I am not sure what the goal of public schools is. The district of M.S.A.D. #55 has printed their mission statement in my school-issued agenda book. It is as follows: “The mission of MSAD #55 is to support successful lifelong learning.” The district also has a “vision.” This is also printed in my battered agenda and it proclaims the vision to be that: “MSAD #55 will be a community of life-long learners where all are clear and effective communicators, creative problem solvers, quality workers and involved citizens.” These statements leave me confused, because teachers of mine have told me that school exists because the government wants to educate its citizens so that they can grow to become productive members of our democracy. I have also been told that children are forced by law to go to school because without an “education” they will not survive in the world. I have been also told that school is intended to prepare children for the workplace when they are adults. I’m not sure whom to believe on this issue, and I am undecided as to what the intent of public education is. Unless of course the purpose of it is to waste the best years of children’s lives by keeping them inside a concrete building, and having them sing their ABCs and learn to write in cursive.There is a problem with packing more than 10 3rd graders into a room. Yet the school system seems to be able to get by with twice and often three times that many children into a room and claim to be reaching and educating all of them. This is not easily accomplished when there is one teacher and 25 kids. Years ago when I was a 3rd grader I did not want to be inside, ever. I didn’t want to spend my time locked up in a cube with a pack of other children around me. It wasn’t natural or easy for me then, and it’s harder now in my junior year in high school. It is not healthy for children to be sitti...
