Why the Farm is not a Good Metaphor for the School

The metaphor of SCHOOL is a FACTORY or SCHOOL is a FARM  in which standard products are manufactured or harvested; and that EDUCATION is a MEAL which is CONSUMED or PREPARED are part and parcel of the 19th century (19C) Zeitgeist.  These ideas had currency and led to the 19C factory school model—cookie cutter students produced by standard methods using standard curricula (n.b. this was not usually the case in Prussia!  Vide-Henry Barnard's reports on foreign education available through Google Books.)  Mr. French seems to have fallen into these metaphoric fallacies.


We do agree that a government monopoly in education, like most monopolies is not often productive of the variety a modern economy requires, and in fact can be a dangerous machine, not only for training or education, but for indoctrination (especially given the 19th century factory school model currently being used in most schools.)


Nevertheless Education is the ability to self-learn; or, in other words, the art of inducing and producing critical thinking in an individual.  It is a lifetime endeavor and can have both formal and informal periods. {Vide—J. Zull, 'The Art of Changing the Brain'}


Mr. French mentions Luke Nosek's "20 under 20"—watch Salman Khan explaining the idea of self-learning in this video [http://youtu.be/gM95HHI4gLk], he'll discuss the 20/20 vision as well. Khan Academy videos and interactive exercises allow Palo Alto schools to flip the school day—kids watch lectures at home and do exercises in school.  Additionally, as you'll see, there is 'no child left behind'—there are 5th graders doing calculus while others are working on 4th grade material—advancement is purely on mastery not age cohort.


Lastly, Andrew Warwick in 'Masters of Theory' makes a strong case for the importance of mentorship in developing professional competence in Mathematical Physics—others have argued similarly to explain why certain universities developed expertise and specialized in certain fields, e.g. German 19th century organic chemistry [J.B. Morrell's works refer]—the point being that personal example and motivation have an important place in training and education, after all, we are emotional creatures not computer programs.  The most important aptitude in scientific endeavours, which curtails messianic closure, is technical and professional competence.