Production Line Theory of Education
Our educational system is stuck in a Henry Ford production line model that views students as the “objects” of the educational enterprise rather than as “participants” in the educational enterprise. What would you “learn” about the business of living if you spent 12+ years in the postion of an “object”?
(The following commentary is from a correspondence initiated by Alan Pippenger of Tallahassee, Florida in which he asks for ideas regarding the development of a systems oriented middle-school curriculum.)
I began my education and instructional design consulting career as a teacher and principal in public education. I specialized in the field then called “Alternative Education” which was dedicated to exploring alternatives to the so called “comprehensive” Henry Ford production line model. The high school I founded in 1974 under the “Necessary Small High School” provisions in the state of California, was built upon theoretical and methodological foundations that were fundamentally different from the production line model of education and, though I did not know of it at time, was entirely consistent with the teachings of Dr. W. E. Deming.
The dominant theory behind our current approach to education is mistaken. it views students as OBJECTS of the educational enterprise rather than PARTICIPANTS in the educational enterprise. A more useful theory recognizes that students (i.e. human beings) do not acquire knowledge. They create knowledge. The job of school faculty, administration, and staff is to facilitate and steer the process of knowledge creation.
This is based in a theory of knowledge that explains that knowledge is not external “stuff” that is contained in some repository. Knowing is an active process propelled by the continuous interactive generation of a community narrative. The school I led using this theory was cohesive. It produced excellent results on standardize tests and had the highest attendance rates in the district. In other words, it worked. Resistance to the school from “educational professionals” outside the school grew in direct proportion to the school’s success.
When I meet with teachers I always begin by asking them to explain their theory of how leaning occurs. They are invariably confused. At best, they come up with an incoherent jumble of theories from their college reading lists. At worst, they have only some management and control practices they use for their own survival in the classroom jungle.
Too many teachers, administrators and parents have no idea what learning means or how it occurs. They only know results in the form of test scores and grades. On that basis, they will do anything to maximize those results. The destruction wrought by this single minded focus on outcomes is incalculable.
