Purpose of School

What is the purpose of school? 

Ask anyone and you’ll hear a range of answers. School is about reading, writing, and math. School is about developing citizens. School is about social justice. School is about community. School is about preparing students to get a good job. School is about getting into a great college. School is about football games and Homecoming and prom. 

We want schools to do a little of everything, and we excuse them when they don’t do any of it well. 

Step inside a typical high school, and you will feel it. We put each of these mini-goals into a box and then ask our teenagers to step through every box every day. You will go from 45 minutes of Algebra to 45 minutes of English to 45 minutes of woodshop to 45 minutes of physical education. You can choose to layer on your interests--drama, sports, newspaper, whatever--during your after school hours if you’re not working. Your emotions are boxed into your weekly Advisory class--that’s the time to discuss those feelings. Diversity? You might learn about that in a monthly assembly. Citizenship? We will tell you to vote and we might teach you how a democracy works, but talk about race or politics or privilege or identity? No, that’s off-limits, a topic for home. 

Then we sort our students based on their ability to leap through as many hurdles as possible. We rank them. If they pass their tests and do tons of activities, they are top tier. If they trip and fail these boxes or opt out, they are bottom tier.  

We push the “top tier” into college, fingers crossed, telling them to choose a major. Preferably one that will make money. A decent living. They might take a “fun” class that interests them, but inevitably they will graduate, get a good job, settle down, and follow the script. 

Meanwhile, we blame the “bottom tier.” We question their intellect. We speculate about their home lives. We pity them. We write deficit pieces about race and poverty, assuming that they are the problem that needs to be fixed. 

There is an alternative. 

We could pause. We could clarify the purpose of school. We could take a step back and think about how to make schools a place for all students to thrive. We could think that about the skills, habits, and mindsets that we want for them and then work backwards. What would the school day look like? What would learning entail? How could their passions and interests be integral? How could we create a sense of true belonging and community rooted in identity, justice, and compassion? How could they set their own goals? How could we ensure that they graduate ready to apply their strengths and talents to improve our very broken world?