Public School, What Should It Accomplish? Be Concrete.

What should public school in any country ultimately accomplish?  The answer to that question elicits all kinds of generalizations that all people can agree on.  But the answer I want is more concrete.  And I'm disappointed that there is not more concrete discussion about the ultimate goal of education.  Let's take an internet tour to see what official "big picture" organizations see as the big picture...

From www.ed.gov:

The mission of the Department of Education is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. It engages in four major types of activities:

1. Establishes policies related to federal education funding, administers distribution of funds and monitors their use.
2. Collects data and oversees research on America's schools.
3. Identifies major issues in education and focuses national attention on them.
4. Enforces federal laws prohibiting discrimination in programs that receive federal funds.

From another part of www.ed.gov:

OVERVIEW
An Overview of the U.S. Department of Education
November 2009

The U.S. Department of Education is the agency of the federal government that establishes policy for, administers, and coordinates most federal assistance to education.

Feeling well-informed and inspired?  I'm not.  So let's go to the TN department of ed site (since I teach in TN) Tennessee Department of Education Welcome to the Tennessee Department of Education. A quality education is the fundamental right of every child in Tennessee. The department provides many services, and it is our responsibility to ensure equal, safe, and quality learning opportunities for all students, pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. Therefore, our mission is to help teachers teach and children learn. This department consists of several divisions – Special Education, Vocational-Technical Education, Resources and Support Services, Office of Early Learning and Teaching and Learning. Remembering our priority of putting teachers and students first drives the department’s daily operations: Service: We are here to support the 136 school districts and 1,677 schools in Tennessee and to help them in their daily efforts to educate our children. We also provide services to approximately 575 private schools and thousands of home-schooled students across the state. When making inquiries to our department, you should expect prompt, thoughtful, and courteous responses. Accountability: The department fills a role as a keeper and distributor of pertinent education data. This information is used to demonstrate academic performance, to reward schools performing well, and to provide additional resources and assistance to schools in need of improvement. Partnership: We believe that more can be accomplished when we all work together rather than separately. By partnering with local schools, parents, businesses, and organizations, we can provide more books, more awards, more grants, and more expertise. This means more, and better, educational opportunities for our students. Innovation: The way children learn is changing every day. We are committed to using technology in the classroom. We are also working to involve parents and community leaders to ensure that students are equipped with the skills necessary for higher levels of education, the world of work, and lifelong learning.

Bottom line:  a lot of words are written, but I have no more clear idea of why we are educating our population.  I believe that we would do a whole lot better if we had a clear idea of why we are educating our kids.  Things like "being competitive in the world" NEED to be fleshed out in more concrete (and ideally more inspiring) terms.