[kqr2]

The Six Revelations from the article:

    Improving the performance of the parts of a system taken separately will not necessarily improve the performance of the whole; in fact, it may harm the whole.

    Problems are not disciplinary in nature but are holistic.

    The best thing that can be done to a problem is not to solve it but to dissolve it.

    The healthcare system of the United States is not a healthcare system; it is a sickness and disability-care system.

    The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers—and teaching is a major obstruction to learning.

    The principal function of most corporations is not to maximize shareholder value, but to maximize the standard of living and quality of work life of those who manage the corporation.

[bsder]

> The educational system is not dedicated to produce learning by students, but teaching by teachers—and teaching is a major obstruction to learning.

1) The education system is designed to corral children for working hours so their parents can be cogs in the machine.

2) The education system is designed to produce a minimum competence so that the students can eventually become cogs in the machine.

At no point was the public education system designed for anything significantly different from "average".

Any effective excursions from average are a result of some exceptional teacher bucking the system rather than being helped by it.

[jmcqk6]

People keep using the phrase "the education system is designed", but it really wasn't. People who say this really have no idea about the history of public education in this country, nor it's ongoing operation.

The system has been a tool used by some to advance their own selfish goals, but it's hard to say things about the system as a whole that is is actually honestly applicable across the entire system.

And it's even more complicated by the grudges people hold against the terrible teachers they had. it's understandable. Teachers hold important positions of authority in our most vulnerable and developing years. When they do not do what's best for us, it's a massive betrayal, and I can see why many would hold onto that and allow that to shape their entire view of the system. But it is an extremely skewed view.