Most people assume public education was built to uplift, liberate, and empower young minds. But what if it was designed for the opposite?

What if the American school system was never meant to cultivate creativity or critical thinking—but to manufacture obedience, conformity, and compliance? What happens to psychological safety when a system’s hidden curriculum teaches children to fear being wrong, to never question authority, and to earn approval by staying silent?

This InKNOWnative Insights explores the roots of U.S. education—from Prussian blueprints to Rockefeller funding, through the lens of John Taylor Gatto’s groundbreaking work, and ties it all to one of the most critical workplace needs today: psychological safety.

A System Built for Control, Not Curiosity

In the early 19th century, American education reformers—like Horace Mann—imported the Prussian model of schooling. This model emphasized discipline, uniformity, and national loyalty. Schools were structured like factories: students sat in rows, learned the same material at the same pace, and were conditioned to obey without questioning.

Then came the industrialists.

Rockefeller, Carnegie, and the General Education Board

By the early 20th century, powerful elites like John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie saw an opportunity to shape the future workforce through education. Rockefeller’s General Education Board (GEB), founded in 1902, aimed to create “efficient workers” rather than enlightened citizens.

“I don’t want a nation of thinkers. I want a nation of workers.”
      — (Attributed, though unconfirmed, to John D. Rockefeller)

What we do know is that GEB's stated goal was to support education that prepared the masses for productive service—not critical engagement. This gave rise to a two-tiered education system:

• One for the elite: rich in arts, critical thought, and leadership.
• One for the masses: focused on punctuality, obedience, and repetition.

As John Taylor Gatto noted in The Underground History of American Education (2001), the intent was clear: to engineer a predictable, manageable population. Not one that questions power. Not one that dreams too big.

The Seven-Lesson Schoolteacher

In one of his most cited essays, Gatto breaks down the “real” curriculum taught in schools, regardless of subject matter:

These lessons are the operating system of schooling, he argues—and they serve to produce obedient citizens, not free thinkers.

Industrialists funded universities, influenced teacher training, and supported standardized curricula that reflected their values. Their goal wasn’t to develop human potential—it was to ensure a labor force that could be managed efficiently. This model was never about democracy or individual expression. It was about control.

School as a Command-and-Control System

According to Gatto, the hidden curriculum of modern schooling teaches:

“Schools are meant to produce a manageable population, not an educated one.”
                       — John Taylor Gatto

This structure—bells, grades, top-down instruction—remains today in many classrooms and, tragically, in our corporate boardrooms as well.

Children who learn not to question authority become adults who don’t question workplace culture. Students who fear mistakes become team members who hide them. Individuals who are never asked what they think rarely learn how to advocate for their ideas.

Psychological Safety: What Schools Forgot and Workplaces Now Crave

Psychological safety, as defined by Amy Edmondson, is a climate where individuals feel safe to speak up, share ideas, take risks, and ask questions—without fear of punishment or humiliation.

But if your earliest experiences in school taught you to:

• Be quiet
• Color inside the lines
• Seek permission before acting
• Avoid standing out
• Fear being wrong in public

…then those habits often persist well into adulthood.

We see this play out in corporate cultures that are hierarchical, fearful, and innovation-stifling. When team members hesitate to speak up in meetings, challenge bad decisions, or admit mistakes, it's not just a leadership problem—it's a legacy of a broken education system.

John Taylor Gatto argued that compulsory schooling was never designed to build confidence or autonomy. It was built to foster dependency. Psychological safety can't thrive in a system built on external validation, constant surveillance, and public ranking. These conditions don't produce innovators; they produce compliance.

Education Models That Build Trust, Autonomy, and Innovation

Fortunately, not all education follows this industrial blueprint. There are powerful alternative models that nurture psychological safety and intrinsic motivation:

🟢 Montessori

• Mixed-age learning environments
• Encourages independence, exploration, and self-direction
• Mistakes are embraced as part of learning

🟢 Reggio Emilia

• Children’s interests shape the curriculum
• Strong emphasis on collaboration and student agency
• Projects focus on emotional and intellectual expression

🟢 Democratic Schools (e.g., Sudbury Valley)

• Students vote on rules and curriculum
• Fosters autonomy, mutual respect, and active voice
• Trusts learners to direct their education

🟢 Project-Based Learning & Agile Classrooms

• Learning happens through inquiry and iteration
• Failure is seen as learning, not shame
• Builds team-based collaboration and problem-solving

🟢 STEM Learning

• Focuses on integrating science, technology, engineering, and math through hands-on exploration
• Encourages critical thinking, innovation, and experimentation
• Prepares students for real-world problem solving and collaboration

These models align directly with what the modern workplace claims to need: creative, adaptable, collaborative thinkers who speak up, take ownership, and challenge the status quo.

From Schools That Silence to Workplaces That Listen

InKNOWnative believes the future of work—and life—depends on reclaiming psychological safety. That means understanding the forces that conditioned us to stay quiet and intentionally creating environments that do the opposite.

We can draw a direct line between:

• The obedience culture of our classrooms
• The fear-based cultures in our workplaces
• The burnout, disengagement, and silence that plague both

By unlearning what schools taught us about hierarchy, failure, and approval, we can:

• Build cultures of voice, trust, and mutual respect 
• Redesign meetings to welcome challenge and curiosity 
• Train leaders to create safety, not just manage performance 

It begins by acknowledging that the system was never broken—it was built this way.

It's up to us to build something new. Our psychologically safe future. Innovation beyond our imagination.

Where the Spark of Innovation Begins

If you want to bring psychological safety into your organization but aren't sure where to begin, start here by reading this InKNOWnative Insights: How to Use InKNOWnative’s Step-by-Step Training to Build Sustainable Psychological Safety. 

Citations

Gatto, J.T. (2001). The Underground History of American Education.

Edmondson, A.C. (2019). The Fearless Organization.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Illich, I. (1971). Deschooling Society.

Robinson, K. (2015). Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education.

Zhao, Y. (2012). World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students.

✨ Brought to you by InKNOWnative 

The spark of innovation & knowledge is native to each of us. Empowering organizations to build fearless, high-performing, learning cultures through psychological safety, inclusion, and innovation.

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