searching for what was lost

I'm a history geek.  I admit it.  Call me a member of AHEM (Arts, History, English, Music). 

Our initial public educational system was an extension of a civic institution where we would develop literate, educated, democratic citizens.  True, there were awful aspects (corporal punishment for one) but the ideal involved democracy.  The implied metaphor was that learning was a natural process (influenced by Rosseau) or a blank slate (Locke). The major influences were:

• The Enlightenment and the clockwork universe (hence the desks in rows, the birth of textbooks, etc.)  and the belief in the scientific method of exploration
  
• Democratic movements, especially the local democracy (the town hall) - the need for critical thinkers as citizens
  
• The printing press and the rise of literacy / need for literacy training - the need for a literate population
  
• Classical Humanism - we believed education could help people learn to live well
  

Around the turn of the last century, we switched models.  This time, the metaphor changed from a natural to a mechanical process; from agrarian to industrial. The driving forces were:

• The German modernist system forged by a nihilistic, technocratic, militaristic worldview of Bismark.  It's the same philosophy that led to fascism. We had to create obedient soldiers.
  
• The social engineering movement in America. With this, there is the main philosophy of nativism and the desire to assimilate immigrants quickly. (Social engineering eventually morphed into behaviorism) We had to create obedient citizens. 
  
• The Guilded Age and the factory system.  Think child labor and sweat shops in the name of Progress. We had to create ideal workers. 
• Modernism
  

 We are currently undergoing newer shifts.  The driving forces are:

• Globalization and the death of the nation-state - we need to create global consumers
  
• Post-industrialization and the New Economy - we need to develop global workers
  
• The Information Age and the rise of newer technology - we need to encourage digital citizenship
  
• Post-modernism (though the better parts of this philosophy rarely make it into the "new pedagogy" conversations since the post-modern critique has too many elements of classical education to it)
  

I know I am being overly simple here.  Bullets are dangerous, in person or on a blog.  However, I'm noticing that we've shifted from garden metaphors to machine metaphors to digital metaphors. Wow, no secret there.  I won't exactly get an invitation to TED for that one.

Still, I'm watching people get super-excited about the newer model that's replacing the old one. I can see why.  Google is so much sexier than Skinner and Apple keeps passing out iCandy, which sure beats to freebies at McGraw Hill.  Still, I'm concerned that we're still missing what we lost: our authenticity, our democracy, the local politic.  Really, we're still missing our humanity in the current system and I'm not so sure we need to look toward the Flat Earth Society to give it back to us.

(Credit: Both the terms AHEM and Flat Earth Society are shamelessly stolen from Doyle the Science Teacher)

Photo Credit -auburnxc's photostream on flickr creative commons