Reminded me of my graduating-year realization that universities are just priming people for a society that relies on people obeying the rules put in place by countless concentric systems, that if these rules are just simply observed then you can get along just fine.
To a school—or to a person acclimated to the perspective of schooling—what makes sense and what does not? What is obvious and what is inobvious? What is normal and what is abnormal?
If you See Like a School, the time allotted to you is a given, part of the eternal furniture of the universe. You need not consider how to efficiently use it for your learning functions or optimize it for any given student’s wellbeing. Their time in school is really your time
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6 . Parents on the margin
If you See Like a School, it is unnatural to think of parents as important stakeholders, as People Whom This Institution Exists to Serve.
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It is more natural to see parents as People to Whom This Institution Has a Few Inconvenient Obligations, and to expect to “interact” with parents in perfunctory and circumscribed ways, such as an annual parent-teacher conference, or allowing parents to drop a child off out front.
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