What is this Place? Why are we here?

Antero Garcia, a teacher at Manual Arts High School, writes:

I started off my 11^th grade class, after a brief introduction and review of course goals, with a Quickwrite and class discussion. Our prompt was: “What is the purpose of schooling? Why do you think you are supposed to come to school?”

 

After giving students time to write, my new batch of students began compiling a list describing the purpose of school:

 

• Give knowledge and teach new things
• Prepare students for college
• Prepare students for a career
• Allow students to have a better life
• Inform students how to act, develop manners, teach good behavior
• Help students become better citizens and educated people

 

After creating the list, the students looked at their own educational experiences. As new 11^th graders, these students have just over ten years of schooling expertise to draw from. Examining their list and comparing it to their own experiences, the class collectively decided that the list of what they feel is supposed to happen through schooling is not what is actually happening. That is, my students do not feel they are receiving the skills and concepts they say schools are meant to convey.

Over the next few weeks, the class will be examining – through personal experience, case studies, and critical analysis – why school has not met their needs. We will also be constructing a new group definition of the purpose of schooling. I look forward to sharing our new definition as it emerges. In the meantime, the class will welcome any other perspectives on the purpose of school.