Sunday, September 30, 2007

Another Voice: The Obligation of Schooling

"The secret in education lies in respecting the student." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

In early September, Patrick Higgins asked, "What is the Obligation of Schooling?"

I posed his question to my Current Events class and shared their responses in a previous post.

This morning I happened upon the "official" blog of New York City students and found a thoughtful reflection on this same question.

Our young people are expressing their opinions. We just need to listen.

"Education in our times must try to find whatever there is in students that might yearn for completion, and to reconstruct the learning that would enable them autonomously to seek that completion." -Allan Bloom

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post, and the quote from Bloom. Your previous post, which gave feedback from the students, was particularly powerful, and a really good discussion starter for teachers asking 'the big questions' about student learning and the purpose of schooling. By the way, a great blog with all the ideas that you share. Thanks a lot. Judy

diane said...

Judy,

The kids and I are exploring together. It's a diverse group, but they are interested and (usually!) involved so it's been fun showing them some of what I learned over the summer.

Maybe they'll be able to figure out the tools that puzzled me and do a little cross-instruction.

The name of your blog, "Hey Jude", always makes me smile. I've had fun exploring boing boing, since you mentioned it a few days ago (my daughter claims she told me about the site last year, but I must have been in a non-receptive state at the time.)Thanks for sharing.

Diane

Anonymous said...

That's a great quote from Bloom. It reminds me of how insightful students are and why they can become so frustrated in school when the education they are receiving isn't leading them in that direction.