If tests and observations tell us that a student fails to understand a concept, we do not stop everything to help that student. If they don't understand or can't memorize a body of material within an allotted time, we give them a low grade and go on to the next topic. They are generally given only one opportunity to show they have learned the material. Quality control is not an issue. Our quest to have students in the right place at the right time at the least cost has been successful in terms of efficiency.
Schools are very efficient places.
In their attempt to become more efficient, however, schools have become less effective. Schools have been organized to follow an industrial model, a model no longer applicable to our students or our society. Indicative of schools' assembly-line mentality is depriving teachers of a technology considered standard for every professional in America, the telephone. The absence of phones on teachers' desks exemplifies the mindset of the industrial model. If we look at the teacher as an assembly line worker, there is no need for a telephone.