School and Society

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Joel Swagman

May 3, 1999

Journal 12

Education 304 C

School and Society

I believe that the relation between school and society should be an active one.  A school should not be a place that shelters people from society, but rather one that engages society and the issues in it.  Students should spend time talking about current events, and issues, and learn how to deal

At the same time, however, schools should not be overly influenced by society.  School should not, ideally, be a place where students are brainwashed with the dominant social views (although to a large degree this is hard to avoid).  Schools should expose students to what society is like, but not attempt to mold them in the image of society.

However, even if these ideal conditions could somehow be created, students are exposed to society all the time outside of school.  The school is never a society free zone, but an area where students bring the issues they are struggling with into school with them.

Students should be taught how to deal with society in school.  One way of doing this is creating conditions where students can work with each other, thus fostering cooperation among the students, instead of isolating students on individual subjects.  Students often create their own society within the school, which is highly based on how they view the world (students being used collectively in this since).  The society students create is often an unforgiving one (like most middle schools), but it is one the students create and must live in.