Entry #1- Innovators and "Makers"

Honestly, I didn't know the difference between an innovator and a 'maker' when it came to American education. After reading the PBS site and Gatto's site, I now have a better sense of the differences.

Both innovators and 'makers' had a role in shaping education but each impacted it in different ways. Let me explain.

Innovators

Innovators sought to make education available to the masses and not just to the wealthy and privileged. Innovators like Horace Mann and John Dewey made it possible for common schools to establish themselves as the first public schools in the nation. These innovators paved the way for our public school system as we know it today.

Horace Mann became known as the “Father of the Common School.” He was so influencial in education because he believed that education was a universal right for all. Mann also believed that everyone should have the opportunity to attend school no matter what their social class or income may be. He advocated for a longer school year and the funding of schools to be the responsibility of the state instead of the individual. He helped establish laws for compulsory attendance and these laws were in every state by 1918. Mann also advocated for a more trained and professional teacher. Training institutions called normal schools were established for teachers. Mann knew that the key to elevating the standard of learning was to elevate the standards in which the teachers were trained. Therefore, he sought to make teaching a profession.

As you can see, innovators like Horace Mann were on a quest to help make education everything it could be and he spent his entire life crusading for this cause. Without his mission, public schools today could have been in a lot worse shape than they are now. Because Mann pushed for public education for all social classes to be in one 'common school', I believe he is one of the most important innovators.

'Makers'

The 'Makers' of modern schooling, on the other hand, inspired the "social efficiency" movement. They are a group of money-hungry people who, as Gatto states, had an added fourth purpose which was the driving force of education. One maker worth mentioning is Henry Ford. With Ford's invention of the assembly line, he created the concept: make a lot, sell more. But who was going to buy? He helped drill into the minds of adults as well as youth that everyone should, buy, buy, and buy some more while complying to every direction given without any say in the matter. This idea bled into the school systems which made schools teach students how to be consumers of more and more products.

Being a minimalist (or attempting to be), the idea of this constantly-wanting-more nation makes me sick to my stomach. In my personal opinion, we should all focus less on 'stuff' and more on people. The innovators were the people who did just that. They did what they thought would be best for everyone involved in the education process (including teachers). They understood the possibilites of what people could achieve and went from there. The 'makers' on the other hand, had only two things on their minds: themselves and money. Not the kind of people you want teaching your children, that's for sure!