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What is the Point of School?

I quit reading at propaganda. Thanks for playing and proving my point.
 
CRUE CAB said:
I quit reading at propaganda. Thanks for playing and proving my point.
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Well I'm glad to have proved your point!! No one but you knows what that point is, or how it was proved, but I live to be of service. So I am happy.
 
mak2 said:
The most important concept I try to get my students to grasp is to look critically at everything. If they learn to do that, in the words of Louis, they will learn a whole more than I'll ever know."
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I think that's one of the most important things school can do.

My take is that school should prepare people to be functioning and productive members of society. That means not only that they can read and write and do basic math but also have a reasonable grasp of technology, be able to understand complex arguments, be able to reason and generally understand when someone is feeding them a load of garbage. A democracy really only works with an informed, intelligent electorate.

Additionally understanding and appreciating art and literature makes one's life immeasurably better.
 

As most school districts across the country in the USA define it, in one way or another, to prepare students for the "world of work" in the 21st Century. Yet, in practice, because of the way Federal funding of programs in schools is determined, this original mission statement is not achieved because of a distortion in the way education is delivered. From tolerance of behavior difficulties and outright covering up of dangerous safety issues, to the expansion of questionable ecclectic programs, whether students are truly getting the education that will make their lives better in the future is debatable. I say that we can do better, much better, and that involves more freedom in choice of where and what you study, not less.
 
I went to school to start smoking cigarettes and meet chics. Gotta problem wit dat?
 
It is in reality
1) Government Indoctrination
2) Babysitter

It should be for
1) Career decision making help
2) work preparation
3) to learn
4) socialization
5) to learn how to live life
 

What is the point of school?
Question 1: Prepare the child for work in the 'Real World'? Yes
Question 2: Or just a goverment babysitter? Yes

And the follow up question.
Question 3: Is the way we are doing it now working? Yes
Question 3b: If so how so? Babysitting is available which makes employees more productive. Employees don't have to worry about finding a babysitter therefore they show up for work more often. This is good for employers. The most important skill of any employee is to show up. Truancy laws teach kids to show up for school. Learning this habit early in life ensures it will be continued in adulthood. Basic reading, math, writing and analytical skills also make for a more useful employee. This is very good for employers. John D. Rockefeller was one of the biggest forces for mandatory education. He was more focused on training workers not thinkers.

Rockefeller was also a huge supporter of prohibition. Drunks are less likely to show up for work. Rockefeller was a very powerful man. He wanted the best employees and he wanted a lot of them. Government run schools was the cheapest (cheapest for him) route to acheive his goal(s).
 
Your query is absolutely right. Why we should have schools? My answer is as day to day life is changing, we are not always with are kids to teach them, so why not send them to schools.
 
Mach said:
So how much do training do educators get in leadership and management? And do teachers feel responsible for leading and managing students to be successful, or do they think that's the role of parents?
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After moving from FL to TX I had to take exams to attain all the educator certifications I held in FL. During the pedagogy exam one question was something to the effect of "What is the role of the teacher?" The correct answer was "to deliver the curriculum."

Think about it.
 
guru03 said:
It is in reality
1) Career decision making help
2) work preparation
3) to learn
4) socialization
5) to learn how to live life
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Corrected...
 
Personally, I think one of the main problems with schools in both primary and secondary education is that they do not actually teach in order to truly understand, but rather they teach memorization. While memorization can come in handy with certain subjects, overall it is deeply problematic.
 
IMO, the point of school is to allow parents to not have to look after their children all day.

Oh, and btw, to give them an education.

In that order.
 
Well, the point of public school is so parents have a free alternative to day care/babysitters.

Because it sure as shoot ain't for teaching children anything past the 3 'r''s.
 
windowdressing said:
I wonder where all of our scientists, doctors, judges, bureaucrats, engineers, accountants etc. come from?
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Any school turning out college ready kids even in a low percentage is obviously making the knowledge available.....it is up to the kids to accept the opportunity to make themselves less ignorant. The parents attitude towards education is a big plus, or minus, depending on the value they assign to knowledge.
 

Sometimes , it doesn't even have to be a parent. Sometimes, it can be a good role model. I took in a young lady after she got kicked out of the house from her mother, got her through high school, and am helping her through college (electrical engineering with a concentration in computers). She's the first one on her mothers side of the family to get more than a GED. When she moved in here, she got on the honor roll in high school, which she had never done before. She told me she works so hard in college because she want to make me proud of her. She just needed the opportunity to shine. I will say it took a lot of patience and work to make sure turn out like either of her parents.
 
It is good that she recognized the opportunity given her....my oldest sister tried to help a niece from the younger sister, but the niece had other plans, including an early pregnancy. But in later years she got her head straight and got a degree.
Young skulls seem to be extra dense sometimes....
 

She is brilliant. Her family has this thing where most of them are definitely low on the IQ scale, but occasionally, you will get one that is totally brilliant. Her cousin is like that too.. 10 times smarter than the rest of her family put together, and the parents just can't handle someone who is so much more intelligent than they are. She is trying to guide her cousin through not being beaten down by the bad circumstances, but you can only do so much. At least her cousin started taking school more seriously. She won't be able to help her cousin as much as I helped her, since she can't provide a safe haven for her to grow. I hope having an encouraging role model will be enough.
 
My parents were equal opportunity democrats, they wanted all their kids to fail equally.....especially my mother. One sister and I suffered some because she was jealous of her own kids if they were smart. She had a hard life and never got over it, so instead of working towards a better life for her and the family, she just complained a lot.

age 17 was when most of us bailed one way or another....
 


That sounds like her mother's family... particularly her mother. Her mother wanted her to drop out of high school so she (the mother) could spend more time with a new bf.
 
Our schools should be teaching the 3 Rs and provide an environment where kids can learn socializing skills - but not socialist skills.

When you ask an open ended question about what schools should teach you end up with descriptions of how to raise a child. Parents should raise children, not schools. So any kind of moral teaching or indoctrination should be excluded.

Unfortunately, our schools are failing spectacularly at even the basic things. Send your kids to private school. The public school system is useless.
 
I would have failed because I didn't know what "pedagogy" meant.


 

The point of schools is to get your young ones stimulated in cognitive, affective, and conative domains. This should prepare the one for the future stages of life that they may follow.

The better the lecturers that can stimulate the students in such directions the better the education. You want qualitative lecturers in and non qualitative lecturers out so as for this to work.

References:

Reeves, T. (2006). How do you know they are learning? The importance of alignment in higher education. International Journal of Learning Technology, 2(4), 294–309.
 
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