The proctor at the beginning of the forum opened the discussion by stating that the focus of the night would be on the mission of the 21st century school. First of all, I think it is important to mention how vital this topic is to us as college students. I think that the setup and the goals of todays public schools, whether high school or college, are still very widely up for debate. It is so great that through these forums, we can get such a diversity of opinions and work together to meet everyone’s goals and needs.
This forum was a perfect example of how going to these types of events can help us carry out our civic duty to society. Like the proctor mentioned, it is not only about bringing our opinions to the forefront but listening to others and collaborating on ideas in order to create change and reach goals. These types of approaches are really the only way to bring about effective results.
One of the first topics brought up was, “Does public education prepare students for the workforce?”. Although I do feel that it does (clearly), I do agree with what one of the women was saying which was that a lot of students are entering college undecided, or at least not having a clear picture of what they want to do. I think that for me, it is so important that we try to get involved in as many things as we can while in college and really broaden our horizons based on our interests. I think this really needs to be one of the fundamental missions of the 21st century school. We need to be able to communicate with others and really express our interests to other people.
Another difficult, but vital question discussed was, “What is the ultimate purpose of public education?”. One man seemed to believe that the focus needed to be more on teaching the things that a student needed to enter their particular career field, because as he said, not every person needs how to do the quadratic equation in their chosen career. This, however, raises the question of how we are supposed to make education more student-specific. Is it even possible at all? Although I agree that there are certain things that I learned in high school that I will never have to use again, I still am so grateful that I learned them and have some knowledge of the world beyond my chosen career field. For this reason, I support a more well-rounded education system where you get a basic, yet still complete education on all topics pertaining to our lives.
One of the most pressing issues that was at the heart of the forum was how funds should be allocated at a school. Clearly in this economy, many schools are simply not getting the funding that they need in order to bring about a completely successful, educational experience. I know that coming from a school district where money was always tight and the school board was constantly trying to cut back on spending, it was always a source of debate where the money should go: teachers? school supplies? technology? sports? infrastructure? There seemed to never be one overarching thing that took precedence over everything else. Whenever the school tried to cut back funding on one aspect, there was a huge backlash from the community, and so it seemed to always be a lose-lose situation. Although I do not have a clear resolution for this, I think it was interesting to hear the different perspectives on school budgeting at the forum. Hopefully this is an issue that can be resolved in my community as well as many other school districts around the country in the coming years.
Overall, it was very cool to witness this public forum. To me, it gave me an entirely new perspective on rhetoric and civil life because it was a clear and easy opportunity for me to see how I could get involved in the community and make a big difference without a lot of effort. This will definitely be something worth looking into.
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