But that's what was happening. Independent educators have long seen the primary purpose of schooling as helping children develop increased understanding from their learning. Content and skills must be vehicles to that understanding, but they should not be considered ends in themselves. True learning is a sweaty process. It takes time and challenges assumptions, and, as often as not, creates discomfort.
Good education goes deep, searching out complexity and uncovering further questions.
Such a meager focus only insults our students' intellects. As public school parents and legislators work themselves into a frenzy over reform, independent school parents, equally frenzied, demand unlimited services from our schools. If the pressure becomes too unbearable, the center will not hold. In the independent school world, the only antidote is for leaders to continue to articulate their schools' missions and restate principles of good practice. The real purpose of academic knowledge is to support the larger goal of an educated citizenry.