The Purpose of Schools

The purpose of schools is to open up the doors for children. Help them become life learners and show them what is out there to be learned. All students learn in different ways and at different rates, but the school needs to accommodate for them through variety and differentiation. There are a core set of subjects that all students need to learn (math, reading and writing) so that they can explore and enjoy other subjects that are taught by the school that they may wish to learn on their own. Preparing students to learn on their own and be excited about it, should be the ultimate goal for any school.

In my own school teaching math, I am well aware that much of the high school math curriculum will not be used by the majority of my students in their career lives. Keeping that in mind, I try to be excited about my subject and show the students the joy of learning just to learn. It is important to enjoy what you are doing and demonstrate it. Also, as good educators, we need to be role models for the child by helping them to be responsible and respectful. As I had said earlier in the ELC, when my students ask me “Why are we learning this?” I have the usual response about how the math applies to life and such, but more importantly, I let them know that if I didn’t teach or show it to them, they would never know if they wanted to learn more. To summarize, we need to teach children how to learn, not what to learn.