Nineteenth Century English Schools for the Poor in Yuma, AZ: Only the Monitors Have Been Swapped Out

Above is an illustration of cutting edge pedagogy in the early 19th Century for English children who could not afford private schools.  The monitorial system was based on older boys monitoring younger ones who parroted back memorized lessons before they could move up to the next row.  As many as 500 boys could be schooled in these learning sweat shops by a single teacher.  The monitorial system was invented by Joseph Lancaster, who argued for education of the poor based on the need for social control and efficiency.

And below is the inside of Carpe Diem Charter School in Yuma, AZ, where the older boy monitors of the Lancaster Schools have been replaced by flat screen monitors, who don't have to eat, sleep, or go the bathroom.  Not much has changed, otherwise, except the student teacher ratio has improved to 60:1.  There is, too, one 21st Century twist: the State now pays corporations, in this case K-12, Inc. to set up and run these computerized learning cube farms for a handsome profit.

Maybe Carpe Pecuniam would a more appropriate school name.  Translation: Seize the Cash.

Arizona Oppressors Ban Discussion of Oppression in Classrooms

From Democracy Now:

Public school officials in Tucson, Arizona, have released a list of seven banned books that can no longer be used in classrooms following their suspension of the district’s acclaimed Mexican American Studies program. Last year, Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction John Huppenthal ruled the program violated a new state law, saying it "promote[s] resentment toward a race or class of people." "If all you’re teaching these students is one viewpoint, one dimension, we can readily see that it’s not an accurate history, it’s not an education at all. It’s not teaching these kids to think critically," Huppenthal says, "but instead it’s an indoctrination." We host a debate between Huppenthal and Richard Martinez, the attorney representing teachers and students trying to save the Mexican American Studies program. "What has occurred here is that [Huppenthal] has taken away from our entire community a curriculum that was adopted by our school board, that was developed by our school district, and that had successfully operated for well over 10 years," Martinez says. "It’s just part of the same kind of tactics that have been employed in Arizona reflected by [SB] 1070, the anti-immigrant perspective. It is the anti-Latino perspective that exists in this state." [includes rush transcript]