Is Learning the Primary Goal of Schools?

Posted By Andy Aldrich on Jun 11, 2014 | 0 comments

Earlier this week I officially started my doctorate at the University of Hawaii.  My parents being oh so proud, keep telling me how they run into my former teachers and love telling them that I am working on a doctorate of education.  I think they really enjoy the shock value.

Of course, there is some learning happening, but there also seems to be a lot of other.  Maybe this is ok, after all communities come together to support schools and their other activities.  Still it seems that some of the learning focused school change initiatives that us educators talk about is unlikely to be implemented in a world of so many other distractions away from learning.

Truthfully, my former teachers have good reason to be a little shocked because let’s just say I wasn’t a very good student growing up.  It’s not that I didn’t want to do good, at least when I was really young.  It was just that I seemed to have a hard time following instructions, submitting homework, and doing what the teacher wanted.

However, when I think back to my childhood I remember being an constantly curious kid who was always tinkering with this or that and would often walk my own path.  In fact although I didn’t always do too well in school, I feel that I was alway hungry to learn something new and interesting.

This got me thinking the other day, is learning the primary goal of schools?  You’d think so right, but the more I think about it, the more I’m less sure their systems are designed to be flexible learning-centered places of learning (does that sound redundant).  For example, on any given day a student  comes to school usually at a time when their brains aren’t fully awake, to take classes that are only roughly designed around their individual ability, in core courses (math, language arts, social studies, science) that have remained the more or less the same subject area for over a hundred years, and pep rallies, etc.

Of course, there is some learning happening, but there also seems to be a lot of other.  Maybe this is ok, after all communities come together to support schools and their other activities.  Still it seems that some of the learning focused school change initiatives that us educators talk about is unlikely to be implemented in a world of so many other distractions away from learning.

I’d be curious to see the data of an average student to see how much time they spend engaged and learning in an average day.  That might answer my question, but in the meantime what do you think is learning the primary goal of schools?