Adam W. Jordan, Ph.D.
"What is the purpose of school?"
When you ask that question to a group of undergraduate education majors you usually get responses like, "to help prepare people for democracy" or "to prepare people to be independent citizens". I do not believe I have ever heard a response of, "to make people comply" or "to help people do really well on standardized tests".
Still, we all know that what we communicate verbally regarding the purpose of schools and what actually happens in practice can be drastically different.
In full disclosure, I am an assistant professor of special education at The University of North Georgia. I suppose in some circles that would make me "The Man", and not in a "he's great" kind of way, either. Our program, like almost all teacher preparatory programs in the United States, is traditional and we are deeply rooted in the public K-12 system. However, my background is in public alternative education and I am quite passionate about the transformative power of educational alternatives. I'm a firm believer that we have to do a better job of exposing traditional teacher education students to the potentials of educational alternatives.
So, at UNG we're trying…
To start this conversation with undergraduate students I took about a dozen of my juniors and seniors on a field trip to the Freedom to Grow Unschool located right outside Athens, GA in beautiful Madison County. Lora Smothers, the school's owner was more than kind and welcoming, and so were her jovial, jubilant crew of excited young people. I wondered what my students would take away from this visit. Certainly absent were some of the things they are most accustomed to seeing. There were no rows, no pleas to be quiet, and in at least one case, no shoes! What was present, though, was a sense of community as children and adults alike gathered around in a circle for introductions and to outline the direction of the day. Student choice, self-directed learning, and genuine excitement were all present as well.
I could tell that after my students recovered from their initial shock they began to imagine what aspects of this environment they could carry into their much more traditional school placements. All of a sudden it was much more realistic to have a conversation about how to let students be creative, guide their own learning, and participate in a true democratic classroom. This conversation was all possible because they had just witnessed all of those things. I mean, when you watch a group of ten year olds develop a multi-tiered plan for how to engage in play in a safe way that is dependent upon the self-expressed comfort level of the participants, it is hard to argue that your lecture-delivered classroom rule of "respect others" is adequate.
I could continue on about the benefits of our visit to FTGU and I hope that the visit impacts the practice of my students so that they can in turn create a more just, inclusive, welcoming public K-12 schooling experience for the students that will enter their classrooms. I will end, though, with just a quick plea. It isn't a plea to those that are already bought in to the idea of educational alternatives. It is a plea to those who may have an impact on the development of future educators who may be hesitant. If you have a local educational alternative in your area, give them a call. They will probably open their arms and welcome you. Just go hang out. You can even do so in a shirt and tie with your arms folded, iPad charged, and skepticism high. Once the students take you outside to show you the really awesome, well-engineered, structurally sound tipi they developed, you'll relax and at the very least, you'll enjoy yourself. I mean, hey, enjoying yourself can be a purpose of school too!
