Goals in Education

Prior to reading David Labaree’s, “Public Goods, Private Goods:  The American Struggle Over Educational Goals”, I had never really placed a lot of thought into the idea that your interpretation of education would influence your understanding of its goal.  I guess naively I believed that everyone had roughly the same vision for the purpose of education.  Sure, I understood that people had different methods to achieve that same goal which is the reason why we have charter, private, all-black and online schools but I always believed that all of these structures still held onto the same vision for their students.

Once I began reading this article, I began to realize that I approach education from the democratic equality perspective.  According to Labaree, individuals who look at education from this lens feel that, “a democratic society cannot persist unless it prepares all of its young with equal care to take on the full responsibilities of citizenship in a competent manner” (Pg. 42).  Perhaps this comes from my background as a social studies teacher or my brief experience in the military but I have always felt that it is the schools primary responsibility to make model citizens.  If a student develops the characteristics of a model citizen, I feel that everything else will fall into place.  They will learn the essential skills to become productive members of society and will avoid the “free ride” not only because of the limited financial freedom it provides but because it is the right thing to do.

Additionally, I whole-heartedly agree with Labaree’s goals for education.  He argues that education has desired outcomes with those being, Democratic Equality, Social Efficiency & Social Mobility.  While the varying perspectives of education surprised me, I was not shocked at all by the three desired goals.  It has been taught to us for as long as I can remember that education (as well as a Colt 45) is the great equalizers in American society.  Now it can be argued that American schools and society are coming up short at achieving these goals since inequality runs rampant in our country but it would be a very difficult point to prove that schools aren’t trying for equality.  It is also very obvious to me that schools trying for social efficiency.  We want productive members of society with the basic skills needed to be successful.  Finally, we always showcase students who have risen from lower social standing to great success.  This belief that you can achieve anything you work towards is as fundamentally American as apple pie or the Star Spangled Banner.  We even develop our schools into a system, which progresses students based off their achievements and successes.  You can also argue that the system is developed from the industrial revolution and our schools resemble a factor but that is a whole other rant.

If you are interested in reading more on “The Real Goals for Education”, I suggest following the link below and reading the first chapter of “Big Picture” by Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle.  It is written in less of an academic language and focuses more on the goals of the teacher in the classroom than the school system as a whole.  After reading this article, I felt that it closely aligned with my own personal goals towards education.  Check it out HERE.