Mr. Illich and President Obama's Sputnik Moment

The last two blogs have recalled excerpts from Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society, first published in 1970. Illich was an Austrian priest known for his critiques of western culture. Today's blog offers his reflections on curriculum. Illich mistrusted institutionalized learning and favored self-directed work, such as offering students a list of names and works related to projects that interested them. While I still favor public education, Illich's insights articulate ideas we need to consider in order to bring more meaningful reform to public education. The following passage about curriculum seems prophetic in light of the way American schools have dumbed down and pureed curriculum over the years.

"School sells curriculum—a bundle of goods made according to the same process and having the same structure as other merchandise. Curriculum production for most schools begins with allegedly scientific research, on whose basis educational engineers predict future demand and tools for the assembly line, within the limits set by budgets and taboos. The distributor-teacher delivers the finished product to the consumer-pupil, whose reactions are carefully studied and charted to provide research data for the preparation of the next model, which may be "ungraded," "student-designed," "team-taught," "visually-aided," or "issue-centered."

Jargon is the language of bureaucracy. Jargon works like the language of advertising. It makes people feel good and makes their ideas sound right and important. We all want to feel good, right, and important. But as feeling that way doesn't make it so.

Recently, President Obama called for another Sputnik Moment. The President has been praised for his inspirational words. We all like to be inspired. But those same words he used were spoken back in the fifties. Driven by national pride, we flung ourselves into the study of math and science so we could beat the Soviets in the arms and space races. I lived through the first Sputnik moment and saw how our response to it changed our approach to education in ways that actually created many of the problems schools face today. I invite you to visit my Web site to learn more about the first Sputnik moment and why the last thing we need is a second such moment.