Trying to follow edchat is one of the more difficult tasks a
new teacher can undertake. However, with so many different conversations and
posts occurring simultaneously, I found myself homing in on one post in
particular. The post read “School's function
is 2create workers 2 fuel our economy, we need 2 change school, because the
workers we need have changed as well.”
My initial reaction to
this statement is that it seems to be logical, but then it started to sound a
little Orwellian to me. Looking at schools as a factory to produce workers is a
little narrow in its scope. Sure, we do try and produce individuals that are
capable of being productive workers, and contributors to our society, but
schools need to strive for so much more. Trade schools are designed to provide
the skills a student would need to be successful in a particular occupation.
Public schools are tasked with molding students into productive, knowledgeable
citizens. Yes, we are creating workers, but we are also creating leaders,
artists, writers, inventors, explorers, parents, politicians and everything
else that we need as a society to prosper. In short, we are assisting families
in turning their children into quality adults.
The final goal of all of
these efforts should be to create an independent member of our community, while
looking out for the interests of those who can’t fend for themselves. I
understand that this is an ideal, and that human nature is a powerful force
that cannot always be controlled or focused into a beneficial direction. The
adage “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink” is all too
prevalent in our education system. However, that shouldn’t preclude us from
working toward an ideal, no matter how lofty it may seem.
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