The Most Perfect School on Earth

1. The Most Perfect School on Earth Our Ideal School By Aaron, Diana, Erin, Jared, Lem, Pete, and Susan

2. Imagine a school where all students are happy

3. A school where all students are working toward their goals

4. A school with a 100% graduation rate

5. A school where all students have job offers upon graduation

6. … and everyone contributes. A place where society prospers…

7. No space is wasted

8. In short, our ideal school…

9. Teachers who are experts in their fields

10. A place of specialized education to meet SOCIETY’s needs (As well as the students’)

11. Where everyone has a specific role

12. Where inquiry and discovery are no longer necessary

13. Where creativity and freedom of expression are minimized

14. A place where free thought is frowned upon

15. Welcome to the SOCIALLY EFFICIENT school

16. The Historic Position of SOCIAL EFFICIENCY

17. Order cannot be said to prevail among people going the same direction at the same pace, because there is no interface. -- Edward A. Ross

18. …What is it? The goal of education is maximizing ends from limited means. This theory attempts to minimize “street and alley time” which can actually undo what is done in school. Education in this theory is the elimination of waste and unnecessary expense, to reduce the number of workers, maximize the use of resources, and educate the largest number of students.

19. Social Efficiency arose as a result of (and in response to) the industrialism and the subsequent transformation of American social institutions. It was believed that teaching students more than they actually needed to know for living was wasteful.

20. Key Players Edward A. Ross – Social Control Frederick Winslow Taylor – Principles of Scientific Management Gov. William L. Douglas – Commission on Industrial and Technical Education Charles A. Ellwood – Univ. of Missouri John Franklin Bobbitt – The Curriculum

21. Within social efficiency, the role of the teacher is the expert, able to effectively teach his/her subject during the segment or time provided.

22. Social efficiency centers on social control so in school students are taught how to be good workers and not free thinkers.

23. Social Efficiency - Analysis • An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the Social Efficiency point of view centers on several key points. • This line of thought tends to streamline education, incorporating all means that are productive to its ends and disposing of any curriculum that hinders or takes time away from what is practical.

24. Social Efficiency - Strengths • Social Efficiency proponents posit that students from every class of society, not just those students from the upper class, should receive education to help integrate them into society.

25. Social Efficiency - Weaknesses • The major weakness of this argument is that schooling is viewed as a way to produce better workers, not free-thinking individuals. • By creating veritable “robots” who are able to perform their assigned function, Social Efficiency runs the risk of being inefficient by limiting the education of students, who could otherwise be of great benefit to society if they were given a chance to flourish.

26. Impact on Contemporary Schooling • segmented class structures • specialization of labor • Saturday and summer school • tracking practices • combining ageand ability groups

27. Guidance Counselors Impact on Contemporary Schooling

28. Attacks and Responses • Students in the social efficiency model are treated like cogs in a machine! • Speaks to the basic needs of the students. • Students are trained for a specific vocation. • Students will have the ability to support themselves.

29. Attacks and Responses • Students cannot change their vocation. • Once a student has chosen a path and completed a substantial amount of course work they will not be able to change path in any system.

30. Our Ideal Socially Efficient School

31. The broad educational goals of the socially efficient model for schooling are:- Maximize service at a school (plant) with minimum staff size- Fully utilize resources (minimize input/maximize output)- Differentiated curriculum/teachers- Material to be learned is broken down to smaller pieces- Group and teach students by their ability/penchant- Teach students what they have a knack for and what will be necessary to them later in life(i.e. career, domestic)- Eliminate courses that are not important to life after school - Schools as a measure of social control, to produce productive and efficient citizens concerned with vocation/profession

32. The aspects of physical space in a socially efficient school are:- Specialized areas, conducive to teaching specific skills- Areas for academic and specialty instruction- A range of age/ability groups to fully utilize available space (i.e. A GROUP = regular classroom/B GROUP = school garden/C GROUP = laboratory, switch from one to the next - no idle space)- Saturday & summer school (year round if possible) to avoid wasting available resources- Modern school (plant) with (workrooms, laboratories, assembly halls, playgrounds, school gardens)- Scientifically managed schools = 100% facility usage

33. ADMINISTRATIVE AND PERSONNEL SUPPORT Efficient schools should hire administrative and student support personnel to lighten workload of teachers, assess student interest upon entrance, and most effectively tackle non-essential school tasks and issues • Would include: GUIDANCE, ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS, CURRICULUM SPECIALISTS, AND STUDENT SUPPORT SERVICE MEMBERS

34. CURRICULUM Efficient schools create curriculum that is student centered, practical, relevant to the skill, trade or profession being learned, and should not include extraneous classic curriculum that includes concepts that will not be used in trade. • Efficient schools graduate productive citizens through specialized, segmented curriculum. • Would include: VOCATIONAL, HEALTH OCCUPATIONS, SPECIALIZED LABOR, TRADES, AND SUMMER SCHOOLS

35. Female students were automatically tracked into home economics classes.This was not a conspiracy to keep women in the home. The efficiency model was established by scientific methods. The curriculum for girls was determined by examining what women actually did.

36. This method failed to anticipate the changing role of women in our society. We cannot prepare students for the future by examining the role of their parents.

37. This same shortcoming can be extended to all students in the sense that technical advances have made skills necessary that did not exist during the school days of many adults. Think of the computer skills used to complete this assignment. How many of your parents had computer training in High School?

38. To prepare students for the future, we must look to the future and anticipate the ways in which their lives will be different from our own experiences.

39. THE END