America’s education system wasn’t designed to unlock the genius in every child. It was designed to produce compliance. Efficiency. Predictability. In short—factory workers, not thinkers.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory. It’s a matter of historical record.

The Industrial Blueprint

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, as the U.S. surged into the Industrial Revolution, it looked a lot like today’s China—a manufacturing behemoth. Industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller understood that in order to fuel mass production, they didn’t need philosophers or inventors. They needed disciplined laborers who could follow instructions, show up on time, and never question authority.

So the school system was modeled on the factory floor:

• Rows of desks like assembly lines
• Bells to simulate shift changes
• Subjects taught in isolation, with minimal cross-disciplinary thought
• One-size-fits-all learning geared toward standardization, not inspiration

Horace Mann and John Dewey—often celebrated as pioneers—helped usher in this system. Dewey even said: “The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and assist him in properly responding to these influences.” In other words, social conditioning, not personal discovery. //

It’s time to unplug the conveyor belt.

Let’s stop pretending our schools are sacred. Let’s start building a system that grows free minds, not gray-suited cogs.

Because our children aren’t factory products.

They’re image-bearers of God—capable of wonder, wisdom, and greatness. If we don’t fight for their minds, someone else will program them.