Read on Twitter
"Schools are based on factories." https://twitter.com/medburnbook/status/1263677983199461376
For the record, schools are not based on factories. That's what makes it a horror story. (Just in case that wasn't clear. FYI. FWIW.)
I don't watch a lot of horror movies. Clearly, I am terrible at this meme.
Schools aren't based on factories. It's a myth. The horror is that people repeat the claim as if it's true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_model_school
Schools aren't based on factories. It's a myth. The horror is that people repeat the claim as if it's true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factory_model_school
Funny story. OK. So. I have a google alert set up for "factory model schools." Mostly it's so I can see how people are using it and if it's seeping into new corners of the discourse.
One of the reasons I started editing on Wikipedia was to try and complicate people's Google searches. Right now, when you google the phrase with or without quotation marks, this is what you see. (I searched incognito.) That's my article.
I experienced my first Wikipedia editor battle over the wording of the overview paragraph. I still wish the wording was stronger but I think it makes it pretty clear.
Back to my Google alert. We had just finished a delicious lunch (kale, red onion, cannellini beans, tuna, and lemon juice. Highly recommend.) when I got the alert on my commute back to my office (off the kitchen) to work on a project.
I'm not linking to the article.
I'm not linking to the article.
This is the title and byline. (Apparently, my alert was a tad delayed.) This is how the phrase was used.
(Let's skip the links to the research homeschooling for now.)
(Let's skip the links to the research homeschooling for now.)
This is who they cite for context.
This is the place on my website where I fact-checked Gatto's work. I stopped at ten but could have kept going. https://schoolmarmadvisors.com/services/fact-checking/
Their use of the phrase "factory-model" is linked to this article. I invite you to consider how a "technology and education entrepreneur" frames the phrase. You may notice a few ... issues.
The phrase is intended to provoke an emotional response in the reader. The author (nearly always a White man) is priming you for the change they're proposing. In effect, they're saying, these dead White men got it wrong. But, I, a White man in the modern era, know what we need.
And race and gender matter because race and gender always matter when we're talking about education. And this piece lays out cleanly why.
This seems like a fairly straight-forward fact-based paragraph.
This seems like a fairly straight-forward fact-based paragraph.
I clicked the hyperlink because I was curious about their source for the dates. This was the website. None of the years are sourced.
I'm not sure where 1918 came from for Mississippi. I've actually seen that year a few times in libertarian/choice advocate writing (along with that Fichte quote which I haven't been able to source) but Mississippi passed compulsory education laws in 1870.
They were updated in 1878 when White lawmakers worked to codify racial segregation. (Source: Bolton, Charles C. "The Hardest Deal of All The Battle Over School Integration in Mississippi, 1870-1980." University Press of Mississippi, 2007., p. 23)
The "factory model" claim obliterates all that history. It says there was a single path and a single narrative for every school and student throughout American history. From 1848 Mann to a man in 2020. (Ha. I punned. Poorly.)
In any event, Audrey Watters' piece is always worth a read: http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model
If you're not convinced and are still of the mind schools were about training factory workers, I invite you to spend time with Kabria Baumgartner's beautiful book, "In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America." https://nyupress.org/9781479823116/in-pursuit-of-knowledge/
Horace Mann makes an appearance in her book. So does Nancy Woodson who blew the doors off the tests Boston school leaders made students take in 1829 and was denied the medal she earned, or a seat at the celebratory dinner for children with high scores, because she was Black.
