Who Killed the Horse?: Part 2

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


The components of the model used in the system today to educate students cannot be found in any other part of life. Not in our family lives, our working lives, our community lives, nor our spiritual lives are we ever subjected to all of the following: being segregated by age, our tasks separated and regulated by bells, central authority figures having total control over all our thoughts and actions, meals and extracurricular activities being provided for us, being compelled by law to attend, and being tested regularly to compare us to our peers of the same age. Only in the context of the institution of public school do all these unlike-real-life circumstances exist together. They do not serve to prepare the student for real life; they merely control the students while they are in that institution. They are similar only to the circumstances one finds oneself in while in another institution – prison.

As William Glasser, a noted American psychiatrist, said,

“There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done. School and prison.”

George Bernard Shaw wrote,

“[School] is a prison. But it is in some respects more cruel than a prison. In a prison, for instance, you are not forced to read books written by the warder and the governor.”

Some may argue that the military and factory work are similar to the institution of public schooling. While that may be true, I would point out two important observations: 1) joining the military and working in a factory are not compulsory, as is school, and 2) if the military or factory work are the closest real-life situations to public schooling (besides prison), is that what we want our education system to be geared for – training only military and factory workers – and does that training really take thirteen years to accomplish?

Who Killed the Horse?: Part 1

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)


In the beginning, Mann patterned his design for a public education system after the 18th century Prussian (German) model which divided students by age and required compulsory attendance, national training for teachers, national testing for all students (to classify students for potential job training), a national curriculum, and mandatory kindergarten. These components were created to instill social obedience in the citizens through indoctrination.

In the United States, many proponents of a compulsory public education system had similar ideas for the purpose of such a system. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and ardent supporter of publicly funded schools, wrote,

“Our schools of learning, by producing one general and uniform system of education, will render the mass of the people more homogeneous and thereby fit them more easily for uniform and peaceable government…Let our pupil be taught that he does not belong to himself, but that he is public property…The authority of our masters [should] be as absolute as possible…By this mode of education, we prepare our youth for the subordination of laws and thereby qualify them for becoming good citizens of the republic.”

William T. Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education in 1889, said,

“Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. The average American [should be] content with their humble role in life, because they're not tempted to think about any other role.”

Stop Beating the Dead Horse

(Excerpt  from Stop Beating the Dead Horse)

Dakota tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In regards to the system of public education, however, lawmakers and educators often try other strategies for fixing the dead horse (a.k.a. public schooling), including the following:

1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Saying things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
5. Arranging to visit other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards to include dead horses.
7. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
8. Creating a training session to increase our riding ability.
9. Comparing the state of dead horses in today’s environment.
10. Harnessing several dead horses together for increased speed.
11. Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
12. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders can increase the dead horse’s performance.
13. Purchasing technology to make dead horses run faster.
14. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.

People like to blame someone for problems. Many people blame the president, Congress, local school boards, administrators, or teachers for the shortfalls of the public school system. The problem is not that the educators and lawmakers aren’t trying to improve the system; it’s that they just haven’t realized the proverbial horse is dead. If the basic system doesn’t work, all the money and strategies and dedication in the world will not help unless the system itself is replaced.