What's the Point?

We've all heard students complain, "What's the point? Why do I need to know this?" Heck, we've all been students in our youth, most likely complaining about the same issues. I'm a teacher now, and I can say it's definitely frustrating having the very purpose of one's own craft questioned by a student, but I'd be lying if I pretended I didn't do this same sort of griping when I was a student. See, I'm not a math person. I've always loved the social studies (so it's been easy for me to find purpose in studying history, government, geography, and the like), but I've never enjoyed math. Looking back, I don't think I was ever particularly bad at math, I just never liked doing it. I never saw the point in it. Sure, I'd use basic arithmetic every day, but when would I ever need to use the Quadratic Formula, or Logarithms, or Trigonometry? Outside of standardized tests (the Praxis, GRE, ACT/SAT, etc.), I've never used anything more advanced than basic algebra or geometry in real life. All of my frustrations with math could be boiled down to me not being able to see the relevance or application of what I was learning. And we're fooling ourselves to think that our students aren't having these same frustrations.

Lost in all the discussion about education reform and effective teaching techniques and the value of assessment and on and on is perhaps the most fundamental question: What is the purpose of school?

What's the point? What do we want students to get out of 12-16 years spent in some form of school? [And by "we" I mean society as a whole, the entire educational system]

Are we preparing students for something? Do we take a utilitarian approach where school and learning are simply the means to an end? You go to elementary school to prepare you for junior high which will prepare you for high school so you can get into a good college and then find a good job where you make a lot of money and are able to achieve "success" (whatever that is, anyway).

There are many who feel that school should serve as preparation for more important things later in life. That the purpose of school is to provide specific skills to land a student that prestigious job. That all schools are in a similar way vocational schools. In fact, this is the factory school model that has been inherent in America since the dawn of public schools (of course, that's a whole 'nother topic).

It seems that there are many in the business world who feel that it is the job of schools to provide their companies with employees who have the specific skills to fit into the workplace. They blame schools for turning out a poor product as the reason for higher unemployment rates among recent college graduates.

But how callous must we be to equate people -- human beings -- with products; to equate schools with factories? I certainly refuse to believe that the job of of the school is churn out future laborers. In fact, recent studies indicate that, despite the assumptions in the above paragraph, students are actually overqualified for the jobs available to them. (Here and here). Additionally, most of the jobs we are supposedly preparing students for don't even exist yet!

So if the purpose of school isn't to prepare the future workforce, then what is it? Should it be to educate good citizens? Citizenship education is one of the traditional pillars of the social studies. In fact, often this discipline is justified as being important because it promotes values of quality citizenship. However, to me this explanation is little different than the business-vocational purpose of schools; it is steeped in assumptions of obedience and preserving he status quo. Perhaps more importantly, it follows the same means-to-an-end motif as the previous explanation.

Well no wonder kids learn to hate school! (Speaking in broad generalizations here.)

These imply school as something to be endured, something to be suffered through, something to be gotten out of. If school is simply a means to an end, then there is no point in continuing with Math if I'm not going to pursue a mathematics-based career. Or Social Studies. Or Science. Or English. Or Art or Music or P.E. or...you get the point. This logic is the equivalent of telling kids, "eat your vegetables now because you'll have to eat them when you're an adult," as opposed to the more effective, "eat your vegetables now because it's the healthy thing to do!"

No, education is a much more intrinsic than extrinsic value. I'm trying to avoid cliches and educational buzzwords, but the purpose of school really should be to instill values of lifelong learning in our students. Learning for life, not because it gives you some reward later in life, but because, quite simply, it is good for you. We are educators, not trainers; therefore, we ought to believe in education as a lifelong pursuit. We believe in learning, we believe in knowledge -- in both the consumption and creation of knowledge. We believe in education as a noble lifestyle. We believe in education as more than one job or career or country can contain.

An enlightened lifestyle -- that is the purpose of school.

The next logical question is: How do we communicate this value to our students? That, too, is a topic for another post. Let me know if anyone figures it out perfectly.

(P.S., from the math-hater in me, here's an interesting article that touches on some of these same issues of the relevance of what we're teaching.)