by Shelly Mcrae

Created on: January 23, 2008

Public schools are the product of a society. If the schools have failed, it is because the members of that society have failed in their endeavor to sustain successful institutes of learning.

The paradigm of the modern American public school system derives from two seemingly opposite industries: agriculture and manufacturing.

Originally, school sessions were planned around the planting and harvesting of crops. All members of the family, including children, were expected to participate in the running of the family farm. All hands were needed at crucial times of the growing season, and schools accommodated this community oriented need.

As manufacturing become more prevalent, and cities more crowded, school populations grew. As commerce became more prevalent, education became a higher priority.

It wasn't long before the educating of American children was analyzed from a production point of view. Schools were viewed as factories that manufactured knowledgeable young adults. Education was a commodity. The factory style of education seen today was born.

But America was still an agricultural based society as well. Rural areas and cities alike were dependent on farmland being worked. School sessions were seasonal and students were assembly lined through the academic rigors set forth by educators.

How then has it come to pass that Americans feel the system they built to educate their youth is failing?

If the paradigm of a public school system is based on an agricultural and manufacturing society, and those two industries become secondary to other emerging industries, shouldn't the paradigm of the school system be adapted to reflect this fundamental shift?

The family farm is all but extinct, replaced by food corporations. Manufacturing has been outsourced to other countries. America is a technology and service based society whose school system is still operating as if it were 1955.

The factory style of production still permeates the system, with test scores acting as bar codes to identify the amount of knowledge a child is able to spew forth. Teachers run the children through their drills, plugging in bits and pieces, and have no connection to the final product. Curricula are designed not to stimulate minds, but to produce measurable outcomes; the product garners funding and so retains employee positions.

All that remains of the agricultural influence is the now iconic summer vacation.

The public schools have not failed; they are performing as they always have. But as the American society has shifted its foundations, which is a necessary part of growth and evolution, the schools have been left behind. In the 21st century, there are still schools that do not provide computers for their students. Rare is the school that implements coursework designed to stimulate abstract thinking; a recitation of stored knowledge is all that has been required and this has yet to change.

If public schools are failing, if they are perceived to be a failing entity, then it is because as a society, Americans have failed to upgrade the system.

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