What purpose does education have in today's society?

My belief is that education's purpose in today's society is to educate and target mainly the younger generation in order to prepare them for reality that waits ahead. My reason for looking mainly at the younger generation is that all too often they are overlooked and thrown to the wayside and most times expected to already know all that there is to know in order to strive or survive. In my past experiences in working with the my peer's and older generation, I have observed that they are at a point in their life where no one is going to tell them the way that things should be done or a more appropriate way of approaching life in general. So many older people are so set in their ways that there is no resetting their frame of mind and the way that they see things as a whole. I feel that it is up to our generation to step up to the plate and educate the minds of our young and be consistent in hopes of molding and making them out to be productive citizens in the near future. The teachings were at one time generational, and somewhere along the way those teachings have been lost and slowly are dwindling. I cannot credit too many of my teachings to my grandparents or even my parents, alot of what I learned was on my own. I will in turn teach my own children in hopes of bringing about the generational concept once again.