Consider this recent criticism of standardization in education by Harvard University’s president:
“Education is properly the development and training of the individual body, mind, and will; but when it is systematized, and provided for many thousands of pupils simultaneously, it almost inevitably takes to military of mechanical methods; and these methods tend to produce a lock-step and uniform speed, and result in a drill at word of command rather than in the free development of personal power in action. The interests of the individual are frequently lost sight of, or, rather, are served only as the individual can be treated as an average atom in a heterogeneous mass.” (Teaching Machines by Audrey Watters, pp. 66-7)
Oh, I’m sorry, did I say “recent”? This quote was from Charles Eliot who was president of Harvard in 1892.
Yes: 1892.
So, for well over 100 years we have been complaining about industrial educational approaches.
Do we now have hints at to how we might approach the problem? Certainly.
Have we created some tools that we think address elements of this problem? Again: certainly.
However, have you heard this complaint, or observed this problem, related to today’s educational approaches? For me, the answers are both “most definitely.”
We should all propose any partial solutions that we might have to this problem with all due humility. It’s an extremely difficult, multi-faceted problem. Any actual solution will need continual refinement and improvement over time that is measured in decades.
Am I off on this? What approaches are most promising to you?
