Leading thinkers behind the traditional school

[Seth Leonardson]

In "Turning Learning Right Side Up", at page xv (in the introduction),
it is described how the thinking behind the school was in the early
19th century: "to succeed with industrializing... this country was to
find a way to break the inherently free human spirit during childhood.
This was no secret...conspiracy... On the contrary, it was a project
discussed openly and candidly by the leading American thinkers of the
day..."

That is very intreresting, and it explains a lot of how traditional
schools are, and has been.

I would very much like to read what those leading American thinkers
wrote or said. Would anyone of you kind people tell me who those
thinkers were, and/or where I can read more about this?

Thank you!

[Mike South]

You are looking for the history of the "factory model school".  At least, that is the term I am familiar with.  In theory, the big industrialists were interested in establishing a system whose products would be pre-conditioned to serve as a work force (and, I've also heard, consumer).  Get them used to living by the bell, don't expose them to long periods of reflection and such but a package of information neatly standardized and producing a predictable result (their own children wouldn't be affected by this because they would go to "preparatory schools" that would be preparing them for entrance to college).

I'm not sure how much is true, how much is conspiracy theory, but Gatto, at least, claims that they were not at all attempting to hide what they were trying to do.

I think he goes into it in this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education-Investigation/dp/0945700040

but I haven't read it.  One reviewer said that it lacks citations for its claims (which doesn't make them false of course but still leaves documentation to be desired).  All of my five minutes of research leads me to wonder if there *is* a plain explanation out there, with documentation, of the origin and thinking behind it.

I am surprised that there is no entry on Wikipedia for "Factory Model School".  All the people I knew who were majoring in education knew and used that term.

Anyway--maybe you could look at Gatto's book and see if it leads you to claims to check into.

This is probably one of those situations where I should have waited and seen if anyone that actually knew anything posted a reply :).

mike

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[Brainiac 5]

That book is also available for free online reading at:

http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

[Ida]

I suppose that the educational factory model is related to
industrialism and the scientific management of Taylor (so-called
Taylorism - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylorism). Also related to
the Pavlov's experiments.Behaviourism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Behaviourism) is the pedagogical model linked to this perspective.
B.F. Skinner (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner) is one of
the educational mentors of this model, which suits the acquisition of
operational competencies. There's a well known video from the '50s
that explains the functioning of one of his innovative teaching
machines - http://youtu.be/EXR9Ft8rzhk.
Ida Brandao

[The Highland School]

If you'd like to read some well documented history of american schooling, I would suggest books by Joel Spring (Education and the Rise of the Corporate State, The American School, etc.).  Spring has spent a lifetime finding primary source materials to describe how traditional schools came to be.  Candy Landvoigt, Ed.D., The Highland School

 

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[dem...@att.net]

There is also The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto, it's a significantly less academic read, but will refer to the original thinkers.

Demian

Sent from my iPhone

[Jim Whiteford]

I'd say the Prologue, "Against School", and first chapter, "Everything You Know About School is Wrong", in Gatto's Weapons of Mass Instruction, are a pretty good place to start. There you'll find historical links to the model of education in Prussia, and references to this model by many influential American academics, politicians, industrialists and writers, such as Horace Mann, James Bryant Conant, Alexander Ingliss, and William Torrey Harris. There's a good number of quotes and sources to published material. He also refers to a book entitled True and Only Heaven by Christopher Lasch, which he says refers to the crtitical days of school history, and Orestes Brownson who contested school policy in the 1840s in New England as "a munumental conspiracy." I haven't read Lasch's book myself. You might also be interested in some of the historic influences on "Progressive" education, for example Herbert Spencer, who is discussed alot in Getting in Wrong from the Beginning by Kieran Egan - I read the introduction here, and I don't know if the author mentions the Sudbury model in the body of the book, but it sounds to me like he has never come across it. Perhaps that's not really within the scope of his enquiry.  

The other thing to bear in mind is that the establishment of compulsory school followed similar patterns throughout the then industrialising world. What happened in the US was not dissimilar to what happened in England, or even here in Sweden. One common theme was a two-tier system, where the rich elite or aristocrats of some societies were offered  a "free" or liberal education, while the masses were drilled into submissive, meaningless and repetitive routines specifically to make them withstand operating machinery for hours at a time, and also to become a timid, stupefied populace that could be easily managed.    

Jim.