We’re in the home stretch of another school year. Are our students getting what they need for their futures?
Primary schooling is about enjoying learning, working and living with others, discovering talents and interests, acquiring basic academic skills. When students learn interesting things, they talk about them. Listen.
Pandemic isolation taught us the importance of groups. In class and playground, on playing fields and the bus, getting together and getting along are necessities. Music, art sport… schools are places to try things. Interested students bring their new interests and
activities home.
Basic academic skills sound dull; sometimes, for some, they are. But a lot of learning and life depends on the 3 Rs; better early than later. Reading is absolutely vital: computers and smartphones have not reduced their importance. Is all this happening? Primary students will talk to parents, as will teachers. Ask, discuss, assist.
Secondary schooling is perhaps more complex: more needs, though not more important ones. Beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, there’s other stuff we all need to know: enough science, economics, politics, current events to function as consumers, voters, citizens; hopefully enough history to know where we and our society came from.
At the freshman academy students learn more about the environment and world in which we live. They acquire practical skills. They learn more about the difficulties and value of cooperation and collaboration.
Intellectually speaking, the high school curriculum is a supermarket. Students can find and concentrate on subjects that interest them. A few find almost everything interesting. That’s all right. American students can postpone narrow specialization; the high school diploma, and indeed the BA or BS, needn’t be in one field. The extra-curriculum offers other interests. The student who finds it all dull, flat, and unprofitable hasn’t looked hard enough.
High school also helps students think about their futures. What courses and grades lead to good colleges? What will it mean to take up a trade, a profession, a calling? Telstar offers opportunities to learn about careers; to try them out.
Parental discussion with secondary students can be hard going; but worth it. Sometimes grandparents, aunts, and uncles communicate more easily. And teachers and counselors are there to help.
David R Jones wants everyone to think about what happens in schools.
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