On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: sharpen up.

Public schooling in this country has had a lot of champions — including some that you might not expect. But did we ever actually agree on what we wanted schools to do for society?

Elizabeth Newcamp of Slate’s Care & Feeding joins us to argue for a reappraisal of the whole system… and what it means to educate.

If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: [email protected]

Podcast production by Maura Currie.

Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices