More ominous is the extent to which even educators have internalized a business approach. Many of us defend “partnerships” between schools and businesses, willingly “align” our teaching to uniform state standards, shrug off objections to advertising in the schools, refer to learning as “work”(13) or schooling itself as an “investment. ” The next time you leaf through one of the leading education periodicals — or listen to a speech at a conference – try counting all the telltale signs of corporate ideology. There’s no need for executives in expensive suits to show up in schools if we’re already doing their work for them. Some readers may dismiss as rhetorical excess any comparison of schools with factories. In fact, though, the analogy was first proposed by people who were quite explicit about wanting to make the former more similar to the latter. Back in 1916, one Ellwood Cubberley wrote that “our schools are, in a sense, factories in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various demands of life.”(14) In the 1950s, this way of thinking was still in favor. A Fortunemagazine article titled “The Low Productivity of the Education Industry” informed readers that we should strive “to turn out students with the greatest possible efficiency…[and] minimize the input of man hours and capital. In this respect, the schools are no different from General Motors.”(15)
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 16:17:30 +0000