Seth Godin is a marketeer and prolific generator of ideas. His blog often has interesting nuggets about education. The purpose of school is to….here’s his first ten of 27 answers. Any you would like to add? Remove? (My personal favorite is number 23 – sandwiched in between the sublimely lofty and the tongue-in-cheek – Minimize public spelling mistakes
So, here’s Seth Godin’s starter list. The purpose of school is to:
- Become an informed citizen
- Be able to read for pleasure
- Be trained in the rudimentary skills necessary for employment
- Do well on standardized tests
- Homogenize society, at least a bit
- Pasteurize out the dangerous ideas
- Give kids something to do while parents work
- Teach future citizens how to conform
- Teach future consumers how to desire
- Build a social fabric
Go to his blog (amusing url too) to see the others on his list and let him know what you think of it.
What a thought-provoking list! Unfortunately, there will be proponents for each item, including the one’s he intended as satirical.
Indeed! I noticed that the comments contain several that take the list at face value.
Some years back Godin developed a list for the high school curriculum. I have to go look it up.