Friday, February 10, 2012

Respectful Individuals

From a forum linked to kitchen table math, here's the graduation goals for one school district:

A graduate of the Eastchester Schools will be:

* A respectful individual
* A life-long learner
* An effective communicator
* A complex thinker and problem solver
* A competent and responsible user of technology

How did "a respectful individual" get to the top of the list?

2 comments:

  1. I know my kids' elementary school certainly seems to prioritize cultivating "respectful" behavior over any other goal of education. Unfortunately, I can't tell the difference between their idea of "respect" and simple obedience.

    There is so much talk of the need for "respect," but no one seems ever to want to define the term. What do they think it means?

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  2. Suburban Chicken FarmerFebruary 11, 2012 at 3:27 PM

    I'm guessing the root word has become so meaningless through overuse that the authors may have confused it with "respectable." Though schools striving to develop youngsters into "respectable individuals" sounds rather archaically classist/racist- so, then again, uhhh, maybe not.

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