A recent article in NYT had this extract from the book "Now you see it"
The contemporary American classroom, with its grades and deference to the clock, is an inheritance from the late 19th century. During that period of titanic change, machines suddenly needed to run on time. Individual workers needed to willingly perform discrete operations as opposed to whole jobs. The industrial-era classroom, as a training ground for future factory workers, was retooled to teach tasks, obedience, hierarchy and schedules.
I like the above analysis. Schools & colleges indeed teach in a manner that will help them fit into professional-life. Like in India now-a-days soft skills and ability to communicate is getting talked about in our campuses for last 15 years. India has a large IT service industry and these qualities have become very important.
By above, it appears that the child is usually not the center of our education system. The future of the child in the economic landscape of the time is its center.
