In 1903, John D. Rockefeller said:
“I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers.”
That one sentence says more about modern education than any government policy memo. The school system was shaped around industrial needs—bells, schedules, standardized testing—all designed to mimic factory life. Obedience, repetition, memorization. No room for questioning, autonomy, or purpose.
As a parent, I can’t un-know that. It seems more like participating in a machine than nurturing a life.