What is a school?

There are as many different types of schools as there are definitions for the word school. As a starting point, the course outline suggests that a school is a “collection or group of people who share, organize and communicate common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline or belief.” Below is an excerpt from a 2006 article written by Jude Soo Meng Chua—What is school? An answer consistent with human rights. In the article she reveals the contrasting possibilities for the definition of a school.

“It is 6a.m. in the morning. The first school bus arrives to unload it
passengers—young boys and girls, some weighed down by a heavy backpack. Other
students begin to saunter through the gate to begin a new day. Teachers
rush towards classrooms and the staff rooms, preparing to deliver lessons on
arithmetic, languages and the sciences, and the principal walks about to ensure
all is in order, before returning to the office to sort out the pile of
administrative duties awaiting his attention—all this with a view to ensuring
that students succeed on obtaining an educational certificate, which will in
turn either enable entrance into a higher educational institute, or perhaps
obtain a job, pay for meals, support entertainment, live and live well.. This is
a school.

Elsewhere in another part of the world something like this is happening.
Students come in much earlier. Teachers and pupils organize themselves. Some
huddle in the cold, while others adjust the holsters in which their heavy
machine-guns nest. They sit in rooms where chalk boards describe maps of
surrounding jungles and instructors explain how best to surprise and survive.
Now and then a man walks about to punish the distracted child and to enforce
desirable behavior. This scene may be less familiar, but nonetheless exists. Or,
at least, one very much like this exists. For instance, the Quaker UNO
ethnographic study of child soldiers reports the daily life of the child, who is
taught, amongst other things, ‘how to enter enemy territory and collect
information…how to write detailed reports…[how] to be the keeper of detailed
records [of weapons]’ (see Keairns, 2002, p.23). And this too is a school.”

Are these both schools? Unfortunately, according to our starting point, yes, they are. It is important to keep in mind that there are many kinds of schools. Pre-schools, elementary schools, vocational schools, professional schools, those that teach language, culture or religion, and yes, even those that prepare children to fight a war. Not only are there many different types of schools, but many different ways to “be” a school. The definition of a school will change according to the people who are involved, the visions and goals of the members, and ultimately, the community in which it exists. In the preface to the 2001 book, The Community School, edited by Redding and Thomas, it is suggested that the school is often seen as part of the community. However, it may be that when a school begins to function as a community that common values are shared. The SchoolPlus At A Glance Document focuses on the school as the centre of the community.
What then is my ideal picture of a school? A school is a healthy, safe and caring environment where all children are given the opportunity to learn. The SchoolPlus document extends this by stating that school is a place where all children and young people have the opportunity and supports they need to develop to their full potential. With this statement I would concur. It is through the healthy development of our children that the creation of a caring a prosperous society is made possible.
“There is no better place to create a community of caring than in our schools – the heart of our future.”
Patricia G∙ndara