Reflective essay on organizational change and core questions

¶ … school prepare children for life -- and should it? The public school system in the United States has undergone dramatic changes over the past century. It has become a required institution in which children spend a minimum of 12.5 years and more time than in any other place than home for their formative years. Thomas Jefferson, for instance, believed that universal education would have to precede universal suffrage. The ignorant, he argued, were incapable of self-government. But he had profound faith in the reasonableness and ability of the masses and in their collective wisdom when educated. As one of the founding fathers, Jefferson in fact set the precedent for American education: reading, writing, mathematics, the Classics, and European and American History.

The American Educational system is supported in several ways -- primarily through taxation and Federal/State grant money. It is this support that gives us a clue as to the purpose of education -- to turn out qualified citizens who will be prepared for life's challenges in a positive manner, who will have a basic sense of the world, and who will be able to function as good citizens in a meaningful manner to support society. The curriculum is, in fact, set up for that -- not so much for practical skills like cooking and sewing -- those have gone by the wayside as critical needs for citizens; but the ability to handle banking transactions, read a variety of complex materials, interpret media messages, and to proactively socialize children so they are able to understand how to work effectively work in groups large and small, the boundaries of behavior, and most especially, to understand the overall organization of society. The large amount of latch-key children, or children without two active parents in the household means that it is clearly up to the school system to prepare children for life -- if that institution does not perform that objective, which one will?

Question 2 -- Teachers have no other experience in life than school -- isn't that a problem? First of all, this is not necessarily a true statement -- teachers are not universally trained in the same program, do not have the same background, and are individuals who bring a variety of experiential ideas to the classroom. Many teachers are retired military; many are in a second, or even third, career; many come from other countries; and in almost every case, teachers bring a variety of intellectual, emotional, and cultural experiences to the classroom.