what teachers could learn from a west coast hamburgar joint

I often rail against standardized education, holding a fist out at the McGraw Hill Company, speaking out against No Child Left Behind and publicly blasting the AIMS test.  For me, the best metaphor for standardized education is McDonalds.  Students shuffle through quickly driven by the value of effecienecy.  Teachers are reduced to replacable automatons.   Students are left with a value menu education that does little to help them live better. It is a well-oiled machine, yet it is also shallow, cheap and potentially fatal. 

Yet, what should the education system resemble?  Ideally, it would be an organic food market, where students recieve something authentic and beneficial.  The problem is that organic is too expensive, too slow and too dull to a fast food culture conditioned to trade authenticity for amusement. So, how do we reform the system?

I think the answer lies in creating something more like In-N-Out.  At In-N-Out, the ingredients are fresh, because the workers are entrusted with the craft of creating a perfect hamburgar.  They are paid a higher wage and given more autonomy regarding the decision-making process.  The end result is a hamburgar that tastes better and is more authentic than anything found in McDonalds.

The customers, too, are offered the chance to tailor the hamburgar to their taste.  They can request animal style, hippie style, Pasedena style and a whole host of bizarre combinations.  Unlike McDonalds, they are not motivated by the desire for fun (there are no Happy Meals, no toys, no Play Place) and convenience, but by the taste of a quality burgar.  There is a simplicity of In-N-Out in the notion that all they do is create great hamburgars, fries and shakes. You won't find a huge menu with exotic names hiding the prepackaged flavor. 

I think that's what the education system needs.  We need to entrust teachers (like the In-N-Out company) to know their craft and to create quality education rather than mindlessly read prepackaged curriculum. Education must become more authentic and allow students to modify it to fit their needs.  We need to quit bribing them with Happy Meal rewards and Play Place diversions and instead trust that students can find satisfaction in meaningful dialogue - even if the process can be difficult, boring and messy.   

True, there would be huge resistance to such reforms.  I have met many people who hate In-N-Out.  To them, the authentic fries taste strange compared to the wax-coated, flavor-strip fries they get at McDonald's.  Many complain about the long lines and the boredom of waiting for their number.  Yet, in life, the greatest things often do not come instantly.  They occur after moments of tedium and times of suffering.  Still, the rapid pace of the expansion of In-N-Out suggests that there is a yearning for authenticity.  I just hope that those values someday transfer into the world of mainstream education.