A History of the Factory Model of U.S. Education

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From Prussia with Love:
A History of the Factory Model of U.S. Education
Public education in the U.S. is modeled after the 18th century Prussian factory style system of education which hinders creativity and ultimate academic success.
To understand the roots of modern mass education, one must begin in Prussia. In 1806, the nation- state suffered a huge military blow and Napoleon’s army conquered much of its territory. The Prussian government decided that the way to overcome their loss and create a stronger, unified state was through education, and whether or not as a result of this idea, Napoleon’s army was eradicated in the War of Liberation of 1813-1815 (Cubberly 456). The beginnings of Prussia’s tradition of systematic education however were much earlier. The Prussian King, Frederick William I, the father of Frederick the Great, created the first system of compulsory public education in 1717 with the issuance of a compulsory attendance law from the ages of five to twelve (Alexander 9). In 1763, Frederick the Great issued the first regulatory school code, called the General Regulations for Elementary Schools and Teachers in Prussia. The code established principal rules for how schools were to be run across the nation-state, many of them reminiscent of rules in American school codes today. Some of the points addressed in the regulations included compulsory attendance, graduation requirements, school hours, school census and records, teacher’s requisites and licenses, uniform textbooks, and annual inspection (Cubberly 458-466).
The highly standardized Prussian schools were meant to standardize the population into compliance with the government. In his doctoral dissertation, Thomas Alexander describes the Prussian method as a ...

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...of Educational Practice, Theory, and Organization. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1920. Print.
Kenny, Charles. "The Real Reason America's Schools Stink." Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 19 Aug. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
McPherson, Guy R. Letters to a Young Academic. N.p.: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2006. Print.
"National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) - 120 Years of Literacy." National Center for Education Statistics. Ed. Tom Snyder. U.S. Department of Education, n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
The Odysseus Group. "Chapter 7- The Prussian Connection." The Land of Frankenstein - John Taylor Gatto. The Odysseus Group, 2003. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
PBS. "Schoolhouse Pioneers: Horace Mann." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Rose, Joel. "How to Break Free of Our 19th-Century Factory-Model Education System." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 09 May 2012. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.

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