Arithmomanic Education and the Metric Society: The Role of the School in the Quantification Cult

In this paper, I discuss the critical role of formal schooling in intensifying a metric society, i.e., a society seduced by numbers and obsessed with quantifying all facets of the social sphere. Scholars who study the phenomenon of the metric society discuss abundantly the factors that lead to this cult of quantification: confidence in the objectivity of numbers to measure everything, the need for accountability, the charm of simplicity, trust in the capacity of incentives, accessibility of data in the era of technological revolution, the yearning for more accountable and transparent societal institutions, and the influential impact of business processes and procedures in various societal domains, among other things. What is overlooked is a sustained analysis of the critical role of the pedagogical setting in the emergence of what resembles arithmomania. I argue that one of the main drivers of the rise of the arithmomanic personality is an authoritarian banking education and the modern educational disciplinary tactics, specifically the grading system. Thus, the school is not just a passive victim but an active perpetrator of the fetishism with numbers and measurement. Education is not just a casualty but is also complicit in the rise of a metric society.