DYNA JOURNAL ENGINEERING

Habitual complaints consist on saying ‘students lack creativity’, ‘they just memorize theory’, ‘they don’t practise teamwork’… and finally, the last was ‘they are taught the same way as in Industrial Revolution, in a production-chain way’

Industrial Revolution dates back to XVIII century. But the Education system doesn’t. The myth of the factory-model education is just that: a myth. In this article, I’ll try to explain the origin of the Education system we know, which is predominant almost all over the world. It’s defined by a uniform teaching to the whole class, stratified in different levels, where subjects are organized in a clear hierarchy: Science and Maths at the top, Humanities in the middle, and Arts at the bottom.

It wasn’t till XVIII century when states started to gain control of Education. From times of ancient civilizations till that moment, the teaching and learning had been developed in informal groups and methods, but most of the population remained illiterate. However, the spark that changed everything has its origin in the Napoleonic Europe. More specifically, in the defeat that Prussia suffered against Napoleon in the Battle of Jena in 1806. After that humiliation, Prussian governors reached to the conclusion that their soldiers thought much on their own in the battlefield, instead of following orders from superiors. A big reflex of this thought appears in the famous speech Addresses to the German Nation, by an influent philosopher of the time, Johann Fichte: ‘Education should provide the means to destroy free will’.

In this situation, with the support of the intellectual current, which assumed that the State was responsible of the moral and progress of their population, and the ideas from Rousseau, who used education to create free citizens, Prussia started their big reform. This region already counted with a kind of compulsory education system started by Frederick the Great, which was a big step in Europe. However, after the defeat of Jena, more reforms were demanded to the system.

Prussia started the reform of the education system in 1807 and finished it in 1819, transmitting an impression of a scientifically built system, directed by Wilhelm von Humboldt. The final result instructed the pupils in what to think, when and for how long. As a consequence, it became a great thought control system for elites.

The Prussian education system was divided in three: The private tier, or Akadamiensschulen, was made up of only 1% of the child population, children of the top elite of the state. Here the students were taught to be future policy makers and governors: they learned to think strategically, studied history, wrote and read deeply, and dominated tasks of command. The next level, Realsschulen, included 5 to 7.5% of the child population and was created with the purpose of producing engineers, architects, doctors, lawyers and such other assistants as policy thinkers at times would require. The last level, a group of roughly 92-94% of the child population, were destined to Volksschulen, or people's school. Here they learned obedience, correct attitudes, along with rudiments of literacy and official state myths of history.

The best thing that can happen to such a system is to have a rapid success. After Jena episode, Prussia got revenge against Napoleon in Waterloo 8 years later and obtained the victory in the Franco-Prussian war, which leaded to the unification of Germany. Although it’s sure that there were more reasons than the education reform, Prussia became the dominant army in Europe till the end of XIX century.

The overall System was soon widely admired for its efficiency and reduction of illiteracy, and inspired education leaders in other German states and a number of other countries, including Japan and the United States.

To sum up, it’s false that the education system has its origins in the industry, but in the military world. Now it’s our responsibility to adapt this important activity to our time.