Schools and Collective Responsibility

“Schools teach us theories and facts. They help us answer the question, ‘What do I know?’ Schools teach us skills. They help us answer the question, ‘What can I do?’ But they also teach us the story of our nation, what freedom is and how it was fought for, and what battles those who came before us had to fight. They help us to answer the question: ‘Who am I? Of what story or stories am I a part? And how then shall I live?’ They teach us about keeping faith with the past while honouring our obligations to the future. At best, they teach us collective responsibility for the common good.”

The Power of Ideas, p. 187