Chapter 2: What Is a School and What Is It For? Notes

Chapter 2 explains the correlation between the two questions "What is a school?" and "What is it for?" At the beginning of the chapter there are a list of answers to the two questions. The difference between education and schooling is also differentiated. Education is explained as "a process of human growth by which one gains greater understanding and control over oneself and one's world," while schooling is defined as "a specific, formalized process, whose general pattern traditionally has varied little from one setting to the next." One has to understand the difference between the two definitions to truly understand the two questions posed at the beginning of the chapter. The chapter also discusses school as a culture, an influential social setting in the lives of students. To truly understand the difference between education and schooling, one has to understand the acculturation and diversity that takes place within a school system. The chapter notes that schools don't only accommodate to the needs of one type of student, but to the needs of many as teachers educate students of various different cultures. The chapter discusses the three different groups of people that wish to reconstruct the system. They include, social reconstructionists who see students as young agents of change, economic reconstructionists who see schools as pilant services of those in power, and democratic reconstructionists, who see schools as the answer to social issues such as poverty and racism. The chapter also outlines the purpose of schools and groups them into four different principles. The four basic purposes of school according to the chapter are intellectual purposes, political and civic purposes, economic purposes, and social purposes. The chapter goes on to talk about what takes place in different classrooms, and uses elementary and high schools as models. The characteristics of a good school are outlined as well, and include teacher's expectations, communication among teachers, task orientation, academic engaged time, behavior management, the principle as a strong instructional leader, parental involvement, and a healthy school environmental. As in chapter 1, the end of the chapter refers to the two questions posed at the beginning, and notes that the two questions have no single answer. Schools were created for a variety of purposes and were believed to be primarily created to help people lead happy and successful lives.