I have experienced the Tyler rationale in my own learning in elementary school. I was in the top of the class and I have most subjects to be fairly easy. However, because of this I noticed that a lot of time at school I was told to just read a book or visit with a friend. I wasn’t given more challenging activities to work on so that I could progress. Instead I was taught that I had to stay at the same level as my peers. I also noticed the Tyler rationale being used in art class. Instead of allowing us to create whatever type of painting or drawing we liked, we were restricted and could only paint a certain type of picture. This left me feeling constricted in what I could do. When I handed in the assignment my teacher told me that I had done it incorrectly because it didn’t match up perfectly with my peers or the example. I was forced to redo my art project. The Tyler rationale played a role in my schooling as it tried to keep everyone at the same level and with the same imagination. It did not encourage creativity but instead made me feel like less of an individual and more of a carbon copy of my peers.
A major limitation of the Tyler rationale is that it tries to put students into a box. It limits their creativity and strives to make all students the same. A quote that stuck out to me in the reading is when Tyler explained that “school should be a statement of changes to take place in the students” (Tyler 1944). This quote really struck me because it does not talk about helping students grow or to learn and harness their own talents and abilities. Instead, it wants to create the same level of change in each student so that everyone comes out of school acting and thinking the same way. I think this is very limiting because it does not create a population of rational and imaginative thinkers, only people who are expected to be a certain way. The Tyler rationale limits students’ creativity and the changes there are able to make in the world. As such, “This takes much away from learners. They can end up with little or no voice”. A school system that strives to take away the unique voices of students is one that has major limitations and problems. This type of school system does not promote free thinking or expression which is very harmful.
A potential benefit that the Tyler rationale provided is “that it involved detailed attention to what people needed to know in order to work, live their lives, and so on”. This benefit helps people in their daily lives be able to work alone at a desk and accomplish tasks, much like schools. This is definitely a benefit because there are people who need these skills when they graduate high school. However, this also becomes a limitation because not everyone needs to learn how to work in a factory or at a desk. So while it is beneficial for some students to obtain these skills, it is not needed by every student who passes through the schooling system.
Information retrieved from: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12yUit4yJm9nhWB_wYXGMTZNiCJumaT02/view