How are you Celebrating Question Week (March 12-18, 2017)?

I am in the middle of reading “A More Beautiful Question” by Warren Berger  @GlimmerGuy and this book combined with the upcoming  Question Week (March 12-18) got me thinking  and asking myself,  “How we, as educators, can help close the education gap?” and of course my answer was through school.  However, that led to another question, which was, “What is the purpose of school?”.  One of the points Berger makes in his book is the power of questioning and how asking both open (ex. How…?) questions and closed (What…?) on the same topic can lead to other questions which might get to the root of what you are asking and can help anyone, kids and adults, become better learners.  

Taking advantage of what I have picked up from Berger’s book so far, I thought it would  be interesting to sit down and ask myself some questions about education, and school in particular, by writing down what question came to my mind immediately after the next.  Here is the line of questioning that my mind took:

What is the purpose of schools?

Why do we have schools?

Why do kids go to school?

Would kids go to school if they didn’t have to go?

What would make kids want to go to school?

What do kids want from school?

What is it that kids want to learn?

Would kids go to school if they could learn what they want to learn at home?

What is the difference from learning in school vs. learning at home?

Why do some students prefer to learn away from school?

What do schools have that home doesn’t offer?

What does home offer that schools do not?

Why does it seem like many home schooled students are creative thinkers?

Could schools be set up to be more like home schooling?

What would that look like?

How can schools allow for more personalized learning?

How would teaching be different in a school with more personalized learning?

What pedagogy would be the best for helping kids learn?

Is there any one pedagogical strategy that will work for all kids?

How can schools be more flexible or adaptable to the kids needs?

It was interesting to see how the next question evolved from a subliminal answer to the previous question and how the flow of questioning went from a focus on “school” to “kids”, to “learning”, to “teaching”, and ultimately to “schools adapting to kids”.  The next steps for me are to choose a few of these questions to dig down into for some of those answers.  Hopefully, this research and subsequent answers will lead me to a deeper understanding and a better way to articulate the purpose of schools.  At the same time, I did re-ask myself the question and came up with this answer to the purpose of school:

“Schools should be a place where kids want to come to learn with other students to build on their understanding, while gaining understanding on topics they don’t yet know.”

This is my first iteration of my answer to the question and I suspect it will evolve as I look into some of the questions that I asked earlier.  

Ironically, next week is also the first day our District is starting to give the mandatory  State Tests, which many seem to believe to be the purpose of schools.  However, in keeping our focus on the real purpose and in honor of Question Week starting tomorrow (March 12, 2017), let me ask the first question as a preemptive strike:  “What do you believe is the purpose of schools?”.  I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the question posed, so please consider leaving a comment on this post.   I believe your input can go a long way in helping me to keep a focus on what is important in school as well as perhaps lead to an even better question to ask.