Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

The aphorism contrasts two models of learning: “filling” a mind versus opening it. An “empty mind” suggests ignorance or lack of information, but the quote implies that merely stocking facts is not education’s highest aim. An “open” mind points to intellectual curiosity, flexibility, and the capacity to revise beliefs in light of evidence—habits that outlast any particular body of knowledge. Read this way, education is less about accumulation than about cultivating judgment, empathy, and critical thinking. The line also carries a warning: instruction that produces certainty without curiosity can create a mind that is full yet closed, which is the opposite of genuine learning.

Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open mind.
The purpose of education is to replace an empty mind with an open one.