The Role Of School In Today's Society
Posted: Tuesday, August 22, 2006
by Brian Solent
Day School
The Role Of School In Today's Society Do we know what the role of the school should be in our contemporary society? One hundred years ago the answer to this question was relatively simple. A high school diploma meant that the graduate was proficient in basic academic subjects and ready for the workplace. Today schools are facing many complex issues and parents are frustrated. While it may be easy to blame the school district's policies or funding, we should be asking the broader question of what we should expect our children to get from their education.
Do we really expect our school systems to teach our children everything? Today's education system carries the brunt of the job for producing a well-rounded child.
When they fail, society and parents and even the children blame the schools. Is this really an effective way to look at what's at the heart of the matter: what part does the role of society, the role of parents, and the role of the child play in a child's education? In addition, where does all this responsibility lie and when should it overlap?
As our population increases, the expectations for school also increase. As culture changes the family structure, society expects schools to teach students more than the basic reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Society wants a well-rounded student who can contribute to everyday life and the working world. As a result, curriculum includes so many vast topics that teachers have little time to absorb what is expected of them. If teachers are having this much trouble, imagine the frustration level of the students who have to properly soak up this much information in such little time. You have to stop and ask yourself the value of these expectations. Is the ability of teachers to cover every topic and handle every type of student really going to make the student contribute so much more to society? These are definitely lofty goals for our educators and students. Perhaps these duties should be passed back to others who participate in the child's life.
Education transcends the classroom. Not all topics lend themselves to classroom instruction. Many of life's lessons are learned outside of a structured environment. Parents should not expect school to teach all of life's lessons. For example, it has been discovered that if children do not have a stable and loving home, attempts to teach respect and acceptance are not successful.
The student does have a responsibility to learn while at school but given the increasing long school day and over scheduled outside activities, children become saturated with the overload and fail to absorb the information. Teaching methods perhaps have not kept pace in our fast-paced technical society.
As the saying goes, it takes a nation to raise a child.
This does not infer it takes a nation's school to teach a child everything about the world. The role of school can greatly increase a student's outlook on life and ability to achieve; however, without participation from parents and society, the child is not going to have the ability to be truly well rounded.
Copyright 2006 Brian Solent. All rights reserved. Brian Solent runs Dee School Yes a top on-line resource for information on schools. Visit his website and article archive at: http://www.dschooly.com/articles/
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