What is the school for?
Everyone knows that schools serve to educate, but what exactly? It does not matter, the important thing is for the children to be in school. This is already a maxim as powerful as putting bandits in jails, no one thinks if it’s the best of ideas, they just want to lock everybody and lose the key.
Comparing children to criminals may sound absurd, but it’s exactly what we are doing, after all, how many people care about what happens inside a jail? And inside a school? Society is only relieved to get rid of teenagers and criminals, hoping that the fist will not become the second.
Everyone knows that the jail turns pickpockets into murderers and hijackers. It’s the almost inevitable result of a violent environment, where to survive it is necessary to lose humanity, to live in constant vigilance, and often to enlist as a soldier of a criminal organization.
School may be a smaller version of this model, with its violent student groups turning the life of the rest of the students into a prison-like drama. If you doubt it, imagine for a minute what it means to be a gay teenager in a school, where from time to time someone harasses a teacher or sets fire to a classroom.
We tend to exclude ourselves from problems, but schools and prisons are just a reflection of society, with their conflicts added and multiplied within a context enclosed by walls and grids. I’m not talking about assailants, murderers and kidnappers, but about broken families, young people who are beaten or abused by their own families, single mothers who work all day and have no time for their children. At school, all of this is still mixed with the common frustrations of youth, their hormones and discoveries.
For reasons such as these, the aim of the school is, first and foremost, to provide a suitable environment for all young people of all origins and with the most distinguished backgrounds to feel safe and respected. It’s a huge challenge since violent students are the ones who need help and support most, as they are probably not getting it at home.
All society is responsible for education, and for parents, responsibility is doubled. It’s not just about attending meetings, but participating in education, being an example and engaging in extra-curricular activities.
Expecting good grades in math or literature from students whose own parents do not control household spending or who have books, is putting a lot of expectation on children who will have to win a greater challenge than learning: the lack of a role model. Education is only complete by sharing knowledge.
Understanding what schools are for, is essential for society to reject proposals such as Distance Education, which does not develop social skills and aims only to reduce the costs of education (although it’s an excellent complement), or military education , that takes away freedon, even of thought. Needless to say, both proposals reduce socialization and critical thinking, which are the basis for modern education.
I’ve already talked about military education:
Details make the difference, as Michael Moore’s documentary “Where to Invade Next” demonstrates. In it different realities are revealed, such as the French schools.
It does not make sense to talk about the gourmet dishes served by chefs for students from rich countries, but on another point that draws much attention: teachers and students, from all social classes and backgrounds, having lunch together.
The idea is simple, turning the meal time into the most important lesson. Unhurried to return to the classroom, children strengthen values of mutual respect, cooperation and diversity, building bonds with their classmates and teachers.
Teaching kids to share the dessert, that’s what school is for.
