Our current system is still based upon the Prussian Age model adopted in 1910 in the United States. This system was created for another time with another mission--“the processing of large numbers of students for rote skills.” The system produced only a small percentage of graduates for “knowledge –work.”. The system was never intended to create life-long learners, but factory workers and other laborers for our industrial production-based economy of the time. Today education leaders believe that “existing assembly-line schools” limit both students’ and teachers’ potential, and should be replaced by smaller schools designed to better support learning(Darling-Hammond 2000, 4).
Today our schools are still designed around this outdated model, both in design of curriculum and design of architecture. The tenants of this model are:
Platoon system: students change teachers and rooms.
Teachers are specialized and students are batch processed.
Teachers are individual workers on assembly line.
Supervisors introduced to “manage” teachers.
The Prussian model was not designed for our knowledge based economy needs. Our economy has shifted since the implementation of this archaic system from low skilled jobs to knowledge-based jobs as illustrated in the graph below. Progress is a constant in our ever changing world. Yet we have held to the same teaching model for 100 years.