1. What is the main purpose of schools? Schools are the place where representatives of the adult generation pass the wisdom and values of the culture down to their society's children and teach them the skills they'll need when they become the adults. This is an anthropological philosophy, I realize. But it applies to all schooling, from tribal lessons around a campfire in a primitive society, to the English Boys' Public boarding schools of the 19th century, to the "factory" suburban elementary school I attended, to the prairie schoolhouse, to Harvard, to Hogwarts.
2. How does this purpose relate to or serve a diverse society? This purpose is going to reflect the culture. Unfortunately, schools can teach prejudice and fear. They don't have to, however, and MY dream is that schools will become the place where multicultural appreciation and the wonders of cultural diversity are among the values that are transmitted.
3. How does this purpose relate to or serve a socially stratified society? Obviously, some of the examples I mentioned in #1--such as the English Boys' Public Schools--used this purpose to maintain the stratifications of a stratified society. Boys were taught "their place" and the place of others--the servant class, the ruling class. A primitive society probably considers keeping a strict "us and them" value going to be a good idea as well. 19th-century American Prairie schoolhouses were quite diverse--a generation or two of immigrants from Scandinavia, Germany, Bohemia learned English, civics and independence in those schools. I'm sure some were very stratified, but I have confidence that some teachers fought to teach the value of each human child and that--although the "melting pot" was probably not a great metaphor--students in some of those schoolrooms learned to respect and depend upon one another. Interdependence is a cultural value, too.
4. What are the implications of what you wrote above for a teacher? A teacher is "the keeper of the flame." A teacher chooses whether she will use education to further stratify society, to drive people apart, or to bring them together. A classroom can be a miniature United Nations, or it can be a place where children who are different are forced into invisibility. As schools work toward cultural competency, individual teachers can cherish the budding cultural value of respecting all and hand it on to a new generation.
As I mentioned in #1, schools pass down the wisdom and knowledge of the society--as well as the values. As teachers and schools choose which parts of that wisdom and knowledge to focus upon, how to present it, how to relate it to students' lives in the present and the future, they are also deciding what kids will be taught to value.
reflection 1.12
I found your perspective on the purpose of schools to be thought-provoking. I have never really considered schools in this way, but after reading your entry and examining my own experience, I would say that this is the view of many people. These are really well-developed ideas for your philosophy and I am interested to see how you would like to carry them out in your classroom.
ReplyDeleteI really hadn't thought about how schools pass down the wisdom and knowledge of a society along with the values. You make a great point. We, as educators, really do hold the power of what wisdom and knowledge to focus upon. We have a great influence in our current and future societies. All the more reason to promote strong moral values in the lives of our students.
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