Contemporary Education

“Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world.” 
Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Unfortunately, much of our educational system is set up to reproduce the status quo (social stratification, power, and hierarchy).  We must do better.  Freirian pedagogy provides a way of looking at education as a means of empowerment, not a passive acceptance of information during lecture and regurgitation of information for a test.  If the world is to be better, we must re-imagine education with a goal of creating change, not blindly accepting what we are told to believe.
Another great resource is "Rethinking Schools"