What is the purpose of school?
By Angela Watson
This was the opening panel question at the EduCon 2.1 conference last month, as reported here by Assorted Stuff. And it’s certainly one worth asking. But can we really come up with a definitive answer?
Seth Godin has a starter list with suggestions ranging from the tongue-in-cheek (“Teach future citizens how to conform”) to the practical (“Give kids something to do while parents work”) to the profound (“Build a social fabric”, “Create leaders who help us compete on a world stage” and “Learn for the sake of learning”).
I thought it would be interesting to ask my third graders what THEY think the purpose of school is. I posed the question and gave the kids twenty minutes to brainstorm their lists. I was deeply afraid I would get a stack of papers incessantly referring to the FCAT, our state standardized test. Fortunately, there was only one, and it was written by a child who just transferred to my class (check out the parts I highlighted):
School communicating the purpose of learning to students: FAIL
The top 5 responses were:
- To get ready for the next grade
- To be ready for a job [yay!]
- To get an an adjucation, ajacashun, or edjucasun.
- To learn vocabulary, animals, history, place value, times tables [and 8 million other specific skills]
- To become smart/get smarter.
Alright, kiddos, very good. You get the big picture, and I’m proud of you. Some other interesting responses:
- To meet new people
- Help kids communicate
- Get a career we want
- To go to college [glad to see about half the class mentioned this]
- When you get a job, you’re going to have to know things about the job you’re working in
- To learn instead of being home, just playing around
- If you grow old and there’s someone who needs help on something, you might want to teach them what you learned
- To learn fluency, which is reading smoothly, reading correctly, reading with expression, taking breaths at end marks and pausing at commas [presumably copied from a poster I reference often]
- On a test, you’ll know what to do and what to write for yourself
- When you grow up, people are going to ask you questions and you are going to have to tell them
- You come to school to be somebody
- Make your mom and dad proud
And my favorite random statements:
To go and get education and when you get smart, you might get a job, and when you get all smart, you can be a teacher.
To help other people who want to be smart like you are.
We go to school because it’s cause and effect. The cause is we learn, the effect is we are smart.
If you get a job and you don’t know things, you can starve.
So you can teach YOUR kids things.
What are your thoughts on the purpose of school? Have you ever asked your students about this? What do you think they would say?
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
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Is that seriously a photo of what the kid wrote? It’s like that character on SNL — Subliminal Man. Remember him?
Oy, I do believe that character was on in the (cringes) 80s. I think it was Kevin Nealon who played him.
Please just tell me you were allowed to stay up until 11:30 in the 80s even if it’s not true. I cannot accept the fact that most bloggers are younger than me.
Sorry. Didn’t mean to make this about me. (whispers) But you’re over 30, right?
Glad to see Seth’s post is circulating =)
I think ultimately the purpose of school is to grant purpose (motivation + direction). Once a child has purpose they rarely need school anymore except in the few cases where school is a prep for a very specific profession (doctor, engineer). Even many of these don’t require school, it is just useful- these could perform the same tasks by having intense apprenticeships etc. though that may be less practical.
Angela, what an interesting topic. I have an article coming in the summer edition of “Something Better”, the Missouri NEA quarterly magazine that deals with “What is a Good School”. I will send you a link when it is finished. The discussion of what is the purpose of a school is very similar to my topic.
I have written a novel that is to be published soon and the first chapter is available for preview at http://www.tomsboomertimes.blogspot.com.
I invite you and all your many readers to take a look when they get a free minute.
I will continue to look in on your site, as it is very well done and your ideas about publishing are fascinating.
Take care. Tom
Anon: Thanks for commenting! I, too, sometimes wonder if administrators understand that teachers don’t actually take the test…
Becky, John, Cassy, Saii: I’m excited to hear that you want to try this. Can’t wait to see what your kids say!
Cardiogirl: I am 30 on the nose. So no, I wasn’t watching SNL in elementary school. Sorry. 😉
Chris: I love the idea of helping kids generate purpose. Motivation and direction really are the foundation for all the other skills we try to cram down their throats, and we lose sight of the big picture. Thanks for the refocus.
Tom: I’m interested in reading your article, sounds good! I would suggest not promoting your novel each time you comment on someone’s blog, though. It may turn potential readers off. I doubt anyone else will mention that to you, for fear of offending, but you seem like a down-to-earth person who would appreciate a sincere suggestion. Thank you for commenting–I’m glad to have you around. 🙂