Students at my school have to do exit interviews with their Vice-Principals to finish off a course requirement in one of their grad required courses. It’s during this interview that the student explains their future plans, how they plan to get there, and various other things related education, etc. I have been asking my students another question, one not on the course rubric. Before I tell them the question I give them this brief spiel: You have spent the last 13-14 years in school. The K-12 system has taught you the prescribed skills and knowledge dictated by the Ministry of Education. In the end you will attain a dogwood diploma and a transcript of the courses you took from Gr. 10-12. My question is: what is the most important thing you will take away from your K-12 education other than your academics and the diploma you will receive.

This question, which sometimes can be forgotten in the rigmarole of education, is important to ask. We, as educators, sometimes forget that education is more than academic progress and grades. The K-12 system is much more than the acquiremnt of skills and knowledge. Maybe this statement, and belief, would hold true 40-50 years ago but in today’s world it is much, much more.

Its amazing the answers I get from students when I ask them this question. Their answers might be different if they had more time to process the question. But the question needs to be asked. Its an important question that should help drive our educational system, its growth and development, and help shape where education is going and what it will look like in the future. I would say 80-90% of students say learning social skills and learning to work with different people is the number one answer. They all say school has allowed them to better enter the work force and to engage and  interact with other people. It has taught them about friendships and a means to find a social group that fits them where they are in life at that time of their life.

I think at a time when education is changing and we are looking at where / how education will look in the future I think it is imperative that we ask the people in the system, the students, what they are taking away from their time in school. With school becoming an institution that does far more than teach a prescribed curriculum its important sometimes to self-reflect and ask these vital and important questions.