watch adults struggle alone with confusion, misinformation, and intellectual isolation. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, we decided growth wasn't society's responsibility anymore—and we're all worse for it.

Erich Fromm

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher. He is known for his influential works on the nature of love, human freedom, and the intersection of psychology and society, including books like "Escape from Freedom" and "The Art of Loving." Fromm's writings often explored the impact of modern capitalism on human behavior and the importance of individual self-realization within societal structures.

Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adult... — Erich Fromm

Learning never stops, society does

Comments

Erich Fromm

Graph

Related