Child: "Why do I have to go to school?"

Mom: "Because it makes you smart!"

Child: "Why do I need to be smart?"

Mom: "Because people like smart kids!"

Child: "Why do I need a lot of people to like me?"

Mom: "Don't you want people to like you?"

Child: "I do!"

Mom: "Then you need to be a good kid and go to school!"

Child: "Why do I have to go to school?"

Dad: "Because doing well in school is the only way to get a good job later."

Child: "Is having a good job really that important?"

Dad: "Yes. If you don't have a job, you'll end up as a beggar."

Child: "What’s so bad about being a beggar?"

Dad: "Beggars have no food to eat and no house to live in. It’s miserable out there in the wind and the rain."

"Why do we have to go to school?" This is a question almost every child has asked at some point. No matter what an adult's response is, they always find a way to steer the conversation back to the idea that the child must study hard. In our social culture, academic success is heavily equated with life achievement. This has created a generational loop of telling children to "study hard." In reality, a child's brain cannot fathom what a "good achievement" means, nor can they visualize the problems of their future adult life. They simply want to please the adults around them—so they just behave and go along with it, right?

However, the interpretation of this question shifts as a child's self-awareness grows, and as their strengths, weaknesses, interests, and academic performance evolve. The generic answers provided by parents and elders often fail to satisfy the true query hidden deep in a child's heart. This inevitably gets me thinking: What is the ultimate purpose of learning?

Since learning is a universal journey that everyone must go through, it should align with the core patterns of human development. In other words, the root of learning should be tied directly to life itself, while landing a good job or being well-liked should merely be the secondary byproducts of that learning.

Think back to our earliest human ancestors. To survive, they had to learn how to hunt and gather wild berries. This was likely the very first form of learning that allowed humanity to survive and eventually dominate the planet. To minimize the threats to daily life, they figured out how to build fires, make clothes, count, and draw. To solve ever-increasing practical problems, humans invented tools to assist with mobility (transportation), shelter (housing), and fighting disease (hygiene). Furthermore, humanity channeled its natural reproductive instinct into a uniquely human trait: developing sophisticated communication models through spoken and written language.

Looking at this historical trajectory, "learning" has always existed. Our ancestors clearly didn't learn just to secure a good corporate job or to make people like them; they did it simply to solve the practical problems of living.

So, what is it that has kept humanity alive to this day? How did we develop into the civilization we see now? Historical analysis shows us that "learning to solve real-life problems" is the most foundational and genuine answer.

Now, let's look at our infants.

At the very beginning of life, the most primitive need a baby must resolve is hunger. Learning how to nurse is their most critical mission. Through relentless daily practice, their nursing technique becomes incredibly precise. Next, to survive in modern civilization, a baby must develop strong grasping skills to prepare for upcoming life scenarios—like eating with a spoon or holding a cup. To avoid making mistakes or making a mess, their fine motor skills and physical balance must become increasingly accurate, allowing them to handle various tools with ease. As it turns out, a child's physical development is entirely designed to solve life's practical problems!

Let's take it a step further and look at the real-life challenges faced by preschool-aged children.

To satisfy their intrinsic social needs, children must learn how to play cooperatively with others in preschool. To satisfy their desire to buy things, they must learn how money works. To use money, they must learn basic arithmetic. To make sense of the world's rules, they must learn to distinguish a tiger from a cat, and understand that you eat an apple differently than you eat a piece of meat. When you carefully analyze all of these cognitive activities, aren't they just ways of solving problems encountered in daily life?

Now, let's evaluate a product of the industrial era: the traditional school.

Schooling originally solved the problem of "information asymmetry" of its era. People had to go to a physical school to acquire the standardized knowledge of human civilization so they could understand what everyone else was talking about.

Fast forward to the era of Artificial Intelligence. The problem of information asymmetry was solved long ago by search engines. All information and academic content can now be accessed across borders and time zones at the click of a button. In this reality, is "going to school" still critical? Is the profession of a "teacher" still necessary? Especially today, with online courses dominating the landscape, even I occasionally feel a sense of professional crisis, wondering if I might become obsolete. What is it that our children truly need to learn?

The answer brings us right back to humanity's most primal need: Learning is for solving real-life problems.

The next time a child asks me, "Auntie Pei-yi, why do we have to go to school?"

I will answer: "We go to school to learn how to live well alongside many other people. Acquiring knowledge helps you solve the problems you run into in life, so you can make your world a little bit better!"

With the arrival of the AI generation, search engines can easily replace textbooks, and they can certainly replace many of our jobs. The future our children will face is beyond our current imagination. Because of this, the definition of learning must be completely repositioned. We left the Industrial Revolution behind a very long time ago—has our mindset finally updated to the latest version?