What is the Purpose of Public Schools?
Since school takes apart in almost everyone's life across the United States it is important to ask the question as to what is the purpose of school and more specifically what is the purpose for public schools? In my opinion the purpose for public schools has a couple of answers such as improving our future generation, socialization and interaction among students, opportunities, and future skills. What I mean by this is, to improve the future generation I believe that school provides for students to grow and learn how to be a functioning member of society. Socialization and interaction are also a huge part of how school is important because as humans we are social creature and in school, we learn how to make friends, communicate and cooperate with others, as well as it provides health benefits because if students were to be isolated, depression becomes more apparent as well as the immune system will not be as strong if immunities are not being built with interacting with others. In addition to my claims, I also believe that public schools help students find opportunities and help build upon skills.
However, I know that not all schools or programs are the same, and all of my claims are based on my opinion of how schools have a purpose, so there is room for improvement. Although, based on the article "Begin with the End: What's The Purpose of Schooling? written by Michael B. Horn, Horn has some similar ideas to the purpose of public education. Horn has five main points that grabbed my attention such as, content knowledge, skills, habits of success, real world experiences and social capital, and health and wellness (Horn). Horn goes on to explain these main points starting with content knowledge saying the baseline of education such as literacy helps students with future success. Horn also agrees with many points that I have previously made such as socialization and interaction being a core driver in how students' function in society.
I am aware that the effect of Covid-19 and other factors such as how school has not changed in over 150 years have led to the idea that public schooling is not exactly necessary. However, I do believe that public schooling does need to be improved upon, though it is key for students to attend public schools to learn and grow to become a better generation for the future of society.
Reference:
Horn, M. B. (2022, November 9). Begin with the end: What's the purpose of schooling? Forbes. Retrieved January 25, 2023, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelhorn/2021/04/15/begin-with-the-end-whats-the-purpose-of-schooling/?sh=72163ce7b399
Hey Alex,
ReplyDeleteI like how you discussed, "we learn how to make friends, communicate and cooperate with others" this is important because it highlights that there is more than just math, reading and writing in school. There are more than just academic benefits from being in school and some of the skills we learn early on in school, we will use in everyday lives forever. Public school allows endless amount of opportunity for building communication skills, time management skills, team work, etc. Without these opportunities, students wouldn't have these developed at such a young age and would have to learn them on their own.
Hey Alex! You did such a great job at explaining all of the different needs of school and public school specifically for kids. The socialization part is huge. Most people only consider the learning aspect kids need and not the social part. Although learning and developing our minds is probably most important, kids need to learn to socialize. When parents choose to homeschool their children they are taking this very important aspect of school away from them. There are so many aspects that kids need to learn to be a part of society. Covid-19 was definitely a set back for schools all over. Kids had to learn on zoom during the most important stages of developing their minds. Public schools have a lot to improve on in a lot of different ways. I don’t know exactly what improvements they need from personal experiences. But I agree with you on that they have a lot to improve of.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex, thank you for sharing your blog it is very intriguing. I agree with your thoughts of the purpose of public education being vast and infinite but the most important one being preparing students for the future. I also believe it is necessary for kids to even have a social life, even with our current technology many homeschooled kids miss out on the face-to-face relationships and social skills that is a given at public schools. Like you said one of the purposes of the school system is to give children skills for the future although I do not feel that our current system is doing that but I guess that is a conversion of another time. I do not really agree with the statement that public schooling is not necessary because it has not changed in 150 years, I believe it is necessary the only problem is there like all things the system needs to learn to adapt and grow. This is why we as future teachers must become the change and help the system become better at its quest for preparing the future. Again thank you for your lovely blog.
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