Education innovators vs. Education makers

Innovators vs. Makers

According to the PBS website the education innovators are people who honestly wanted to make a positive impact on education. However according to Gatto, the “makers” of education did not necessarily want to have an impact on education but their personal objectives have still had a lasting effect.

Innovator: Deborah Meier

She spent years teaching needy children in the public schools in New York. She recognized a need in public education and sought to fill it with her progressive principles. She believed in the active education of students as well as the involvement of their parents.

I’ve heard of most of the other innovators before, however I’ve never heard of Deborah Meier. Unlike other innovators who seem to enjoy their achievements and welcome a profit from it, Ms. Meier humbly attributes what she has done to simply fulfilling a need. She is quoted as saying, “What I wanted was to create thoughtful citizens — people who believed they could live interesting lives and be productive and socially useful. So I tried to create a community of children and adults where the adults shared and respected the children’s lives.”

Maker: Henry Ford

The fourth purpose of education may be the “Business of Schooling”. If this is so, then a key maker of education is a forerunner of American business: Henry Ford. He is known for helping to pioneer the assembly line. Assembly lines require hardworking, minimally thinking individuals. According to Gatto American schools have begun creating these types of individuals.

Gatto presents very interesting points regarding the hidden purpose of American schools. I’ve never considered businesses and politicians having a hidden agenda within educational institutions. It certainly makes me think of education in a different way. Perhaps this is why it seems like education fails so many of our students? Maybe it is because of this “hidden agenda”. If the purpose of American schools is to train them to work in the job market, then what happens when we’re in a recession and there aren’t enough jobs? Are what happens to the students who never develop the skills to work in these jobs? Is that why states keep expanding their penitentiaries?