The Role Of School In Today's Society

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.
Not only that, we should also examine who should be
teaching some of life's lessons to our children.

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/