The Myth of So-Called ‘Factory Education’
Classrooms were not designed by businesses, but by academics — which may be worse
It is commonly argued that schools are modeled on factories. Google “school” and “industrial” and you’ll get 42 million hits supporting this view. Nearly every significant education critic, from Sir Ken Robinson to former education secretary Arne Duncan, makes the case that students are shuffled through an outdated structure plagiarized from Henry Ford.
The factory analogy leads to other charges. The goal is a nation of drones. It’s a system designed by businessmen and corporations. The product is obedience and compliance. As with so many things that feel like conventional wisdom, none of this is true. The confusion does make a certain sense, though. Much about school appears mechanized or factory-like:
The physical structure. Students sit in neat and orderly rows. They live and work in a world of sharp edges and plastic surfaces. Long banks of fluorescent tubes provide overhead lighting. The air is cool, the walls are white, the shelves are neatly lined with manuals. Posters highlight the benefits of character and action in an industrious fashion. There’s rarely a plant in sight.
The activity. Students file in and out on a tight schedule. They don’t eat at work…
