Designed to Fail (2): a history of American education

Part Two: Why do we believe our system is not just good; it was inevitable? How our schools became agents of nativist Calvinist capitalism with eugenics deeply ingrained.

The Carnegie Summit 2024 is about improvement and innovation: We’ll be there with a workshop on how to radically change public schools: Transforming Beliefs, Transforming Practice, Creating Equitable Schools Everywhere

“We know that the number of children of superior ability is approximately as large as the number of the feeble in mind, and also that the future of democratic government hinges largely on the proper education and utilization of these these superior children. One child of superior intellectual capacity, educated so as to utilize his talents, may confer greater benefits upon mankind, and be educationally far more important, than a thousand of the feeble-minded children upon whom we have recently come to put so much educational effort and expense.” Ellwood Cubberley 1922 (page 451)

Part One — Part Three — Part Four — Part Five — Part Six — Afterword

Education in America was designed, from the start, to fail children. That is not our fault. It is our fault if we don’t change that system.

Why do we have rectangular classrooms with a “teaching wall” at the front?
Why do we line up student’s chairs in rows so…