Thursday, July 19, 2012

Reflections on “How To Break Free from Our 19th Century Factory-Model Education”” | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Reflections on “How To Break Free from Our 19th Century Factory-Model Education”” | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:


Reflections on “How To Break Free from Our 19th Century Factory-Model Education”"

Two comments from readers got me thinking about the guest post by Joel Rose that I just published
The first is from Joe Nutt, former teacher and consultant in the UK:
There is a very real and very serious error underneath what so often passes for the enthusiasm of the reformers. It’s evident in this piece where the author refers to the “factory-model classroom.” The use of “factory” as a metaphor by techno-zealots and reformers, is popular but vacuous. It is just rhetoric. Any great teacher who understands what happens in any real “classroom” knows that. The classroom as learning technology (for what else is it?) is as hardy, as ancient and intransigent as the book… because it works.
That’s why designing “new classroom models” is a contradiction in terms. It’s a bit like saying designing new