A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #45 - The Great "Innovation": Less Knowledge, More Obedience - Alessandro Granata Seixas (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Every era has its own newspeak. Once upon a time, they were called cuts, 
social discipline, and class selection. Today, however, they are called 
"modernization," "flexibility," "innovative teaching," and "personalized 
curriculum." ---- And so, while public schools are being dismantled 
piece by piece, they explain to us with a smile that they are actually 
"improving" them. ---- With the reform of technical-vocational schools 
promoted by Minister Giuseppe Valditara, Italian schools are finally 
taking a leap into the future: less culture, less critical thinking, 
fewer tools for understanding the world. Instead, more business, more 
training, and more obedience.
After all, what good are Law, History, Political Economy, Geography, 
Languages, or in-depth Mathematics when the real goal is to learn as 
quickly as possible to smile at the boss, punch a time clock, and adapt 
to precariousness?
The idea is simple and ingenious: gradually transform technical and 
vocational schools into a sort of detached department of companies. No 
longer schools, but pre-training centers for work subordination. A 
factory-like school where students enter and "human resources" emerge. 
Naturally, everything is presented as an achievement.
The reduction of subjects becomes "streamlining of curricula." Cultural 
impoverishment is transformed into "concrete teaching."
Subordination to companies is renamed "connection with the territory." 
It's the usual ideological trick: changing the name of things to hide 
their nature. Behind the rhetoric of pragmatism lies a very specific 
idea of society: there are young people who must lead and young people 
who must obey.
High schools are still entrusted, at least in part, with the function of 
training the future ruling classes: those who will speak, manage, and 
administer. Technical-vocational schools, on the other hand, are 
entrusted with the task of preparing an adaptable, flexible workforce, 
ideally one that is less confrontational and less inclined to ask too 
many questions.
Because the problem, evidently, isn't job insecurity, low wages, or poor 
work. No. The problem would be that students study too much.
So let's start with alternating work placements starting in the second 
year, with companies directly involved in teaching, with curricula 
tailored to local production needs.
The goal is no longer to train citizens capable of critically 
understanding society, but to train workers compatible with the market. 
Docile, adaptable, open to blackmail.
Ultimately, it's perfectly in keeping with the times.
We live in a society where it's constantly repeated that "we must be 
competitive," while rights are being dismantled one after another. A 
society where work is increasingly precarious, but the blame lies with 
schools, which fail to adequately prepare for the needs of businesses.
So instead of raising wages and rights, schools are being downgraded.
Instead of emancipating the working classes through knowledge, knowledge 
is being reduced to better adapt to exploitation.
And here lies the political heart of the reform: removing cultural tools 
means removing critical capacity. Those who know less, argue less. Those 
trained only to "do" struggle to imagine that the world could be 
organized differently.
This is why knowledge is annoying. This is why a truly emancipatory 
public school always frightens those in power.
A school that teaches immediately usable skills, perhaps destined to 
become obsolete within a few years, is much better than a school that 
teaches reasoning, connection, understanding, and discussion.
The real tragedy is that all this is sold as progress.
Under the guise of innovation, an increasingly classist school is being 
built: one for those who will command, another for those who will obey.
And while they call all this "merit," "excellence," and "modernization," 
public schools are slowly losing their most important function: allowing 
those born without privilege to acquire the tools for emancipation.
Because an educated population can become difficult to govern. A trained 
population, on the other hand, is much less so.

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