Jack Bramhall-Heck

Mr. Walker
English
11/22/16
When you think of the institution that affects the youth in our country the most, what do
you think of? I think its fair to assume that most people said the public school system. The
majority of kids spend countless hours in school. Whether theyre in classes or sitting in the hall
with friends, teenagers build their life around school. The fact of the matter is that our society
has changed a lot since the 1800s, when the first public high school was created in Boston, but
strangely enough school seems to be stuck in the past. Sure, now we have laptops, smart
boards, the students have far more freedom than they used to, but the fact of the matter is that
schools were originally designed to feed directly into factory work. But the thing is, we dont live
in a society that relies on an industrial economy anymore. All the other problems with school
stem from this fact. The fact that school actively stifles creativity and punishes people who
challenge the conventional or correct answer while they reward people who do what theyre
told and obey without questioning is a problem that is obviously rooted in industrialism. When
thousands of people were learning how to do the same menial labor while only being taught
basic literacy, there wasnt very much use for creativity. The final problem when it comes to the
public school system is also rooted in, you guessed it, the industrial revolution. This is the fact
that schools are incredibly selective with their curriculum and it wasnt created to accommodate
people who learn at different speeds or who learn in different fashions. The public school
system is an outdated system that has many debilitating problems, the primary ones being that
the society we live in has changed a lot since the 1800s and school serves a much different
purpose than it used to, school stifles creativity and individuality while simultaneously not
challenging people to innovate, and the actual curriculum the schools use is borderline obsolete
along with the way they teach you it.
The most common criticism you will hear about our current education system is that its
based on the factory model. This wasnt always a bad thing, considering the 1800s were a
time of great technological advancement and industrial work was one of the most common and
secure jobs, not to mention it was in high demand. These facts make it understandable that the
school system typically fed directly into the factories. But what is the factory model of
education? Audrey Watters, in her article The Invented History of The Factory Model of
Education[1] argues that typically people will invoke its name when pointing out the flaws in our
current education system without truly understanding what it is. So what is it then? To put it
simply, the factory model is effectively what we see today. You are put into a group of people
based on your age and then you are effectively put on a set path that moves at a fixed rate. Sal
Khan in his video The History of Education[2] describes it as an assembly line. For example,
every kid who was born between September 1st 2001 and January 31st 2002 is thrown into a
bucket, then placed on an assembly line that moves them all forward at a fixed rate. At every
point on the assembly line, they are stopped and fed information, then they continue forward,
not worrying about the fact that someone could have missed out on the information, but the
thing about assembly lines is that they wont go backward. In fact the bell that we use in school

originated from factories as it was used to mark the end of a shift. This factory model is also
known as The Prussian Model, a model that became extremely popular during the industrial
revolution, as it was extremely effective during this time,. Public schools would supply factories
with menial labor providing only basic literary skills to the masses. The secondary education
would supply the factories with managerial staff and higher education would supply the doctors,
engineers, and scientists, keep in mind that less than 5% of the population reached this level of
education. But we now live in a society where youre not going to graduate high school, go
directly to the factories, then work until you die. We live in one where we have the opportunity to
utilize higher learning opportunities like college. We as a society have near infinite options for
what we could pursue, but schools dont treat it that way. Our schools cant keep up with our
post-industrial society and that's a major problem. As far as reform goes, the government has
hindered the already broken system much more than theyve helped it. Theyve enforced
dozens of various standardized tests, to ensure students learn the curriculum, but the thing is
they also use these tests to judge the adequacy of teachers. This causes a strange power shift,
where the teachers try to drill whats going to be on the tests into the students brains instead of
worrying about them actually learning, so they will be able to keep their jobs. This results in a far
more rigorous experience in which the student learns less. School no longer worries about
giving students valuable life skills, it instead seems like its only use is to teach us how to take
tests.
Probably one of the biggest problems that has emerged from the factory model is the
fact that it was created in a time when arts education was borderline nonexistent. This resulted
in a school system that stifles and punishes creativity. Due to its industrial roots, the system
values many subjects much more than others. Math, sciences, history, and comprehension, are
treated like they are essential, while other subjects like music, poetry, and drama, are put on the
backburner and are considered useless. Math and sciences encourage correct answers,
precision, accuracy, while arts promote free-thinking, innovating, and creativity. Steve Jobs; the
founder of Apple, famously said, The Macintosh turned out so well because the people working
on it were musicians, artists, poets, and historians who also happened to be excellent computer
scientists.[3] This quote makes it very clear that many people dont succeed in life because of
school, but in spite of it. As a high schooler myself, I can confidently say that I have learned
more from listening to music, watching movies, reading articles, and researching things that Im
personally interested in than I ever have from a class. Schools need to understand everyone is
born with an immense passion or natural aptitude for something. Instead of trying to destroy that
passion, maybe they should help students find that passion and nurture it, instead of breeding a
conformist society thats scared of individuality. Stop punishing students who challenge ideas,
accusing them of talking back, while simultaneously praising kids who never break the norm.
Arguably the biggest problem with the school system and the worst thing that school
promotes is the one size fits all attitude. School has a nasty habit of treating everyone the
exact same way. They have a fixed curriculum that values a certain set of core subjects far
more than other elective classes and they dont even bother to accommodate people who
learn at different speed (Hint: Thats everyone). Sure, some schools have gifted and talented
programs or special education programs, but its really not that simple. In a single gifted and

