1. THE UNTOLD STORY OF MODERN SCHOOLING
Why are most schools designed like factories?
!
Why are schooldays divided up into rigid time
structured blocks?
Why is the organization of the school hierarchical and
highly structured?
Why are students taught with people of their own age
instead of people who are in the same stage of interest
or ability?
www.newopeneducation.org

2. THE UNTOLD STORY OF MODERN SCHOOLING
According to John Taylor Gatto,
author of “The Underground History
of American Education" and 3 times
New York City Teacher of the
Year…
…the 3 fundamental goals of education should be:
To make good people To make good citizens To develop talents
www.newopeneducation.org

3. THE UNTOLD STORY OF MODERN SCHOOLING
The beginning of the 19th century marked the turning point in
shaping school that we know today.
Forcing schooling on an
entire population (or almost) with a
unique curriculum decided by the state has
been an ideal since Plato (The Republic).
It was 1st implemented at a national scale
in the early 19th century military
theocracy of Prussia.
www.newopeneducation.org

4. THE UNTOLD STORY OF MODERN SCHOOLING
The education system in
19th century Prussia !!!
After the crushing defeat of the Prussian army by the French army of
Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Jena in 1806, Prussia under
Frederick William III (1770-1840) decided to undertake a nation-wide
project to rebuild its educational and training
system to form an army of determined and
docile workers, easily mouldable to the
changing needs of the industry, the
government and the army.
!
The new education system offered people an opportunity to
learn how to read, write and count, but it was also an excellent
mean of indoctrination.
FREDERICK WILLIAM III
! It would take less than thirty years for Prussia to build a formidable army that took
revenge on the French army in 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo.
World powers quickly developed a fascination for the Prussian model.
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5. The Prussian system instituted compulsory
education, specific training for teachers,
standardized tests nationwide for all students
(used to classify children for vocational
training), a national curriculum designed for
each level, and mandatory kindergarten.
!
Some components of this system have served as
models for the education systems in a number of
industrialized countries like the United States,
Japan and France.
The ruling elite in Prussia tried to instil social
obedience in its population through indoctrination.
Each individual had to be thoroughly convinced that
the leader of the nation is just, that his decisions were
always right, and that obeying him was a matter of
utmost importance.
!
The purpose of this system was to teach loyalty to the
Crown and to train men for the army, the factories and
the public administration.
A series of decrees established clearly
and for the first time, that education is a
task of the state.
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6. Prussian Schooling in Europe and the US
The work of French philosopher Victor Cousin, "Report on the State of Public
Instruction in Prussia" seems to have greatly influenced the design of the
education system in France and in other European countries.
In 1840, Horace Mann became head of the first Board of
Education in the State of Massachusetts in the United
States. As a great admirer of the Prussian model, he
made a visit to Prussia to study its education system in
1843.
On his return, he published the famous 8th Report in
which he praised the prowess of the Prussian system,
which was able to produce a great army and a powerful
industry.
!
In 1852, Horace Mann played a critical role
in the decision to adopt the Prussian
education system in the State of
Massachusetts, the first law in North America that
made schooling mandatory for all children of the state.
Other U.S. states followed one after the other starting with
the State of New York that immediately created more than
a dozen large public schools.
V. COUSIN
HORACE MANN
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7. In the early 20th century, and more precisely between 1906 and
1920, Edward Thorndike and John Dewey at Columbia
Teachers College, along with their allies among the major industrial
businessmen such as John D. Rockefeller, captain of the oil industry,
Andrew Carnegie, the steel baron, and major financial elite like JP
Morgan, influenced the development of public schools and
their curriculum through their private foundations. They also
made sure to carefully select top administrators of the boards of
education and universities, and invested heavily in the development of
public schooling and educational psychology, much more than the state
did.
In his 1911 essay at Columbia Te! achers' College, Edward Thorndike stated that schools
should serve as “instruments of managed evolution, establishing conditions for selective
breeding before the masses take things into their own hands".
Standardized tests should be means for the separation and selection of young people to
different career destinations.
J o h n D. Ro c k e f e l l e r ’ s
General Board of Education’s
f i r s t mission statement
stated: "In our dreams,
people yield themselves with
per fec t doc i l i t y to our
moulding hands...We will
organize children and teach
them in a perfect way the
things their fathers and
mothers are doing in an
imperfect way".
J. DEWEY E. THORNDIKE
A. CARNEGIE J.D. ROCKEFELER J.P. MORGAN
www.newopeneducation.org

8. !
Elite private boarding schools, like Groton, have been created to prepare power elites’ children for their future leadership
positions to rule their nation.
According to John Taylor Gatto, « Groton’s expectations cost almost nothing to meet on a different playing field—say a
homeschool setting or even in John Gatto’s classroom—while the therapeutic community of psychologized public schooling
is extremely expensive to maintain. Virtually everyone could be educated the Groton way for less money than the average
public school costs. »
Elite private boarding schools don’t deliver the curriculum of public schools nor
do they use the same teaching methods.
!
According to Gatto, these elite boarding schools make sure to deliver the following types of trainings
to their students that help them develop:
!
1. A better understanding of human nature through psychology, history, sociology, philosophy, theology, literature
and law, as well as insights into the major institutional forms (parliament, courts, corporations, military, education...).
!
2. Responsibility and independent work as well as skills in the active literacies (writing, public speaking) and in
accurate observation and recording through drawing and fine arts in general.
!
3. Good manners and politeness that help build social relationships.
!
4. Grace and strength through sports that also confer the ability to resist pain and develop perseverance to deal with
challenges of all sorts. www.newopeneducation.org

9. New models of schools: The Case of Sudbury Valley Schools
The education system in Finland is worth studying, but even more revolutionary is the Sudbury Valley School case,
replicated in some countries such as Japan, Canada, Belgium, Israel, Germany and others.
Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 in Framingham, in the state of Massachusetts, USA. Each student at the
school decides how to spend his or her time.
Learning is based on personal effort, on interactions and experiences with others,
rather than on classes and a standard curriculum.
Students are not required to attend classes, but choose the subjects that interest them.
There are many opportunities for students of different ages to mingle and take classes together. Councils, where
students from all ages constitute the majority vote, decide which teachers’ contracts are renewed and decide also on
the choice of the school’s suppliers, and act as jury when school rules are breached. In short, it is a school run by
children who are empowered at an early age to take responsibility for their learning journey.
!
Today, there are more than 35 schools around the world based on the model of Sudbury Valley School in the United
States, Canada, Denmark, Japan, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Israel. This model of private school which
receives children from 4 to 19 years old is built on three fundamental principles: freedom in education, democratic
governance and personal responsibility.
! www.newopeneducation.org