Let’s start with an uncomfortable truth.
School was never designed to make everybody successful.
It was designed to build an obedient pool of workers, necessary to provide the skills needed in society.
It was designed to make you obedient and only learn the skills necessary to run society efficiently.
You can trace its foundations back to 1844
In 1844, an Amercian gentleman named Horace Mann visited Prussia - and was stunned at how effective their education system was.
It was phenomenally efficient at creating factory workers and soldiers.
He was so enthused he brought the model back to America, and from there is spread all around the world.
Attributes of the system were so familiar even today:
- You sit in square classrooms where the desks are set out in rows. This was to simulate a factory floor.
- Class commencement was started with a bell. Which is the same as a Factory Floor change.
- You are asked to raise your hand to speak. Which is permission based thinking.
- Curriculum is broken into single disciplines, and tests are standardised. This is how we differentiate the students, and quality control the human widget.
- We implement age-based grades. This simulates an essembly line for people, and if a student doesn’t meet the grade they are held back.
And this last one is funny. We have Summer Breaks which aligns to Agricultural Cycle Needs of the society (!).
The Prussian models premise is simple:
- You follow orders
- You show up on time
- You do not question authority; and
- You do not think for yourself.
I did not write this lesson to make you ignore school or take a negative attitude towards it.
Our current education system is what we have.
The intent of reframing your mindset here, is so you can realise - that what you learn at school may not sufficiently prepare you for the new world of AI.
That in fact, if you TRUST the current system - you could be in for a big shock down the line.
7 Prussian Mindsets that will fail in the era of AI
Lie #1: "You need to learn all this, just in case
Statement: "You never know when you'll need algebra!"
Truth: You now have a tool to write software in your pocket. Specific algebra understanding is no longer the skill. It’s knowing how to build the software to solve an algebra problem in seconds.
The unlearning point:
- Stop memorising, and start understanding patterns.
- Stop collecting facts, and start building systems.
Lie #2: "You get one chance to succeed, otherwise you fail"
Statement: "If you get something wrong you Fail. Failure means shame"
Truth: You get more than one go now. Now you can iterate to a solution much faster than before and you can stress test your ideas without a teacher.
The unlearning point:
- Doing 1 test, at one time, without tools no longer makes sense.
- Your ability to iterate and check your own work is the new way.
Lie #3: "Follow the curriculum, and do nothing more"
Statement: "You are in year 9, and this is what you’ll learn. Stick to the script or else.”
Truth: The curriculum hasn’t substantially changed in 50 years. Its incrementally (and politically) influenced over decades. How do you think they’ll respond to AI - a capability that doubles in capability every 7 months?
The unlearning point:
- Its impossible for the Horace Mann based education system to adapt at a sufficient pace to keep up.
- The ‘system’ as we know it will break into multiple parts. You’ll have the pro-AI ‘progressive’ educators vs. the Traditionalists that won’t change.
- This will likely lead to tremendous turmoil and acrimony.
Lie #4: "The teacher knows best"
Statement: "Your teacher knows best, because they have a degree in teaching."
Truth: Your 45 year old teacher probably doesn’t know anything about AI. They were taught a curriculum, and have probably been doing a similar job for the last 25 years.
That doesn’t mean they’re bad people. It just means they won’t necessarily know what’s best.
The unlearning point:
- You can augment your teacher with AI right now.
- Even if you do take agency, there’s no guarantee the Teacher will like you or support you.
- They may or may not be your ‘accountable partner’. You may actually need to respectfully subvert them, until the teaching profession gets up to speed.
Lie #5: "You should put all your energy into your grades”
Statement: "Your grades determine your future."
The truth: Many of the smartest and most successful people on earth didn’t follow the script; and that’s probably going to become much more common. The questions society will want to know in an AI world will be very different. Like, what have you built? What problems have you solved? Who do you influence and help? etc.
The unlearning point:
- Yes, perform at school.
- Yes, go after good grades.
- But don’t pour all of your worth into the ‘old approach’.
- Figure out how you can progress and succeed with the skills of agency moving forward.
Lie #6: "Study at your grade level, and don’t go any futher”
Statement: "Don’t get ahead of yourself. Focus on your grade only."
The truth: A motivated 13 year old can write software with AI better than most PhD’s at University right now. Age based limitations on progress are adult insecurity manifested as ‘protection’. They’ll even point at AI to say it’s ‘cheating’ if you do it a different way.
The unlearning point:
- AI can help regular people do extraordinary things.
- AI gives kids much greater access to human knowledge than any prior generation.
- AI gives people a level of programmatic agency that’s never been seen before as well.
- In terms of agency - You’re competition might no longer be your classmates. It’s humans in the world and their willingness to leverage this new technology to your advantage.
Lie #7: "You need school to succeed"
Statuement: "Without education, you'll flip burgers."
The truth: Burgers will probably be flipped by robots soon. Managers will be replaced by AI, and a large proportion of jobs will be destroyed. Still want to follow that script?
The unlearning point:
- There will be multiple ways to build the skills you need to be successful.
- The real question here is not whether school is good or bad. The real question is whether school is effective in what it actually delivers.
Conclusion
The industrial age education system, rooted in 19th century Prussian methods, is fundamentally misaligned with the AI era. As artificial intelligence reshapes our society, the traditional emphasis on memorisation, standardised testing, and rigid hierarchy becomes increasingly obsolete.
Success in the AI world demands creativity, adaptability, and technological fluency qualities often stifled by conventional education.