Goals of education

I'm watching Randi Weingarten give her Chautauqua speech (access from "Chautauqua" post) and she's made some really interesting points about how our goals for education have changed a lot more than our structure has.  She relates the 45 minute class, 3 minute turnover, and bubble filling tests to a time when we were training our students for factories.  Now, our job is to prepare all kids for a knowledge economy. 

This part of the speech relates to the guy I studied for my Education Hall of Fame project - John Goodlad.  John Goodlad is behind the biggest educational study we've ever had.  With the help of over 27,000 people he observed classrooms across the United States and found some similarities across the board.  One of his observations was that our education system had no formal or united goals for our students.  He outlined four goals for American students.  1. Academic, they should be knowledgeable and intellectual.  2. Vocation, they should be prepared to work and contribute to economy.  3. Social/Civic, they should be prepared to be a part of a democratic society.  4. Personal, they should develop individuality and creativity.  John Goodlad published A Place Called School about his observations throughout the study in 1983. I've ordered it because, after researching him, I believe that a lot of what he writes about is especially relevant to today's educational system.

Google Books, A Place Called School: http://books.google.com-a_place/