When Education Forgets Humanity

There is something profoundly wrong when education teaches young people how to compete, consume, and survive, but forgets to teach them how to be human. And the cost of that loss is devastating: young children picking up the gun; a world unsafe for the very people it was designed to sustain; war and hatred. This is the cost of broken value systems, broken social constructs and most importantly, broken education systems. Young people are choosing the gun over the pen.

There is a particular kind of grief that settles over a community after a school shooting. It is not only the grief of lives lost, but the deeper, quieter grief of recognition, the painful understanding that something has gone terribly wrong long before the first shot was fired.

We mourn children who should have been worrying about homework, friendships, or dreams for the future. Instead, they became victims of a system that has failed to give young people meaning, challenge, safety and purpose. This is not a failure of one school, one family, or one community. It is the tragic outcome of a broken educational and societal model, one that teaches politics, economics, and survival skills, but forgets to teach core human values.

Education as a Business, Not a Moral Project

Across the world, education has increasingly been reshaped by market and business logic. Schools compete. Universities brand themselves. Learning is packaged, sold, simplified, and softened to ensure satisfaction rather than transformation. When education becomes a business, challenge is treated as a liability, and rigour as a risk to retention.

The bar is lowered again and again, often in the name of wellbeing, accessibility, or happiness. But when we consistently remove intellectual and moral challenge from young people’s lives, we leave behind something far more dangerous than stress: emptiness.

Research consistently shows that a lack of purpose and belonging in adolescents is strongly correlated with aggression, antisocial behaviour, and violence. Studies in developmental psychology and youth violence prevention indicate that young people who feel disconnected, unchallenged, or insignificant are more likely to be frustrated and seek meaning through destructive behaviours. Purpose is a protective factor but its absence leaves an emptiness or vacuum. And vacuums, tragically, do not stay empty.

Boredom, Power, and the Search for Meaning

In today’s world, many of the games young people play reward bullying, domination, elimination, and “kills” with points, levels, and recognition. Research on violent video games has growing evidence that repeated exposure to simulated violence, especially when paired with social isolation and lack of purpose, leads to aggression and lack of empathy. Games end up providing something education systems do not: clear goals, immediate feedback, a sense of progress, and a feeling of power. But at a terrible cost, ‘kill to conquer’. When education fails to offer meaningful responsibility, and purpose, young people seek significance in the most destructive ways possible.

School shootings are not acts of social failure alone; they are acts of despair.

We must be honest about a painful truth: a system that constantly removes challenge does not protect children, it abandons them. Discipline is not oppression. High expectations are not violence. In fact, decades of educational and psychological research show that young people thrive when they are trusted with responsibility, held to accountable for their actions, and supported through difficult times. Challenge builds resilience. Purpose builds responsibility. Belonging builds empathy.

A young person without purpose is not neutral; they are vulnerable.

Some Statistics

In recent years, the UK has witnessed a troubling rise in incidents where students use knives to harm others, both within and outside school settings. According to the Office for National Statistics, there were over 55,000 knife-enabled crimes in England and Wales in 2024, with young people under 25 being disproportionately affected. In schools specifically, police recorded 150 knife attacks causing injuries in 2024, equivalent to four incidents per school week. The drivers behind this crisis are complex, including social marginalisation, fear, and the need for self-protection, with some students reporting carrying knives due to feeling unsafe.

Similarly, Gun violence among students in the United States remains a critical crisis. In 2025 alone, there were at least 154 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, resulting in 49 deaths and 135 injuries nationally. One might be happening right now while you are reading this. The impact of gun violence extends far beyond fatalities; millions of students are exposed to shootings annually, leading to increased rates of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and poor academic performance. The overall rate of school shootings remains alarmingly high compared to other developed nations, underscoring the urgent need for comprehensive prevention, mental health support, and education policy reform.

Mourning What Could Have Been

Every school shooting is a collective failure. Not just of gun laws, mental health systems, or security measures, but of imagination. Of courage. Of our willingness to insist that education must do more than entertain, pacify, or prepare students for employment. It must prepare them to be human.

I grieve the lives lost, not only those who are killed, but also those who never found purpose before they caused irreversible harm. I grieve the futures that might have been shaped by purposeful education systems.

This is not a call for harsher systems; it is a call for braver ones.

Schools that believe in young people.
Systems that value becoming better over getting richer.
Education that teaches not just how to live, but why.

Because when education forgets humanity, the cost is measured not in grades or rankings, but in lives.

And that is a price our current generation is paying for the failed systems we have created.

Experts and educators stress that addressing these violent behaviour requires not only tougher laws but also long-term investment in wellbeing, prevention, support for vulnerable youth, and a collective effort from schools, families, and communities.