HEALTHY LIVING IS FOSTERED BY LIFE-LONG LEARNING AND COMMUNITY, not by a narrowly-defined curricula having little relevance to the parameters of daily life, taught over a limited number of years, that is designed primarly to turn out people who will fit with the minimum of fuss, bother, protest and COST into a narrowly-defined range of 'useful', 'productive' (as in profit-making) occupations...
Which is how corporatist education reformers think the world should be run - teach children what they need to know to be good workers and good consumers and to do that with the minimum of deviation from the norm, minimum individuality, minimum dissent...
The problem with life in a 21st century western capitalist economy fashioned by corporations, is that PEOPLE, even the young and very old - are seen as units of economic production...
Society (or rather big business) is willing to invest just enough in these people (in some countries more than in others - such as basic infrastructure, public health and public education) to get them to maturity, where they will become 'productive' units - working and creating a profit for their private industry employers, paying taxes and consuming goods created via the process of exploitation of natural and human resources...
The problem with life in a 21st century western capitalist economy fashioned by corporations, is that PEOPLE, even the young and very old - are seen as units of economic production...
Society (or rather big business) is willing to invest just enough in these people (in some countries more than in others - such as basic infrastructure, public health and public education) to get them to maturity, where they will become 'productive' units - working and creating a profit for their private industry employers, paying taxes and consuming goods created via the process of exploitation of natural and human resources...
Adults are expected to bring a Return on Investment (ROI) for society/corporations; if they don't/wont' fit the mould, are temperamentally unsuited or are too ill/unstable, then they're considered to be worthless, a drain on resources, a DOG in Boston Consulting Group product matrix terms, rather than a STAR or a CASH COW...
And of course, this 'moulding' of people is not a natural, organic, healthy expression of the human spirit, so what the corporatists see as 'dysfunction' breaks out and increases as the pressure to fit square pegs into round holes is increased. This is not dysfunction at all, but a completely predictable expression of a natural response to unnatural pressures and expectations...
And of course, this 'moulding' of people is not a natural, organic, healthy expression of the human spirit, so what the corporatists see as 'dysfunction' breaks out and increases as the pressure to fit square pegs into round holes is increased. This is not dysfunction at all, but a completely predictable expression of a natural response to unnatural pressures and expectations...
Corporatists are willing to allow some of that 'dysfunction' and rebellion to continue only as long as it doesn't affect profitability beyond a certain point. There's a certain level of acceptable loss in 'human capital' they're willing to carry...
We've had that cycle occurring over the past 200 years. Public education sprang up in response to the need to convert and move a rural agrarian labour pool into the cities, to man the factories and keep the machines of the Industrial Revolution running...
Over time, profits grew, standards of living generally improved. But there was an (unintended) side effect of universal education. Workers - thanks to education giving them the ability to read - developed an independent mentality and wanted a greater share of the pie their sweat created for their bosses. There was an increase in rebellion and the ability to communicate and mobilise that rebellion into action
And what were once the favoured positions of the upper middle and upper classes, began to be infiltrated by people who came from much 'humbler' roots... the rich were being told to move over and share...
We've had that cycle occurring over the past 200 years. Public education sprang up in response to the need to convert and move a rural agrarian labour pool into the cities, to man the factories and keep the machines of the Industrial Revolution running...
Over time, profits grew, standards of living generally improved. But there was an (unintended) side effect of universal education. Workers - thanks to education giving them the ability to read - developed an independent mentality and wanted a greater share of the pie their sweat created for their bosses. There was an increase in rebellion and the ability to communicate and mobilise that rebellion into action
And what were once the favoured positions of the upper middle and upper classes, began to be infiltrated by people who came from much 'humbler' roots... the rich were being told to move over and share...
The problem with that is that the rich don't want to share. Capitalism is the ultimate pyramid-ponzi scheme, sucking up wealth from the base and middle of the pyramid and concentrating it at the top. And those at the top - quite naturally really, if you think about - don't want to move down the ladder or move over to share their place in the sun with the masses.
That period of liberal education and associated rebellion culminated in the 60s and early 70s, at which point business got seriously worried and decided to take back control of public education.
That period of liberal education and associated rebellion culminated in the 60s and early 70s, at which point business got seriously worried and decided to take back control of public education.
The current CORPORATIST EDUCATION REFORM movement is headed by the Billionarie Boys' club of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, convicted junk bond king Mike Milken, economist Milton Friedman, the Waltons and a handful of others, plus banks and hedge funds. They're working to privatise public education, deprofessionalise the teaching corp, and resegregate schools across the country, hurting mostly children of colour and low income communities through Race to the Top and the viral spread of charter schools.
The movement has been working quite deliberately behind the scenes to push its agenda into public education. See this from the Broad Foundation’s Annual Report for 2009:
“The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned.
With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments - charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards - the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.”
As Dora Taylor wrote on the Seattle Ed 2010 blog http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/:
"If anyone ever doubted that our Secretary of Education has the same agenda as the Broad Foundation, I believe the above quote will dispel any such thoughts. The relationship between the Broad Foundation and Arne Duncan started when Duncan was CEO of Chicago Public Schools, if not earlier, and according to Eli Broad, it is blossoming for him and other education reformites.
If the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Broad has spent and urged others to spend on this movement had instead been spent on school districts, more teachers to create smaller class sizes, and curriculum materials that are lacking in the classroom, we would all be much farther ahead without people who have no idea about what goes in a classroom dictating to others who do how they should teach and instead creating a high-pressure, factory like atmosphere in our schools."
“The election of President Barack Obama and his appointment of Arne Duncan, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, as the U.S. secretary of education, marked the pinnacle of hope for our work in education reform. In many ways, we feel the stars have finally aligned.
With an agenda that echoes our decade of investments - charter schools, performance pay for teachers, accountability, expanded learning time and national standards - the Obama administration is poised to cultivate and bring to fruition the seeds we and other reformers have planted.”
As Dora Taylor wrote on the Seattle Ed 2010 blog http://seattleducation2010.wordpress.com/:
"If anyone ever doubted that our Secretary of Education has the same agenda as the Broad Foundation, I believe the above quote will dispel any such thoughts. The relationship between the Broad Foundation and Arne Duncan started when Duncan was CEO of Chicago Public Schools, if not earlier, and according to Eli Broad, it is blossoming for him and other education reformites.
If the hundreds of millions of dollars that the Broad has spent and urged others to spend on this movement had instead been spent on school districts, more teachers to create smaller class sizes, and curriculum materials that are lacking in the classroom, we would all be much farther ahead without people who have no idea about what goes in a classroom dictating to others who do how they should teach and instead creating a high-pressure, factory like atmosphere in our schools."
See here, for the 'how to' for would-be reformers to get involved in shaping public education, while AT THE SAME TIME MAXIMISING THEIR ROI IN SELLING PRODUCTS INTO AND PRIVATISING THE SAME PUBLIC EDUCATION...
http://www.biztools4schools.org/tools_for_action_overview
It makes me sick to my stomach...
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