In Greek paideia, the entire network of institutions, the polis, was thought of as an educator.
The schools provide the best preparation for everybody for a complicated world, are the logical haven for unemployed youth, can equalize opportunity for the underprivileged, administer research in all fields, and be the indispensable mentor for creativity, business-practice, social work, mental hygiene, genuine literacy –name it, and there are credits for it leading to a degree. The schools offer very little evidence of their unique ability to perform any of these things –there is plenty of evidence to the contrary –but they do not need to offerevidence, since nobody opposes them or proposes alternatives.