HomeSchooling Home Education Blog

The Factory Model Education System needs to be Reinvented

[Wednesday 22nd March 2017]

We recently came across a blog post by a gentleman called Charles Hugh-Smith which struck some interesting chords with how we view home education.

The full view of his post can be found at: http://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com.au

He is talking about the US education system, but his comments apply equally well to Australia and most western nations.

One interesting quote from his article is this:

"Our 'factory model' funnels hundreds or thousands of students into set courses within large mechanistic plants, regardless of their individual attributes, strengths and weaknesses. Like an assembly line of manufactured items, some students are "rejects" who couldn't make the "quality control" grade, and they're thrown on the scrap pile."

Does this 'ring any bells' with your experience of the school system?

• requiring all students to do the same thing, regardless of 'individual attributes, strengths and weaknesses'

• acting like an 'assembly line' ... same course for all, same achievements expected 

• anyone that can't 'make the grade' is treated as a 'reject' and 'thrown on the scrap pile' 

Some time ago, we added 'embellishments' to a graph which showed 'success' rates through the senior secondary years in WA:

Does this feel like your perception of the 'good ship SS Education'?
The figures are now outdated, and they have changed the 'words' (to hide the truth??) but nothing much else has changed (from 2007!!)... in fact the supposedly 'modern' Australian National Curriculum is framed and expressed like this.
(See our discussion of this in the FAQ's section of our Homelearn web site: What does the Australian Curriculum say about diverse learning needs)

We at HomeLearn strongly believe that 'good' education needs to be different! Education is about people ... real, individual children ... with their own 'individual attributes, strengths and weaknesses' ... and home schooling seems to be about the only way to stay off the 'assembly line' and avoid the 'scrap pile'!