Existential Crisis #1: What is the purpose of high school?
A quote from our school's newsletter:
"Principal Prat informed the parents that Sunny High is committed to making sure that every student has a four-year, college-ready transcript, so that when choosing between a two and four-year college, they have all the pieces in place."Back in the day, not everybody went to college; a Bachelor's was a specialized degree for people who had the time, money, and desire to go that direction. A Master's degree? A Ph.D.? Still further, and more specialized -- and for all that, some people scoffed at degrees. What practical skills could a philosopher or historian show? If you had a doctorate, why weren't you a doctor, taking out appendixes?
I'm not saying that America has never valued education -- it has. Degrees used to mean something concrete. A high school diploma used to mean that a student was ready to pursue some sort of further education, whether a higher academic degree or a vocational skill. High school was a terminus, a jumping off point, a fork in the road. The skills students learned in high school were supposed to help kids navigate whatever path they took into the future.
Every year I continue teaching, I can't help feeling that we've lost that purpose. There's been so much change that's affected schools -- politics, educational practice, science, technology, societal norms, to name a few -- that I fear there will never be a single high school mission that most of America can agree on. Not that there ever was, but it once had to have been more cohesive than this.
My principal has chosen college as the purpose of high school**. Each student will have a transcript that's ready for a four-year college, even if she doesn't want to go to a four-year college, or in fact, go to college at all. Though a vast majority of our students do, I refuse to think that college is the be-all and end-all of education for everyone.
So let's say for a moment I'm a student at Sunny High. I understand the appeal of being able to make choices, but practically speaking, why on earth would I want to take extra years of science and math, which I hate and can't do (let's just pretend for a moment), just to make my transcript ready for a path I don't want to take? Why can't I take charge of my education, and (still making sure I have enough credits to graduate) concentrate the art and music classes that I want? I may not be ready for a four-year school, but I'm going where I want to go.
OK, back to being a teacher. Hey, wait. Isn't there a sneaky implication in Prat's statement? Go back and read it if you need to -- I can wait.
If I accept that sending kids to college is my primary goal, shouldn't I teach them how to think creatively, solve problems, go beyond the high school grind, etc.? I should challenge them, which may involve some struggle, and *gasp* failure.
So my principal's pledge focuses on the very short-term: getting into college, not necessarily being in or succeeding at college. But I can't do that if I'm making sure their transcripts are four-year college acceptable! Only A's and B's (and a few less B's, if you please) will bring Harvard and Princeton knocking on your door. You can make a few missteps if you're interested in going to a state school or sometimes a UC, but Prat has essentially pledged that no one will be average in our school, and that everybody needs to go to college.
But maybe my existential crisis isn't everyone else's. Maybe we are all supposed to go to college now.
No. No, I don't think so. It was right for me -- I love to learn, to mess with abstracts and what ifs, and college was the place for me. But it can't possibly be the place for everybody.
What do you think is the purpose of high school?
*Your definition of 'better' may be different than mine.
**Watch for Existential Crisis #2: has college lost its value? Coming soon!
3 comments:
UGH...that is why Mountain High; where I am teaching is GREAT...they get the kids ready with 21st Century skills they need to be successful AND they allow them to "pick" the program they want to graduate with an AA in. Career & Technical Education is the way to go!
I think that one of the bigger problems is that we've been institutionally and culturally raising the bar for so long that it's now assumed that college is a given (which, I agree, is wrong).
The other problem--the bigger one--is that the future is uncertain (from an employment standpoint). They keep telling us that we're now preparing kids for a world where their jobs haven't been invented yet. I don't know how we're supposed to do that, exactly, but four or five years of college seems like a great way to either (a) stall, or (b) make it the university system's problem.
As a special ed teacher, I can tell you that college is not going to be the goal for many of my students. My goal is to teach them to survive in the workplace with budgeting, money skills, social skills, personal skills, and other skills needed to survive every day. Some of my students will be the ones who build houses, fix cars, or work on highways. We need to make sure that we don't exclude them from the future because we will be the ones who suffer.
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