Schools are starting, and just what we are asking our teachers to do? We are asking them to make our kids world-class, working in a “Sputnik Moment” global competition against kids from Singapore, Finland, Korea and now — Shanghai. What tools do we provide for our teachers? A classroom, a blackboard, some books and supplies, and good wishes. What “system” do we place them in? It’s a system that combines 1830s craft industry with 1910s Tayloristic manufacturing.
Preparing for a class is identical to an 1830s Bostonian making shoes, except the tools and end product are different; the labor intensity is the same. The “factory” has 13 processing steps, each requiring an academic year, and the widgets-in-process (our kids) proceeding in lockstep pace.
