Looking for Meaning in School Work

This is a short passage taken from the book The School and Society and The Child and the Curriculum, by John Dewey.

Plato somewhere speaks of the slave as one who in his actions does not express his own ideas, but those of some other man. It is our social problem now, even more urgent than in the time of Plato, that method, purpose, understanding, shall exist in the consciousness of the one who does the work, that his activity shall have meaning to himself.

This was published in 1899 — well over a hundred years ago.

Although Dewey is talking about finding meaning in work as in one’s job, this could apply as easily to “work” students do in schools. Schools are places where student’s express ideas of others rather than their own. We could say students are modern slaves of the educational system. How can we get students to find meaning and purpose in the work they do in schools?

Dewey goes on to talk about how students could find meaning in school by bringing real life experiences into the classroom. The curriculum should emerge from students’ passions, from students’ desire to learn something they want to do in real life. Much of what students do in school are unrelated to real life work experiences. There is no utility for a lot of what we make students go through, as a result, the meaning of school is lost to them.

When I think about curriculum and about bringing meaning back into school, I think about this TEDx talk by Shawn Cornally. Watch if you can.

Shawn is the co-founder of one of the most innovative schools I know— Iowa Big. They have set a good example of what meaningful education can be.

Learning in focus — We can bring back meaning to learning. We need to allow students to drive curriculum choices.