Education is not an end, but a means to an end． In other words, we do not educate children only for the purpose of educating them; our purpose is to prepare them for life. As soon as we realize this fact, we will understand that it is very important to choose a system of education which will really prepare children for life. It is not enough just to choose the first system of education one finds, or to continue with one's old system of education without examining it to see whether it is in fact suitable or not.
In many modern countries, it has for some time been fashionable to think that by free education for all-whether rich or poor, clever or stupid-one can solve all the problems of society and build a perfect nation. But we can already see that free education for all is not enough; we find in such countries a far larger number of people with university degrees than there are jobs for them to fill. Because of their degrees, they refuse to do what they consider “low” work; and, in fact, work with the hands is thought to be dirty and shameful in such countries.
But we have only to think a moment to understand that the work of a completely uneducated farmer is far more important than that of a professor. We can live without education, but we will die if we have no food. If no one cleaned our streets and took the rubbish away from our houses, we would have terrible diseases in our towns. In countries where there are no servants because everyone is ashamed to do such work, scientists have to waste much of their time doing housework.
In fact, when we say that all of us must be educated to prepare for life, it means that we must be educated in such a way that, firstly, each of us can do whatever job is suited to his brain and ability, and secondly, we can realize that all jobs are necessary to society, and it is very bad to be ashame of one's work, or to scorn someone else's. Only such a type of education can be called valuable to society.
In many modern countries, children go to school____.（ ）
在第二段中谈到在许多现代国家，受过良好教育的人才要远远多于社会所提供的就业岗位，因为他们不屑于从事他们认为低等的行业。由此推断，现代国家的孩子上学就是为了摆脱那些他们认为低等的行业。
