What’s the Point of School If It Doesn’t Prepare You for Life?
I watched a video the other day about the beta testing of Astra Tutor—an AI that can deliver personalised, high-quality instruction on demand. It was genuinely impressive, but it also left me with a nagging question: what is school really for?
We tell our children it’s to prepare them for life. But too often, traditional schools seem only to prepare them for exams. Memorise. Regurgitate. Obey. Get the “right” answer. Move on.
They reward memorisation over understanding, compliance over curiosity. Meanwhile, the world outside demands so much more.
AI like Astra is only going to accelerate this disconnect. When a child can ask an AI to explain calculus or critique their essay instantly, the old promise that school’s job is to “deliver knowledge” collapses. Technology isn’t just changing education—it’s forcing us to confront what education should be.
Because life demands things too often ignored in traditional schooling:
- Resilience when things go wrong.
- Empathy and clear communication.
- Emotional intelligence and self-awareness.
- Critical thinking in a sea of misinformation.
- Creativity, adaptability, and innovation in a changing world.
- The ability to work with others to solve real problems.
These aren’t optional extras—they’re essential. Yet they’re squeezed out by the relentless focus on standardised tests and rigid curricula.
The world our children will inherit is more complex, more connected, and changing faster than ever. AI is just one example of how quickly the ground is shifting. Our students will need to navigate uncertainty, make tough decisions with imperfect information, collaborate across cultures, and solve problems we can’t even imagine yet.
School should be the perfect place to prepare them for this. A community where they can safely explore ideas, fail and learn, question, debate, create, collaborate, and figure out who they want to be.
That’s exactly why Liberty Woodland School exists. I know the traditional model isn’t enough anymore. Instead, we focus on real-world projects, outdoor learning, teamwork, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and nurturing the confidence, resilience and innovative mindset children need to thrive. Our purpose is to make sure education really does prepare children for life—not just for exams. Because if school can’t do that, then what is it even for?
