I doubt that many school officials or politicians today know about the influences of the Prussian school system on e.g. the United States school system, or would guess that their present systems bear features deliberately designed to stunt intellectual growth.
I suspect that they mostly see the system that they were themselves educated in as normal by default, and only think to question the appropriateness of features that are specifically brought to their attention, and then only contemplate changing them in ways that are politically practical and advantageous from their positions. Expecting them to try and design and implement a school system that best meets their stated goals is like expecting a person to specify to a genie exactly how they want their mother removed from a burning building so as to save her life. The problem and its solution space simply doesn’t fall within the realms that they’re inclined to actually think about.
I do not know if you have read Gatto or not based on this. He points out that the system has no memory of its origin and that changes occur just like you describe with the result of deepening the problem. The last major school reform was GW Bush’s No Child Left Behind....if that tells you anything about who “fixes” the system.
No Child Left Behind was a stupid fix, but that doesn’t mean it was an ill intentioned fix.
I have actually just found the online text of “The Underground History of Education,” and started reading it, but so far am unimpressed and unlikely to finish it. I’m noticing a lot of cherrypicking to support his position, and he doesn’t give sources for his assertions at all (I went to the table of contents to look for a bibliography, and couldn’t find one, so I did a further search to see if this is the case in the print version and confirmed that the book contains no citations.)
I share his opinion that our current educational system is not well designed to get the best out of its students, but if I wanted to introduce someone to a writer who could effectively explain that point, I don’t think I’d recommend him. I’d probably recommend some of Eliezer’s essays, or maybe Paul Graham’s.
I doubt that many school officials or politicians today know about the influences of the Prussian school system on e.g. the United States school system, or would guess that their present systems bear features deliberately designed to stunt intellectual growth.
I suspect that they mostly see the system that they were themselves educated in as normal by default, and only think to question the appropriateness of features that are specifically brought to their attention, and then only contemplate changing them in ways that are politically practical and advantageous from their positions. Expecting them to try and design and implement a school system that best meets their stated goals is like expecting a person to specify to a genie exactly how they want their mother removed from a burning building so as to save her life. The problem and its solution space simply doesn’t fall within the realms that they’re inclined to actually think about.
Indeed. (I should clarify that I was interpreting the original inventors of the Volksschule were the ‘top’, not, say, Arne Duncan.)
I do not know if you have read Gatto or not based on this. He points out that the system has no memory of its origin and that changes occur just like you describe with the result of deepening the problem. The last major school reform was GW Bush’s No Child Left Behind....if that tells you anything about who “fixes” the system.
No Child Left Behind was a stupid fix, but that doesn’t mean it was an ill intentioned fix.
I have actually just found the online text of “The Underground History of Education,” and started reading it, but so far am unimpressed and unlikely to finish it. I’m noticing a lot of cherrypicking to support his position, and he doesn’t give sources for his assertions at all (I went to the table of contents to look for a bibliography, and couldn’t find one, so I did a further search to see if this is the case in the print version and confirmed that the book contains no citations.)
I share his opinion that our current educational system is not well designed to get the best out of its students, but if I wanted to introduce someone to a writer who could effectively explain that point, I don’t think I’d recommend him. I’d probably recommend some of Eliezer’s essays, or maybe Paul Graham’s.