What are schools for?

While in 6th grade I remember being required to have a huge three ring binder, and in this binder, we need to keep every single paper given to us. We were told that this was to prepare us for middle school.

 

I hated the binder, pages would rip, and soon every page had ton of those colorful reinforcement stickers, or in hindsight I might have been ripping them out because I really liked the colorful circles that I could then add to the pages. And once I ran out my parents of course had to buy me more, otherwise I would get a bad grade on my binder organizing skills.

 

The funny thing is, 6th grade is the last time that I ever put anything into a binder. I hate binders, I like the idea of folders, but in reality I love piles. But at no point in my education did any teacher suggest that perhaps I could organize myself through piles. Why?

 

Once I arrived in middle school, some of the teachers began to give us midterms and finals, these of course were to prepare us for high school. How thoughtful of them. And while there were some midterms and finals in high school, they really weren’t that big of a deal, plus the finals in high school were to prepare us for college, and once I got to college, there were no more midterms and finals.. imagine that.

 

In high school, we’re prepared for SAT’s and standardized test, which yes you guessed it, seem to vanish into thin air once leaving high school.

 

So what’s my point?

We need to ask the question, What is school for?