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Taproot: A Journal of Outdoor Education

Emanuele Corso

Abstract

At a time when the world is crying out for relief from its social and environmental crisis, our response must come in the form of radical departures from “business as usual” in the schools. Misplaced intelligence and well-intentioned ignorance have made American schools like factories.1 With production came dehumanization and its consequences: insensitivity to self, others, and nature. The production view of education persists because of its appeal to those who fear human nature and who have deep needs for social control as well as for proof of status. At this moment, the “in” euphemism for production is “accountability.” Industrial conglomerates faced with dwindling business become the modern counterparts of the corporate management specialists and social efficiency experts of the early 1900s. Schools are guaranteed results specified in advance, this time through the application of space age technology. A new automated production line replaces the old piece-work methodology, but the essential characteristics remain. Specified behavioral objectives are the stuff these dreams are made of. Discrete bits of sanctified knowledge, neatly packaged, conveniently presented, and above all, easily tested for, are the substance of production. That children can be specified, designed, produced, and quality controlled like ball bearings is both the promise and the threat of these educational schemes. The children are to become as dimensionally uniform—and as humane—as the perfect ball bearings.

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