I was catching up on blogs this weekend and I encountered two bits of commentary on schools. I found the juxtaposition interesting...

[via The Seattle Times: Education: Gates "appalled" by high schools ]:

WASHINGTON — Bill Gates blasted the state of U.S. high schools yesterday in a speech before the National Governors Association education summit in the nation's capital.

Using words such as "ashamed" and "appalled" to describe his reaction to the failure rates for students, Microsoft's co-founder called America's high schools broken, flawed and underfunded, and said the system itself is obsolete.

[via Seth's Blog: The ever-worsening curse of the cog ]:

Since you were five, schools and society have been teaching you to be a cog in the machine of our economy. To do what you're told, to sit in straight lines and to get the work done.

In the early factory era, there was great demand for trained cogs, the cogs even had unions, and cog work was steady, consistent and respected. There were way worse things than coghood.

Over the last decade or two, that's all gone away. ...