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  • College enrollment is expected to rise from approximately 20 million students in

  • 2016 to over 23 million by 2025 the average student loan debt in America is currently over

  • $30,000 per student and shockingly a recent study found that in the first two years of college

  • 45% of students showed no gains and critical thinking if this is true this begs the question are schools failing us

  • Before we can answer the question we have to go over a very brief history of human education for 90% of our existence

  • Humans have lived as nomadic

  • Hunter-gatherers in those days the dominant form of learning occurred between families and tribes we learned to hunt and gather from those around us around

  • 10,000 BC an

  • Agricultural revolution occurred this dramatically changed the ways in which we live humans began to settle down and form early civilizations

  • Agriculture was a massive part of our lives up until the Industrial Revolution

  • As you can imagine this agricultural period covers a large span of time from approximately

  • 10,000 BC to around 1760 ad in this period of time we shifted from primarily tribal learning to various types of

  • apprenticeships and

  • apprenticeship takes on a very broad meaning here such as working under a master craftsman a slave master or being part of a guild

  • essentially education started to shift away from the family unit the next major revolution the Industrial Revolution

  • Marked another drastic change in our education. It was during the industrial period that schools as we know them formed

  • But how did it happen? the Secretary of Education for the state of Massachusetts

  • At the time Horace Mann studied several systems across Europe to find the one that he believed would be the best for America

  • He concluded that the Prussian model would be the best it was funded by taxes attendance was mandatory, and it had specially trained teachers

  • But the thing is many people might not know that the Prussians used their school system as a way to instill

  • Obedience to Authority in young students in fact a Prussian philosopher by the name of Johann

  • Played a key role in forming their educational system

  • And he said that if you want to influence a person you must do more than merely talk to him

  • you must fashion him and

  • Fashion him in such a way that he simply cannot will otherwise than what you wish him to will now. This is where?

  • Conspiracy theorists might call it a day and reduce the entirety of public education in America to that of a brainwashing machine

  • I don't agree in man's journals

  • He openly acknowledges that the Prussians were using their system of education for evil

  • But he believed that it could be used for good if it was put in the right hands some man

  • Advocated heavily for the Prussian model and it became the one implemented in America the next step was to create a standardized educational experience in

  • 1892 a committee of 10 people was selected to oversee the standardization of

  • education in America at the time

  • Education was too varied across different schools to accurately gauge

  • Which schools were doing well and how different students rank compared to one another when assessing them for college admissions?

  • So this committee of 10 studied schools across America and saw that there were approximately

  • 40 different courses being studied among the various schools they narrowed this list down to the nine courses that they deemed to be the most

  • important which were Latin, Greek, English, other modern languages,

  • Mathematics, physics, astronomy and chemistry, natural history, history civil government and political economy and geography

  • After these nine courses were selected, the committee of 10 selected 10 more members for each course to answer questions such as

  • When should the subject be introduced?

  • When should different part of it be introduced?

  • How long should it be studied for?

  • And what parts of the subject should be studied?

  • Together these few people shape the curriculum for all future students

  • Although there has been some changes to this curriculum a large part of this curriculum still makes up the core of K to 12 education

  • At the time this public and standardized education was created. I believe that it was quite progressive and innovative

  • There are actually lots of benefits to a public and standardized education such as it's free it allows us to run schools more efficiently

  • Maintains a minimum level of quality and all people must be treated equally and allowed to receive an education

  • regardless of race sex class creed or status and

  • Lastly it acted as a powerful economic machine during

  • Industrial times and allowed the middle class to grow how could a system that did so much for our economy go so wrong

  • That's what we'll talk about in part 2 of this video this video is sponsored by our

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  • As always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time

College enrollment is expected to rise from approximately 20 million students in

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