[P]hrases like “the industrial model of education,” “the factory model of education,” and “the Prussian model of education” are used as a “rhetorical foil” in order make a particular political point – not so much to explain the history of education, as to try to shape its future.
Much enjoyed this revisionist piece on the so-called factory model of state schooling – written about the US but with much to say to the UK too:
Will Orr-Ewing 