Food for thought: Why do we go to school?
The question may seem incongruous, and in some ways it is. Yet, in many cases, too many parents send their children to school to avoid the noise and incessant questions of their children, sometimes with the thought: “the teachers are trained to handle the behavior of the children”. Let’s think about it for a moment.
The mission of the school
The school, it is obvious, transmits the knowledge which made the world of today, but its mission does not stop there: the child who attends the school is not only going to learn knowledge and the school which welcomes him relates to the society which organizes it.
The primary mission of the school is to develop as much as possible the intellectual, physical and, for what concerns us, spiritual faculties of each child. This is done by developing his intelligence and knowledge.
The student, receiving the invaluable heritage of knowledge transmitted by previous generations, will gain freedom and responsibility. The more he learns, the freer he will be: free to choose his profession, free to build his future, free to choose his way of life. To be free, one must be able to choose, and to choose, one must know.
Relation entre liberté et responsabilité
However, this freedom goes hand in hand with responsibility; by forging his identity with the elements of the culture that has been transmitted to him, he becomes the depository of this culture and the values that have been brought to him. He creates social links (what we call socialization) that make him a being in solidarity with others.
The more he has learned, the more responsibilities he will be able to take on, and the greater these responsibilities will be towards others. The crisis that our society is going through is perhaps first a crisis of responsibility.
Education is now compulsory in almost all countries of the world. Going to school is therefore neither a natural nor a spontaneous activity: making it compulsory gives it precisely its importance and legitimacy. It is a question of allowing each child to enter into the economic and social dynamics of his time, to build his feeling of belonging to a culture, to a nation, to the Universal.
Above all, it is to keep them away from ignorance which bears the seeds of injustice, totalitarianism, obscurantism and dependence in all its forms.
The final ambition of the school, of any school, is therefore to form free and responsible beings.
In view of all these elements, do you think that the school in your community or country? I would like to have your opinions in comments.
