During the holidays I pondered the decision of some families over the past two years to home-school their children. I thought through my perceived benefits of being within a diverse, enlightened school community. Here are my thoughts on the benefits of good schooling for all future adults!
Our social behaviour is moulded by the people around us. We learn how to watch others for non-verbal cues as well as listen to them to understand their opinion. We learn to make friends and to gently release them when the time is right. Working in groups, particularly with people you don’t like, is difficult but being at school requires us to learn how to do this. School helps us to learn how to succeed and fail, and our schooling teaches us that if we persist through failure, we still can succeed!
Some things at school are out of our control and so we need confidence to face challenges – not everything can be controlled just because we wish it were so! Schools bring together families with diverse backgrounds and this could create a ‘culture clash’. Living and learning at home amongst people you know means little opportunity to learn empathy and understanding of difference. Co-operative learning benefits everyone, especially when those participating are very different.
If we learn good communication skills like networking, negotiation, mediation and public speaking before we leave school, we become exceptionally valuable future employees. Good writing skills and critical thinking are often part of our school assignments, with paying attention to the detail and handing the project in on time being awarded success. Another business skill we learn while at school is how to utilise resources that are available, often through recycling or reusing items, and this means that we make good decisions about how to treat resources responsibly. Decision making is another skill learnt at school: the consequences of good and bad decisions, by ourselves and others, are very evident. Ethical behaviours are also learnt through mentorship and watching the community interact positively.
The hobbies we have as adults are often learnt at school too. Some schools like ours still include embroidery, sewing, woodwork and growing plants in their daily curriculum so children are introduced to lots of activities which can become life-long hobbies. Good reading skills and access to great reading material usually means we become ‘hobby’ readers as adults too. Sporting activities and being active throughout life usually starts at school if this is a positive experience.
Good schools teach us to love learning! Learning through play, through experimentation and through practice help us to continue to be life-long learners.
Nowhere in this article have I mentioned school subjects! Anyone can learn anything online these days but the skills one learns through interaction within a community are the valuable ones can take us into adulthood. Viva schooling!
