A Short History of Public Schooling
This video takes on a cynical view of public education in America through the Industrial Age. It asserts that schools were designed to pacify the young and turn them into complacent workers in factories. And yes, this seems highly plausible.
I question whether folks saw this as a bad thing back then, as factory work was seen as a way to gain wealth and move off of farms. There is some messaging about this, as Mann thought education was an equalizer of sorts. In ways it has that potential now, although seemingly not for everyone.
The larger point of the film is to show how public schooling evolved from something young folk experienced at home to something that happened enmass. Obviously, the system was imperfect.
The Broken Model
The Khan text digs deeper and examines the history of education as a social construct, designed to meet the age of a former time. The way it looked was not inevitable. It was created by people. The argument that the system needs disruption is apt, as much rhetoric in big business calls for the same thing.
Our modern history is peppered with examples of entrenched industries and systems that are upended by new ideas and models.
Take the horse. For hundreds of years, horses were the primary means of transportation. The industry was huge. There were people who bred horses, cared for them, produced their food, crafted their iron shoes.
The car comes around. Ten years later, all of these jobs and structures around them were gone.
Now mostly, factories have moved overseas, and the system of education has retained many elements from that era. Including an original aim: to control people.
Khan calls for a readaptation.
Opposed to the video, Khan is more sympathetic to the concepts of the original schools. However, he acknowledges clearly that the system is outdated, saying:
"Today’s world needs a workforce of creative, curious, and self directed lifelong learners who are capable of conceiving and implementing novel ideas. Unfortunately, this is the type of student that the Prussian model actively suppresses."
Testing & Creativity
Khan goes on to critique the culture of testing in schools and its drawbacks. My school is on the extreme end of this. The Achievement First model is based on regularly testing students to "see the learning gaps," so adjustments to instruction can be made.
The big trouble with this system is that the tests are interpreted by folks far removed from the classroom and then whatever new focus is then passed down to the teachers. It is a top down model focused on getting test results really. It's all about RICAS.
To look good on paper, AF has alternate schedule days where students take extracurricular mock tests to prep them for RICAS. If you add up all these days, plus the intentional test-prep period leading up to RICAS, students miss 2-months of instruction.
This system only secondarily, if at all, acknowledges creative potential of students. This is something that can't be evaluated in the same way, can't be tested and measured. So it is ignored until later. Until someone else cracks-the-code. Or their funding or images becomes less testing-dependent.
