The purpose of school.

[futurebird]

There were not as many responses to the 2nd post as the first. But, I think that something is starting to develop.

(Purpose.) What's wrong with the way public schools are used?

The first thing to fix about schools is the PERCEPTION of the value of schools, whether the kids think they can REALLY be successful, and to take it seriously. If you dont

Comments

[little_e_]

99.9% of people are not going to be leaders. It makes no sense to design a system to produce an outcome which is useless to the vast majority of people in it.

Your list contains plenty of good ideas, so long as we're talking about students who aren't physically disabled, mentally disabled, aspie, happen to live in/value participating in a democracy, trust the government to teach them how to evaluate the gov't, aren't interested in art, don't like people telling them what to do, and have no need to get a job and feed themselves.

Survival isn't a low bar when we consider that our schools aren't performing at that level for many students. (And I think that the focus on making people learn all of these things which we think are good for them really detracts from teaching really basic things people need to know, and demotivates them from learning.)

Beyond the basics that people need to survive, I see no ethical reason to coerce them into attendance. If people want to learn the things you've listed, fantastic, but if they want to learn or do something else, that's their business.

[futurebird]

99.9% of people are not going to be leaders.

Well, if we educate most to follow I guess that will be true. There are more ways to lead than heading a corporation. The things I list would be good for a plumber with a passion for establishing communities gardens to know. It would be a good level of knowledge for a hair dresser who runs her own business and goes to trade conventions.

--I don't know why you are getting sidetracked in to if people are forced to learn. This is what I think the purpose of schools should be. Clearly they can't reach everyone. But, I think we could reach most. The rest will learn to read and how to add and subtrct.

[little_e_]

It's not about education but simple numbers. Most people are not leaders. It's not in their natures and it's not something they particularly want or need to do. This whole "leadership" concept is all very male, anyway.

Coercion is important because once you give up on coercion, you realize that telling other people what you think they should learn is coercive. Your purposes involve judgments like "appreciating art". I'm sorry, but you will never be able to force people to appreciate art. The best you can do is make it available in case they want to know about it.

If you think the purpose of schools is to make people think and believe things, then you won't get anywhere, because coercion annoys people.

[futurebird]

So in your opinion not everyone need the kind o education I described. How can you tell who will benefit form it and who won't? I just not think it is true, though, that not everyone can benefit from that kind of education.

I went to a public school where everyone had that kind of education, and everyone benefited from it. I taught at a private school where everyone had that kind of education and everyone benefited from it.

In the poor kid's public school they did not have that kind of education and there were students who would have benefited from t, but their development was stunted. So, how can we tell who need this kind of education and who doesn't need it.

What kind of education do you think your child should have?

Your purposes involve judgments like "appreciating art". I'm sorry, but you will never be able to force people to appreciate art. The best you can do is make it available in case they want to know about it.

This is not the best you can do. You can also model what art appreciation looks like so from young age they pick up on it-- Though, art is a bad example since all people appreciate art. But that's make it easier since you can connect with students by helping them to see the role art already plays in their life then use that to help them become open to more diverse artistic experiences.

Of course some might say "I don't wanna." but in my experience that's pretty rare.