The Purpose of Schooling

Deconstructing to Reconstruct Education (Part 2 of 4)     

Is the purpose of schooling college-readiness?  Career-readiness?  Citizenship-readiness?  And what do those terms really mean?  Does college-ready equate to successfully passing tests in the current antiquated system that predominates?  And to be career-ready, isn’t it important to choose your path by figuring out and cultivating your talents and interests, whereby driving your life purposefully?  And citizenship-readiness, what type of citizenship are students being prepared for: to be obedient rule followers or reflective rule co-constructers?  Do we want the democracy of today or do we want to imagine and bring into being a new democracy of tomorrow?  

As an innovative educator, I propose that the main objective of school be one that incorporates all of the above and much, much more.  The goal of schooling should be life-readiness such that students learn how to reason and make informed, conscientious, deliberated and intentional decisions in their lives.  This happens by connecting the reality of the world with the school curriculum and treating knowledge as a tool for real life decision-making.  These ideas are the basis for which the Contemporary Education Framework was born.