Eight

The other day I was in the computer lab when another class came in. It was at the end of my teaching day, and my students had gone on to P.E. and electives. I was gathering my things and straightening up the lab when a small group of eighth graders arrived. Their teacher gave the directions, and they logged in and were waiting for their settings to load when someone said, "Why do we have to do that?"

"It's school, Dummy," another student answered.

"Man! I HATE school," the first student replied in disgust.

The other students laughed. "EVERYBODY hates school, Dummy," one of his classmates told him.

"I wish I could have my own school," another student added. "Nobody would ever have to come."

What's the objective of compulsory public education anyhow? Is it for the good of society or for the benefit of the individual? I suppose most people would agree to a middle ground where the purpose of education is to prepare the individual for success which in turn will benefit society by adding one more productive citizen to our numbers. That's the theory, anyway. How, then, do we resolve it when the needs of the individual clash with the needs of the group? Or when the school doesn't prepare the individual for success? What then?

When it came time for Ruth's boys to go to school, they didn't like it. For three years she tried switching schools and changing programs, but they were profoundly unhappy and chronically complained of having to go, and so she resolved to try homeschooling them, instead.