First Things First: What is The Purpose of Education?
The WHY of schooling influences the HOW of schooling
This post is part of a series by @edpsychprof where I share edited highlights from my K12 guide to education along with additional thoughts and commentary
Here is a thought experiment:
Consider Kayla, a non-runner, who decides to start running for exercise. What are some possible reasons she might be doing this? Well, there's a lot of reasons one might decide to be a runner. Maybe it’s for her health, but then why choose running in particular? Is it to strengthen her heart and lung capacity? Lose weight? Counteract long days of Zoom calls? Perhaps Kayla’s main motivation is to change her current exercise program, compete in a marathon, or run with her son to spend quality time with him. Each reason for running is different, and it’s this—the underlying reason for running--that will determine how Kayla approaches her runs. If she's trying to improve cardiovascular health, she will probably choose to run regularly at a moderate pace. If she's trying to lose weight, she will probably include dietary changes as well. If she wants to run a race, she will take running more seriously, charting her mileage and timing her runs. If it's to socialize with friends, she'll probably run slower, so she can keep up conversation (and maybe end up at a local coffee shop). Finally, if she's running with her 8-year-old, she's probably not going to run fast at all.
You can see from this example that why Kayla runs will influence how she runs. It’s the same for schools. Whatever the powers that be—state government officials, the principal, the local school board, classroom teachers, and students—think of as the purpose of education will influence how schools operate (and how students and teachers responds to how they operate). These beliefs about schooling are often at cross-purposes.
Here’s a list of some possible purposes of schooling.
Schools exist:
1. To form good citizens: Public schools exist to serve the state. To keep our democracy, we need citizens who understand the history of our country and its people, literature, as well as math and science, to keep our democracy going. Princeton professor of politics, Stephen Macedo, exemplifies this approach in his quote that "Public schools can — and should — teach students to become active participants in democratic life.[1]" You see this purpose in many public schools.
2. To impart skills and knowledge: Ultimately, schooling is about helping kids succeed academically, so they need to learn basic skills and pass tests to show their success at learning. This approach focuses on skill acquisition and employs frequent testing. This purpose is also embraced by many public schools.
3. To promote exploration and play: Schools are for kids to grow and develop their innate interests and talents; to have fun and get to be a kid. As Harvard’s Project Zero website proclaims: "Play is central to how children learn: the way they form and explore friendships; the way they shape and test hypotheses; the way they make sense of their world.[2]" This purpose used to be the goal of preschools and kindergarten, but with the increasing focus on testing, even some preschools are now prioritizing skill acquisition over exploration and play.
4. To prepare students for a career: Schools exist to give kids the skills and knowledge they need to obtain a job and provide for themselves and their families. The country needs educated citizens who can do work to contribute to the economy. This purpose of schooling focuses on making sure students graduate and get a job. You see this purpose in high schools that have certificate programs or in trade schools.
5. To prepare students for college: Schools exist to teach students the core knowledge in each subject area, prepare them for the next grade, and ultimately college. Subjects are presented that are related to the discrete disciplines taught in universities. You see this purpose embraced by some high schools and most “prep” schools.
6. To provide childcare: Few would say that childcare ought to be the purpose of schools, but it is often a de facto purpose. Witness the chaos in workplaces that occurred when schools were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and parents had to navigate homeschooling their kids while attending to their own work responsibilities. This purpose of education is one that many parents embrace as one of the necessary functions of public schooling.
7. To socialize children: Some focus on the role of schools in socializing children in the norms of a culture to help them understand how to navigate that culture and to give them a common experience of that culture. One of the main criticisms of homeschooling is the lack of socialization, not just with peers, but with teachers and others involved in schools. In school, children learn how to collaborate and work with others, be part of a team, and take direction. They also learn to interact with others who are different than them. Children also get to experience normative events that help shape their development as adults, everything from participating in class meetings, to avoiding bullying and learning to stand up for oneself, to finding a great teacher or advocate, or making a best friend. Prom, homecoming, pep rallies, outside speakers, plays, music competitions—these are events that are difficult to replicate in homeschool environments and which provide a shared narrative for those who attend brick-and-mortar schools.
