Attention Deficit

Note: I’ve lectured on this subject for over 10 years. This will be the first time I’ve placed my collective thoughts into print. I’ll present the topic as a series of essays.

Henry Ford and Education

The great industrialist and inventor, Henry Ford founded his company on precision and efficiency in the early 1900s. To produce cars for the masses, he would need a method of assembly that could quickly assemble mass produced parts into a complete automobile. His assembly line model rapidly changed the world. Using the assembly/production line model, mass assembly of products became the norm. This in turn produced higher volumes of products available to the masses. Mass production allowed manufacturers to sell products for cheaper prices as well. All of this was based on efficiency. Educationalists were impressed.

Prior to the early 20th century and the assembly line, manufacture was performed by a single craftsman or team of craftsmen. Known as the English System, craftsmen typically would produce each part of a product individually. In the final phase of production, the craftsmen would assemble the components together into a single product. At that time, if changes were needed to the individual parts, the craftsmen would modify the parts to make them fit or work together. While this process was slow and did not produce mass quantities of goods, it produced high quality goods with attention to detail. This practice was similar to our method of teaching in rural one-room school houses where students sat together on benches.

If we envision a student as a basic raw component, like a car chassis, and following the production line model, we could get his wheels on by the end of kindergarten. In first grade we insert the engine. In second grade we put in the brakes. In fourth grade we put on the body. Thus, by the end of high school, we should have a completed student or car as it were.

There would be a need then, to make this process efficient. There would be no more need for small school houses. Big schools would be built where large numbers of students could be housed. Mass transportation would have to be implemented to ensure that large numbers of students could be assembled in the larger schools. Students should sit in rows as this would make it more efficient for the teacher when handing out mass produced work sheets and tests. There would be no need for individualized instruction when a generalized curriculum would fit. By senior year in high school, those students not prepared to move on to higher education (defective parts) can be diverted to technical schools to prepare them for work in the service industry.

And that’s what we did in the early 1900s.

The other articles in the series "The Evolution of ADHD, Education, and Drugs in America" can be found below.

1. Dennis the Menace
2. Henry Ford and Education
3. Henry Ford vs. Dennis the Menace
4. Soviet Menace vs. Dennis the Menace
5. Sigmund Freud vs. Dennis the Menace