Today's school system

A production story — and an education story.

Production

In about 1890, Frederick Winslow Taylor invented a production method, Scientific Management.

By 1900 it was proven to succeed spectacularly well: high efficiency and high quality.

By 1910 it was being used worldwide.

Frederick Winslow Taylor, c.1907 — father of Scientific Management. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Ford assembly line, 1913 — mass production in practice. Public domain (Library of Congress), via Wikimedia Commons.

Why use Taylor's production method in education?

Two reasons. Hope, but mainly pressure.

The hope was that Taylor's method might work for education because it worked so astonishingly well in production.

But the real impetus was enormous pressure from leaders in business.

And pressure from a crisis the method had itself created: as Taylor's efficiency emptied the fields and mines, families poured into the cities, swelling the schools past capacity.

A crowded New York City street scene, 1912 — A New York street scene, 1912 — families crowding into the cities. Lewis Hine; public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

In 1913 education leaders succumbed and began adopting Taylor's method for public schooling.

What is Taylor's method?

Let's start with production.

Production