Technology in Education: The Efficiency Factor (Readings)

I have two readings this week so I am going to do the same thing that I did earlier and take some notes on what I read. Mostly this is to help me review and reflect, so the Reading posts can be viewed as separate from the actual Reflection posts.

The first reading is titled Frederick Taylor in the Classroom: Standardized Testing and Scientific Management. It was written by Johnathan Rees and appears to be an article from a journal entitled Radical Pedagogy. The article began by talking about a man named Frederick Taylor at the turn of the century. He developed a model of efficiency to boost the production of factories. It involved a structuring of very simple tasks that factory workers were to do, decreasing skill requirements and time involved. Those ideologies have become a part of the education system in the form of high stakes testing, which lessons the meaningful learning of children and the ability of teachers to teach. No one benefits from the system. There is no mistake that high stakes testing is bad. I have seen that for awhile now, but this really shows how it affects everyone, with little to no good coming out of it. I remember hearing the truth about high stakes testing my freshman year of college and being so mad that I was put through that. In this case, "Taylorism" was a technology for efficiency that made everything worse and probably needs to change.

The second reading is titled Education and the Cult of Efficiency, though it really seems to be the first two chapters of a book by that name. It was written by Raymond E. Callahan. The first chapter details the history of American mindsets during the early 20th Century. Focus was on business models for everything, which included schools. The education system was being turned on and viewed as "inefficient" when compared to business models. They were searching for change and a way to make education fit the "American way" when Frederick Taylor came on the scene. The second chapter detailed more of his model itself and how America embraced it, as well as many other places around the world. It was a business model, but it was touted as being applicable to everything in life. Education became one of those things. America was ready for a model such as this and it fit as well as exemplified everything that America stood for. It has become outdated in the last hundred years, but it is still clung to. It is easier to understand that now, given how important the mindsets of business are to American identity. Still, it's a new world and we need to, as a country, move on.