8. To provide extracurricular activities: Some people, especially students, believe an important purpose of schools is to have the opportunity to engage in extracurricular activities, those things that make one a well-rounded person. Extracurricular activities allow one to learn outside the narrow academic confines of traditional school curriculum. They provide “interest exposure,” the opportunity to be exposed to something new they might not have had the opportunity to experience otherwise (thank you to Dr. Katie Philp for that insight). Extracurricular activities also provide an opportunity for networking, personal growth, skill development, and social advancement. These activities offer opportunities for students to learn the values of teamwork, individual and group responsibility, physical strength and endurance, competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community.
9. To promote critical thinking: Formal schooling increases one’s ability to think more abstractly and critically about the world. The more formal schooling, the greater the ability to reason and understand complex subject matter. Though few would argue that critical thinking is not important to education, people differ on what they think should be given emphasis in schools. For those who focus on critical thinking, they see it as a way of observing and reflecting on the world that is developed by questioning, inquiring, investigating, comparing, and analyzing information and observations.
10. To develop character: Some would argue that character development is the ultimate end or purpose of education. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his 1948 speech at Morehouse College, claimed that “The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society. The most dangerous criminal may be the man gifted with reason but no morals. … We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education[3].”
11. To promote optimal development of the whole child: The National Association for the Education of Young Children advocates that early childhood educators have the responsibility for promoting the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of their students. For some, this “whole child” approach to learning should extend beyond the preschool years throughout childhood and adolescence.
Which do you believe to be true? What do the local schools near you hold to be true? For me, though I’ve been partial to #3 and #11 throughout my career, given rising concerns about preserving democracy and increasing scientific illiteracy, I’m more inclined to include #1 in my top priorities for schools.
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Next week, I’ll discussion underlying school philosophies and how they shape what schools offer (and don’t offer) students and teachers.
Notes
[1] https://www.educationnext.org/crafting-good-citizens/
[2] http://www.pz.harvard.edu/projects/pedagogy-of-play
[3] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/purpose-education
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This is the mission of my local public school district. "The School District of the Menomonie Area, by embracing the unique needs and using the strengths of our diverse community, is dedicated to preparing ALL students to become lifelong learners, caring individuals, and responsible citizens." This is read at the beginning of every board meeting and it seems off-kilter considering that the reading and math scores are so horribly low (https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile) in my district, my state and the country as a whole. I would suggest that number 12 would be to FEED the children. I think 40% or our kids are on free or reduced lunches and there are programs to, additionally, offer breakfast and to send bags of food home with the kids on weekends. Aptly named "13" would be the administration of all government services to children that the parents are unable to provide, unwilling to provide, or that the government doesn't want parents to know about. Through SEL programs and the placement of very explicit rape and sex books into all levels of the school, often through e- or audio-books the parents would not be aware of, I am pretty sure my district is providing psychological evaluation and "treatment" by unlicensed staff without parental knowledge. I have written about that on my blog at https://menomoniematters.substack.com/p/sel-surveys-and-alexs-data. This post was interesting. Thank you.
While all of the reasons listed are important, I think 1, 2 and 9 are the main purposes for schooling. I could probably be talked into the others, as well, because all are important, in one way or the other. However, I do think people have come to believe schools are supposed to do all of these things, in addition to the myriad of things required by state and federal law, because all children go to school . The rationale follows that schools should do these things because school is where the children are and thus, the responsibility falls to the schools. That works, until it doesn't. The impact for schools is that the ability to focus on 1,2 and 9 are diminished because schools have to do so many things that make it impossible to focus on the main things and do them consistently well for all children, regardless of circumstances. I personally wish schools could be all things for all people but is it really fair to ask?