Posted on: Sunday, February 6, 2005

VOICES OF EDUCATION

By Robert McClelland

The purpose of education is an ongoing topic of debate across the country. Some people may argue that schools exist solely to help students become productive workers or to give them the ability to further their education at the post-secondary level. Others may assert that while academic achievement is indeed important, schools still have the responsibility to go beyond the three R's and focus more of their energies on developing good citizens.

This debate on what school is all about is productive and reflects what the public believes is important for students to know and do.

A recent survey on American attitudes on civic education asked respondents across the country to rate the importance of several goals for public schools. Not surprisingly, nine out of 10 respondents said that it was important for schools to teach basic reading, math and science skills. Significantly, three out of four stated that schools should focus on developing positive character traits, and seven out of 10 tasked public schools with the responsibility of preparing students to be competent and responsible citizens who participate in our democratic society.

The Hawai'i Department of Education is committed to teaching the fundamentals — reading, mathematics, science and writing — but it also has a much broader mission: Ensure that students learn to be fully engaged in the life of their communities. This mission reflects what we believe is important. This broad mission is consistent with the expectations of the state's Reinventing Education Act passed by the 2004 Legislature.

We know from our own experience as well as from what is happening across the country that learning how to be a productive worker or to be successful in college is not divorced from learning how to be a good citizen. These go hand in hand. Combined, they form part of a package of skills and attitudes that students develop in their early years, then continue to refine throughout their path in life.

To help ensure that students become good citizens, the DOE has three fundamental priorities: ensuring our students' academic achievement, providing for their safety and well-being, and promoting their civic responsibility. The department is responsible for developing young minds and young citizens, but its work is often dictated by the answers that the community gives to a series of important questions.

For example, what does a fully functioning and active community member look like? What does it mean to be engaged in the life of the community? What does it mean to be a good citizen?

Finding appropriate answers to these questions has always determined the fate of societies throughout human history. So critical are these questions that countries rise and fall by the quality of their response to the issues being raised.

In the United States, as in other democratic countries around the world, citizenship typically involves some level of participation in the electoral and democratic processes and some type of service to the community. This view of citizenship was built from the very beginning of our nation upon the ideal of its people collectively "promoting the common good." It is based on the expectation that the individual is concerned with the welfare of fellow community members. That expectation is so elegantly stated by Thomas Jefferson, who once wrote: "A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society."

As a primary institution of our society, the Department of Education looks for ways to help students value the democratic ideals upon which our country depends. We encourage students to become lifelong voters, in addition to being lifelong learners. We ask our students to be volunteers in community service projects at a very early age, and to understand that service is a part of life's purpose. We expose them to a variety of experiences that show them the value and importance of collaboration and teamwork.

What we do in our schools helps the young people who leave our doors after 12 years to be more than good workers and successful college students. What we do helps them to value democratic ideals, promotes within them a set of virtues and principles that they can rely upon to make positive life decisions, and sets them on a path of service through their avocations, their families and their careers.

Robert McClelland is the director of the Department of Education's planning and evaluation office.This is another in a series of articles by professional educators from both the public and private sectors addressing the choices and decisions that can best improve the quality of education in Hawai'i.