Micromanagement

This is a big one.  It's at the core of the problem of industrial education.  Most organized education systems are just that - organized.  They are an organization.  Usually, an old fashioned organization, with central command, and with lots of rules, bylaws and lines of authority.  And from one year to the next, there are more rules, not less.  It is all very natural: The organization people manage the field people.  Logistical, administrative, legal and political (national & local) concerns tend to overshadow pedagogic concerns, since the organization is made of more logistics and administration people than pedagogues.  Also, the non-pedagogues have more time and attention for the power-struggle.  Pedagogues are busy thinking about education…  of all things…  The organizational center is worried about controlling a very large organization with hundreds of thousands of teachers at many thousands of locations, being responsible for millions of pupils.   The natural response to this worry, taken together with the type of people and type of activities in the organizational center, often leads to strict control of the center over the field.  At least an attempt of strict control.  At its worst, this strict control is embodied in micromanagement - an attempt to control exactly who will teach, how they will teach, when they will teach, whom they will teach, certainly what they will teach, whether they will be allowed to teach one subject or another, and none of that pesky "why."

Again, all this is very natural. Education systems are very large organizations. A large organization is interested in itself, its own internal rules are enough to create a microcosm around the people working in it.  Especially the people who are removed from the field, since those at the field - teachers - are less likely to think the organization is the whole world.  The field people encounter a larger world every day through the pupils and parents.

What are the results of this micromanagement?

For pupils, micromanagement means that the teaching is aimed at a certain theoretical group of pupils, since the [micro]managers are concerned with all the pupils and they can't be familiar with all the individual students.  This theoretical group may be at the mean of abilities in one subject or another; it may have a certain learning style; they have a certain emotional state; etc.  The micromanaged teacher is not allowed to suit the teaching speed, material, method or timing to the needs of the individual pupils in front of him.  So the pupils get a lesson that is not suitable for them.  At any given time, most of the pupils get the wrong lesson in the wrong timing and the wrong way.

For educators, micromanagement means they are reduced to Modern-Times-type technicians, lacking control over their time and actions.  Being micromanaged, the teacher's own judgement is not very relevant.  The teacher has very little autonomy.  People who are good at what they are doing - be it teachers or any other profession - tend to demand a measure of autonomy.  Offer to them a job description with "subservience" as a significant component, and they will decline.  Micromanagement in education alienates many would-be good teachers, and breaks the back of those good teachers who do enter the system.  the same goes for principals, counselors, etc.

For the education system as a whole, micromanagement means that there is no room for innovation.  Innovation needs to be connected to the field.  The opportunity for innovation must be available to many people - not just to a designated innovator at the main office.  As a result of systematic-non-innovation, many education systems are the most conservative organizations one can find.  They don't change at all, and ignore the quick changing world around them.  The very world for which they are supposed to prepare the pupils.

To conclude:  Micromanagement is a natural occurence in large organizations, and is natural to education systems.  The only problems with it are that: Micromanagement of education impedes learning, impedes teaching and prevents the education system from performing its core function.

Democratize education!