I recently came across a fascinating article from Education Week magazine that made a seemingly counter-intuitive statement - "the goal of education is not learning." While that line was undoubtedly intended to be provocative, the underlying point in the article is a sound one. "The real goal of education," writes Marc Prensky, its author, "and of school, is becoming—becoming a "good" person and becoming a more capable person than when you started. Learning is nothing but a means of accomplishing that goal, and it is dangerous to confuse the ends with the means."
Prensky goes on to make the case, rightfully, I believe, that "very few educators or parents have learning or scholarship in their hearts as the endgame for their children, except in the sense of their kids' getting good grades. Most of us would prefer our children become the very best people they can be, capable of effective thinking, acting, relating, and accomplishing in whatever field they enjoy and have a passion for." He bemoans the fact that "with the exception of some independent schools," most of modern education focuses on learning (by which he primarily means the mastery of content) above all else. This explains the obsession with testing that measures this mastery. "Our tests," he claims, "—big and small—are an attempt to put numbers around that learning and to rank students in their acquisition of it."
I am proud to number Friends School among those "exceptional" schools that share this focus on becoming. Our Teaching and Learning Paradigm demonstrates our commitment to developing a core set of qualities that include but also transcend factual knowledge.
In his piece, Prensky writes that a truly great education leads students to ask these questions of themselves:
"Who am I becoming? Have I become a better thinker? If so, in what ways? Am I able to do things I couldn't before? What is important to me and why? Can I relate comfortably to individuals, in teams and in virtual communities? Can I accomplish bigger, more sophisticated projects to add to my portfolio? What kind of person have I had to become to achieve these accomplishments? Can I make the world a better place?"
These are very much the kinds of questions we have in mind for our students as they progress through a Friends School education.
