Maybe designing schools to work like factories isn’t such a good idea.
The one-size-fits-all, lockstep education approach that is pervasive throughout the world is best described as the “factory educational system.” Indeed, there is some evidence that the designers of modern public education in the 1920s-30s turned to factory owners and designers for advice on its creation. (Seth Godin has written compellingly about this.)
Every factory has a known “defect rate” which can range from from 20-1,000 defects per million. That’s simply an acceptable loss – the prices of building phones, fidgets, or Fords efficiently.
What is an acceptable defect rate for students? Every educator I know cares about serving every student they meet: seeing them succeed in their class and in life more broadly. But if you’re designing a factory school, you have to accept the factory defect rate. It’s just the cost of the system.
Factory-styled school builds student failure into its very design.