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I don’t know if this true, but I’ve heard that the US education system was designed to prepare people for factory jobs. Clock in and out at certain times. Eat m

I don’t know if this true, but I’ve heard that the US education system was designed to prepare people for factory jobs. Clock in and out at certain times. Eat meals on a set schedule. Only use bathroom during scheduled breaks. Sit in your seat for extended periods of time. Rote learning. Repetitive tasks. Etc. I don’t know if it is true, but it does make a lot of sense.

newtoday 6y ago
I wouldn't say it was explicitly designed for that endgoal, but I can concur that is where most low to mid academic achieving "kids" end up. Edit: reference: I'm a 10x / unicorn at factory work environments, operating machines, metal fabrication, etc.
anoraca 6y ago
Efficient, effective systems models are emulated across many industries.
finder83 6y ago
My understanding is actually that they tried to apply the principles of factories to school. It's not so much that they want to prepare people to work in factories, as they wanted to create a process where you could take someone through the whole school system in a repeatable fashion and get an expected result, just like factories do for cars. So instead of everyone of every age in the same class or a mentor system, you have everyone of the same age going though the same material every year. Unfortunately what it tends not to work as well with are students behind their age curve or ahead of their age curve.
analog31 6y ago
I know a lot of teachers, and not a single one has ever mentioned these things as values or design goals. I've never seen anything like this in any discussion of curriculum or pedagogy. It's not plausible that they're all managing to keep it a secret. Someone would have spilled the beans, for example some early 20th century teacher writing a memoir, or something like that. So, a fair guess is that if it's true, it's an example of a system that has evolved away from its original goals.
- SrslyJosh 6y ago
  A useful thing I heard once is that "the purpose of a system is what it does." We also don't need conspiracies to explain systems that are badly dysfunctional or have outcomes that are detrimental to society.
- irrational 6y ago
  Um, obviously this would have been the design more than a century ago when the current school system was put into place. These days we seem to mainly do what we do because that is "how it has always been done". Tradition! You see little efforts to change things up (for example, special classes for advanced students), but for the most part you are still expected to show up at 7am, eat lunch at a specific time, go to the bathroom during breaks, leave at 3pm, sit in a desk for an hour plus at a time, etc. I don't think there is some grand conspiracy. I think educators are not willing to go totally against the grain and absolutely throw out everything we do right now and start from scratch. For instance, school time before 9am is insane. Kids need more sleep than that. How about kids can get up and leave the classroom and go to the bathroom or go and eat whenever they want? Do we really need classrooms? Do we need dedicated buildings for school? Do we need schedules? Do all kids really need math, science, history, etc.? Just because we have always done things one way doesn't mean we have to keep doing them that way.

newtoday 6y ago

I wouldn't say it was explicitly designed for that endgoal, but I can concur that is where most low to mid academic achieving "kids" end up. Edit: reference: I'm a 10x / unicorn at factory work environments, operating machines, metal fabrication, etc.

anoraca 6y ago

Efficient, effective systems models are emulated across many industries.

finder83 6y ago

My understanding is actually that they tried to apply the principles of factories to school. It's not so much that they want to prepare people to work in factories, as they wanted to create a process where you could take someone through the whole school system in a repeatable fashion and get an expected result, just like factories do for cars. So instead of everyone of every age in the same class or a mentor system, you have everyone of the same age going though the same material every year. Unfortunately what it tends not to work as well with are students behind their age curve or ahead of their age curve.

analog31 6y ago

I know a lot of teachers, and not a single one has ever mentioned these things as values or design goals. I've never seen anything like this in any discussion of curriculum or pedagogy. It's not plausible that they're all managing to keep it a secret. Someone would have spilled the beans, for example some early 20th century teacher writing a memoir, or something like that. So, a fair guess is that if it's true, it's an example of a system that has evolved away from its original goals.

SrslyJosh 6y ago
A useful thing I heard once is that "the purpose of a system is what it does." We also don't need conspiracies to explain systems that are badly dysfunctional or have outcomes that are detrimental to society.
irrational 6y ago
Um, obviously this would have been the design more than a century ago when the current school system was put into place. These days we seem to mainly do what we do because that is "how it has always been done". Tradition! You see little efforts to change things up (for example, special classes for advanced students), but for the most part you are still expected to show up at 7am, eat lunch at a specific time, go to the bathroom during breaks, leave at 3pm, sit in a desk for an hour plus at a time, etc. I don't think there is some grand conspiracy. I think educators are not willing to go totally against the grain and absolutely throw out everything we do right now and start from scratch. For instance, school time before 9am is insane. Kids need more sleep than that. How about kids can get up and leave the classroom and go to the bathroom or go and eat whenever they want? Do we really need classrooms? Do we need dedicated buildings for school? Do we need schedules? Do all kids really need math, science, history, etc.? Just because we have always done things one way doesn't mean we have to keep doing them that way.