Re: Measurement in Education LO1497

Bernard Girard (bgirard@Dialup.FranceNet.fr)
Fri, 2 Jun 1995 09:33:33 +0000

Replying to LO1478 --

Mariann Jelinek says : "Students ARE "customers"

I am sure this sentence looks obvious to a lot of people, at least in the
States (it would probably be different in Europe). But is it true? Can we
say that students buy knowledge the way one buys a car or a record? Can we
even say that knowledge can be sold? As everyone knows knowledge is free,
it's not a property, you cannot protect it.

To get some knowledge, a student has to work. He is more like an investor
who spends his time, his intelligence, his diponibility to acquire
knowledge (remember, Marian, when you were a student, you had to choose
between going out with your boyfriend and studying, it was not always easy
to choose, you had to fight against your desires).

Remember what Plato said (in the Menon) : the knowledge is not in the
teacher, it's already in the head of the young slave, he has to discover
it. If you studied logic, you know that in a way, learning (or at least
understanding) is discovering what we already know.

The acquisition of knowledge is a complex interaction between a student,
his intelligence, his will to work and learn and teachers, learning
methods the simple model of market cannot describe it.

--
Bernard Girard <bgirard@Dialup.FranceNet.fr>