Education is often understood as the acquisition of knowledge. From this perspective, the ultimate goal is subject mastery. The focus is on what the student is learning. The subject matter, or the skills needed to acquire the subject matter, is what really matters.
Yet there is another significant subject.
The student is a subject in the unique way he relates to the subject matter. And the student is himself a subject of study, a subject of personal growth and not merely intellectual achievement. The student is the critical who of education so often forgotten.
When we focus on the student, the ultimate goal of education becomes meaning and purpose.