Let’s take a look at what scholars say. For example, Seth Godin, an American writer, said “The sole intent of the education system was to train people to be willing to work in a factory.” Sir Ken Robinson, Ph.D., said “Education is modeled in the interests of the industrial age and the image of it.”
You see, public school as we know it was developed during the industrial age. It shows all the characteristics of teaching kids to work in a factory or for a massive corporation are heavily incorporated into our education system.
You hear things from teachers like “Sit down, stop talking, pull out your books, and turn to page 37.” You’re not allowed to have your personal property such as phones and you have to wear clothes accordingly. You pass in school by doing everything you’re told which is also how you succeed in factories.
Yet in the real world of today that isn’t the case. To succeed in the modern world you have to be creative and outspoken. That along with things like being cooperative is suppressed by schools with rules like no talking rules which are widespread in public schools.
You can also look at the problem of zero personal management. The system has a tight grip on your daily schedule. In the real world, you have to make decisions for yourself and manage your own time. School controlling your every move is also an industrial age value.
According to Dan Pink, “Autonomy is an innate psychological need.“ Peter Gray, Ph.D., said, “Children don’t like school because in school they are not free.” These men point out that by not having any sort of freedom or autonomy over their lives, it’s no surprise kids would be demotivated and would have a strong distaste for school.
Moving on, there is also the grade system at school. We measure a child’s intelligence through a letter system. A, B, C, D, and F, with F meaning failure. School teaches in the sense that you must remember these tests, but the day after the test, most information is forgotten.
This is due to the uselessness of most of this information to the student’s life. Not to mention, because the system is so streamlined. Kids who just need a little more time to understand the subject are failed.
Now onto basic humanity itself, you see we are all unique. School doesn’t always seem to recognize said people who have special talents. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Second World War had a C as his average grade in school.
Steven Spielberg, a famous movie director failed the 6th grade, John Lennon, the founder of the Beatles, was described as “Hopeless and a clown in class” and Albert Einstein, a famous physicist was expelled for his rebelliousness.
There’s finally the problem that’s most apparent in schools, that being lecturing. Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy, said that lecturing is a “Fundamentally dehumanizing experience, 30 kids with fingers on their lips not allowed to interact with each other.” That points back to what I said earlier about the no-talking rule.
Yet some somewhat disagree with the experts, especially students. AnnMarie Hartman, 10th grade, when asked if the school was outdated, said “No I don’t think it’s outdated, they’re using laptops now so it’s not.”
Next, Alex Ron-Garcia, 10th grade, when being asked if the school was outdated, said “No it’s not outdated, the new system is good.”
There was also Christopher Cifuentes, 10th grade, When asked if education is outdated “Education is only outdated in terms of attraction to students, if the schools can know how to grab our attention better then most of us would be willing to work on ourselves with their education.” So he agrees somewhat with the experts.
Finally, there was a retired teacher, now a substitute teacher, Mr. Libes. When asked if education is outdated, he said “I don’t think it’s outdated, because now we use computers as when I was teaching school there were no computers, everything was with pencil and pens and paper.”
In conclusion, this is a divided topic. Schools have improved by using computers and having unique courses like AP. Yet it seems to lack any sort of update when it comes to things like autonomy over time management. That being said, I can confirm that school is outdated in some aspects. Whether that will change is something only time can tell.
