It seemed yesterday, that many of us had a harm time reaching consensus on what education was supposed to do (or at least I left with less of an idea of it's purpose). Are we asking too much of our schools, to do more than teach skills? Since all learning can not possibly take place in school, should we even try to get more from schools?
This may sound somewhat negative, but I think that we often (myself included) place most of the responsibility on the schools for learning, when in fact, it all starts with the students choice. Let me know what you think.

PS: These emoticons rock!

Craig, I think you raise an interesting question. I like to frame the question as, "What do we want our graduates to look like?" What competencies do we expect? What skills? What level of specialization?, What higher level thinking skills, etc.

In regards to your post, I would ask - what "choices" do our students have now? They can choose to show up, choose to listen, choose to participate, choose to behave. How much choice do they have in relation to what occurs in the classroom? How much choice do they have about what they learn?

The question of responsiblity is intriguing. Currently (in my opinion), the schools should bear all the responsibility - they have all the power in the relationship. This is essentially the core of the problem in my opinion.

The one thing that I think our students should walk away with from public education is how to survive and interact in a diverse world. As a teacher and now an administrator, I find it most important to help students learn acceptance of themselves and others. I find that many students have no exposure outside of school to acceptance or to responsibility. In order to be successful in our society, I think it is necessary to embrace responsibility for ones self and to understand those around us. Curriculum changes constantly. Who should decide what content to teach, I do not know. What I need to learn academically, may not be what you need. However, if we understand this complexity, we should be able to meet the needs of the students we teach. Does this make sense?

I am of the opinion that we don't expect enough from schools - too many institutions settle for mediocrity. Obviously, everyones wildest dreams will not come to pass, but more can be accomplished with high expectations than with low expectations.

Low parental expectations are one major problem - children don't expect to succeed if their parents don't encourage them. High teacher expectations are critical, too.

Out of time - I will say more later![/i]

Schools are one of the most influential and powerful components of each individuals socialization. Because of this I feel that schools should be held to very high standards and that they bear an enormous amount of responsibility. A student's responsibilility is to his/her own self. However, student apathy is growing at an alrming rate. It is difficult for teachers to teach students who do not see the point in the lessons, or simply do not care. What do we do?

I think all students want to learn, but need a purpose to do so. Imagine the kids featured in the Kozol video and think about how different the outcomes of the student who drop out would be if they attended the more well to do schools. I think it is the environment around the students that decides whether or not the student is motivated to learn. As teachers and administrators we need to find creative ways to engage these students who lack the motivation to learn. What are those creative ways? I don't know. However, this is the challenge that we must face to ensure that our students find meaning and make real world connections from the lessons that are taught.

Daphne,

That is an interesting assumption that kids are less likely to dropout from more affluent schools than poor urban schools. I would think that dropouts occur when students feel school no longer offers them benefit. I think this is more symptomatic of social problems in urban areas and schools not addressing the true needs of their students.

True, the poorer schools in many cases have trouble attracting and keeping better teachers which may lead to more dropouts.

What I am getting at I guess is that although there is a problem with the distribution of resources through out our public school system I think that there are many other problems which have equal impact on the failure of our schools to serve our less advantaged population.