Philosophy Overload :)

Seeley discusses American engineering education in the 1900s and introduces a historian's ideas of shop culture and school culture.  This comparison to me brings up the issue of balancing theory and practice.  I thought it was very interesting that this debate is still being researched more than 100 years later.  This seems to relate to philosophy of education and the questions from Plato's time that are still being discussed.  It seems that for centuries, philosophers have been researching the same topics, but a definite "solution" has not been reached.

Is there an "optiminal" definition of education or even engineering that can be concluded from all of these readings?  We are reading different philosophies of education and engineering to help us understand our own philosophy, but all of the contradicting beliefs from philosophers is beginning to confuse me.