Innovators/Makers

I have to admit that I was confused at first on who a "maker" could be. I knew some of the innovators of education and I wasn't surprised by the people listed on the PBS site. After viewing Gatto's site, I realized that the makers played a great role on how we view education today! I believe that the innovators are the ones who have shaped education. They set forth the policies that have formed our education processes today. One of the most famous innovators is Horace Mann. I believe he is the most important because he pushed for public education and for all social classes to join the same schools. Although he did not push for desegregation, he still made some progress with the joining of social classes. He set the way for desegregation to be an option in the future. He and the other innovators are different from the makers. The makers did not shape education and set forth policies to form what we do today. What they did was to figure out a way to make schooling a process for producing people prepared for the workforce. I would say they made school to be a place where students were receiving training to prepare them for work. One of the most famous makers has to be Henry Ford. I think he is the most important because his invention of the assembly line is so in tuned with our educational process in America. How is that you ask? Well, Ford's assembly line was to produce the same products quickly and efficiently. As an educator, I almost feel as if I am being pressured to treat my students the same way. Gatto's site mentioned that these makers wanted schooling to be a place to prepare people. I feel like I am supposed to teach the students the same information and pop them out ready to enter the work world. Now I don't want anyone thinking that is what I do because it is not! I teach to the best of my ability and I meet every students needs and I do so with the intent to prepare them for higher education. I just feel as if we can still see a presence of the past makers that existed still in education today. We have obviously become a society more interested in higher education and not just the work force like we were decades ago . This is because our societies needs have changed. Whether it is Mann or Ford or the innovator or maker, education is still being changed even today!