School's About Learning to Learn

It is frequently posited of late that our schools are failing to teach our children skills which they need in the real world.  Instead they are packing kid's heads with mathematical formulas and poetry which most of us adults will never use to feed our families.   While this statement is undoubtedly true, at the same time it is terrifyingly wrong.

There is truth in the assertion that most adults don't apply trigonometry in the workplace, and the inability to interpret Keats never kept anyone from understanding the front page of this newspaper.  But the sophistry stems from the presumption that school is intended to supply kids with the vocational talents necessary to become productive citizens.   School is first and foremost intended to teach children how to think, how to work alone and as a team, and maybe more importantly, how to learn.

Given the current pace of change in our society, the ability to learn throughout life is perhaps the most critical skill for our kids. My son entered Kindergarten this year.  The world in which he will work, live, and raise his family is not even conceivable to me today.  What skills will he need to assure his success?  Will "Windows 2020" be on his desk at work?  Will he need to balance a checkbook or know how to make change?   Will he need to plow a field with an ox drawn plow?  I haven't a clue.

I do know that if he is talented in critical reasoning and analysis skills, if he knows how to break up big hairy problems into solvable pieces, if he can communicate with others to exchange ideas, feelings, and experiences, if he can create and use abstractions to apply what is known to novel problems and situations... if he masters these skills, he will succeed.

Columnist George Will once said, "It is not necessary to know the origin of the universe.  It is necessary to want to know.  Civilization depends not on any particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge."   School is about awakening the hunger for knowledge and experience which is inside us all, and enabling us with the basic tools to both satisfy and fuel that hunger throughout our lives.

Will anyone's livelihood depend on their ability to contrast the philosophies of Nietzsche and Mills?  In specific, no.  But it might depend on their ability to contrast Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich.  The core skills are the same.  However, it is near impossible to teach someone these core skills without teaching them anything specific.  And regardless of which specifics are taught, many will be outdated in terms of practical application by the time the child reaches the workforce.  So why does it matter much which specifics are used as long as they get the core skills across?

Perhaps parents and teachers are prone to losing sight of the true objectives of school from time to time.  With all those alligators it's tough to focus on draining the swamp.  But every now and again, it's so very important to sit back and think about what you really learned in school and why it has added value to your life

If you understood this essay and glimpsed what was in my heart and my mind as I wrote it, then somewhere in your past was probably a reading comprehension test about a passage written by some 19th century author whose plot and theme you no longer recall.  You apparently learned something just the same.