It was interesting to read the history of schooling and how greatly it differs from the education system we see today. Not only were schools about educating students but “it was in direct pedagogical competition with institutions pedlling in apprenticeships, salvation, rehabilitation, cure, moral instruction, and the arts of war” (Deacon, p. 179). These schools were all about discipline rather then development of knowledge. Throughout the centuries it is evident to see how schools have progressed from negative to positive places. The idea of a school four-hundred years ago does not seem as inviting as the schools we see today. I used to look forward to attending school everyday, I still do, but the thought of going to school just to keep social order does not seem even remotely appealing.
In seventeenth-century Europe, “the evolving Protestant work ethic abhorred both upper class ‘wastefulness’ and lower class ‘idleness’, and demanded that all contribute to prosperity for all” (Deacon, p. 179). It was not all that long ago that students were threatened with violence in order to behave. One interesting statement Deacon made was “Foucault suggests that the concern was less about inhumanity or violence per se and more about the kind or degree of violence that might best mould particular individuals” (Deacon, p. 180). Parents today would not stand for anything that included violence towards their children. But only as far back as forty years ago students were strapped and beaten for little reasons. It is amazing how far the education system but also society itself has come. I had a teacher who would only be in his fifties now who used to get strapped if he got a word wrong on his spelling bee. In schools today the most “punishment” you would receive is a detention or not getting a sticker on your test. School up to the eighties and nineties sounds terrifying and does not found anything like what school is like today.
As education progressed so did the population and the number of teachers trained. Schooling initially started with ‘monitorial method’ which was the teacher tutored older students who would then share their knowledge and teach the younger students. As classrooms grew larger and more individuals were trained teacher the ‘simultaneous method’ took its place, which is one individual teaching a whole classroom, which is what we would see today in schools. Deacon remarked how “Foucault’s work should make us more inquisitive about the twentieth century shift towards more child-centred and participatory pedagogies, not least given the finding that pedagogical methods are not simply imposed but are formed out of individuals’ own adaptations to school functions” (Deacon, p. 183).
Deacon moves on to post secondary education which “Foucault predicted that universities will become increasingly important politically, because they multiply and reinforce the power-effects of an expanding stratum of intellectuals and, not least, as a result of new global demands for active, multi-skilled and self-regulated citizens” (Deacon, p. 184). It does seem that more people are starting to attend universities because that’s the “next step”. To get anywhere in the work field you need to have some sort of post-secondary education and university is what most people attend. By the time I have children, universities will probably just be the next step of education, no one will probably question it. Even with my BA I will still need to further my education in order to pursue a career.
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