What is the purpose of schools?
This question seems to be pretty easy to answer but in reality in my opinion, I believe it's a question that can get very complex. The simple answer is that the purpose of schools is to make sure students receive a quality education in order to reach their full potential in life by helping every student develop required skills and sufficient knowledge to be able to navigate life. In addition, schools also serve the purpose to allow students to find their creativity, hobbies and love for sports. School teaches students how to build healthy relationships with classmates and teachers in which they may carry as they get. older. Schools are there for students to hopefully feel safe going to and feel welcomed in a classroom.
Who are marginalized students in schools and what do they need from our school system?
Marginalized students are students who feel out of place whether it is because they feel like they don't deserve to be there due to their identifies, backgrounds or what they reside with. These students that don't feel included and perhaps invisible need our school system to bring awareness to this as it is not talked about enough and take action to make ALL students feel like they belong and deserve the opportunity to an equal education just like everyone else. Our school system needs to do better in putting themselves into others situations and minimizing the amount of marginalized students that we have in schools.
Hi Ana! I really loved you answer of explaining the full potential in life. I also feel like schools do provide this in a way for students and that they need majority of the skills that they teach us in school. I think another thing they teach us is the social skills of life and how to communicate within authority as well as peers who are different ages. I also put down that they serve a purpose in showing what students like to do either in sports, music, or theatrical ways. I agree with your post about the students with different backgrounds feeling out of place. I feel like a lot of schools just skip over the fact of acceptance and making them feel like an outcast instead of welcoming them with open arms. I suggest that the school systems need to be more proactive in these areas. They need to establish significantly with actions and not just words that everyone belongs. I think sharing the different cultures around the school through ceremony’s and holidays of others is a great way to start.
ReplyDeleteHi Ana,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on the purpose of schools. I like that you emphasized school being a place where students should build healthy relationships, feel safe, and feel welcomed. These basic traits you stated, I believe, should be a constant throughout the entirety of any student’s educational journey. Just as it is important for a kindergartener to feel safe and unjudged as they learn, it is equally as important for a college student to feel that way as well. I would also like to add that on top of school being for social and academic education, it should also be seen as a place that educates students on how to support each other. We as future educators should obviously teach our students how to be a happy, healthy, and successful individual but we should encourage children to take on a similar task. When we teach, we teach to help kids understand, not just memorize facts. We should encourage analyzing. They should understand what our goal is when we tell them to, for example, keep their listening ears open and thinking cap on. They may realize that this not only means to listen and think during story time or lesson time but they should listen and think when it comes to relationships as well. Our lessons should stretch outside of the four walls of the classroom and I believe that we are all capable of taking up that task.
When you bring up marginalized students, it reminded me of my own experience in school. Due to my skin color and my learning disability, I often felt out of place in the classroom. It really is important to make our educational spaces like classrooms, lunchrooms, and playgrounds a place for everyone to fit in. Our responsibility to teach about acceptance should not stop where our classroom ends. We as educators are partially responsible for teaching children how to accept and respect each other. And I agree that our entire school system is faulty in that aspect. Somehow, school has become another place where it is beneficial to create a group of “others”. I always wonder how many teachers see this and are afraid to address it. As it is, kids can be a bit mean when it comes to cliques, so we have to approach the topic of segregating with care. It is like a tightrope walk: you have to make sure you nip the bad behaviours in the bud while also avoiding drawing even more attention to them. It will be difficult, no doubt, but I believe we will be able to take on the challenge.