talented class, youll have people who turn in every assignment and ace all their quizzes, but
youll also have people who dont understand the assignments, who get Cs on their quizzes, not
because theyre slacking but because theyre expected to learn everything just as quickly as
everyone else in the class, just because they happened to test into gifted and talented back in
elementary school. Thats not fair to anybody, because you cant slow down the whole class to
help a few students who dont understand, but you also cant move at a pace where a number of
students dont understand whats being taught at all. This causes more problems then you could
imagine. When kids are distracted because they cant pay attention to something they dont
understand theyre labeled as ADD. When a student dozes off in class because he was up all
night the day before trying to study a textbook that seems foreign to him hes disciplined. Were
forced into classes we dont want to take, then further punished when we dont have any desire
to learn what theyre teaching. Not to mention these classes are typically the ones that teach
completely esoteric skills that the majority of our population will never use. If I have absolutely
no interest in Advanced Biology then chances are Im not going to be a biologist when I grow up,
so why do I have to take this class? If Im instead interested in music, why cant I take a music
theory class? A musicology class? Oh I know, because thats not a core subject. Id never
actually apply that to my life, but theres no doubt that Ill need calculus on a daily basis when
Im older. Richard Branson, a British Billionaire, has a famous quote, I was dyslexic, I had no
understanding of schoolwork whatsoever. I certainly would have failed IQ tests. And it was one
of the reasons I left school when I was 15 years old. And if I if Im not interested in something,
I dont grasp it.[4] If schools are actively pushing students away, creating a society who is
scared of learning, then you know theres something wrong with the system.
School is an outdated system whose roots trace back to an era that was extremely
different, both culturally and economically. We no longer live in a society where One size fits
all, where we graduate high school then go to work until we die. No, we live in a rapidly
globalizing world, where everybody should have the option to do whatever they want. Instead of
being compartmentalized into a group of students who only hold superficial similarities with each
other, the government should look into real reform policies, not the joke that is standardized
testing. School should instill a curiosity in everyone, a desire to learn about topics that interest
them, but in reality its doing the opposite. If you talk to any student, the majority will talk about
how they wish they could learn about something that truly interested them. Thats the point of
school! Students are unsatisfied with school, because its not accomplishing the one thing its
meant to do. Thats a problem. I think its time for the public education system to go through
some serious changes and I hope you agree.

Bibliography
Watters, Audrey. "The Invented History of 'The Factory Model of Education'" Hack Education.
N.p., 25 Apr. 2015. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

@TheBigPIctureX. "Rethinking Education, Part I : Why Our School System Is Broken | The Big
Picture." The Big Picture. N.p., 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.
Robinson, Sir Ken. CNN. Cable News Network, n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2016.

[1]"The Invented History of 'The Factory Model of Education'." 2015. 22 Nov. 2016
<http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model>

[2]"The Invented History of 'The Factory Model of Education'." 2015. 22 Nov. 2016
<http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model>

[3]"Rethinking Education, Part I : Why Our School System Is Broken | The ..." 2013. 22 Nov. 2016
<http://www.geopolitics.us/why-our-school-system-is-broken/>

[4]"Rethinking Education, Part I : Why Our School System Is Broken | The ..." 2013. 22 Nov. 2016
<http://www.geopolitics.us/why-our-school-system-is-broken/>