Who decides Educn goals? LO5208

Ron Dickson (Ron_Dickson@ccm.ch.intel.com)
Mon, 29 Jan 96 09:25:00 PST

Replying to LO5184 --

Rol writes:
"In Maine, the Coalition for Excellence in Education --
governor's task force -- commissioned a study of values and
perceptions. One question was the following: Do you agree or
disagree with the following statement? "A prime goal of
education is to prepare kids for work." two-thirds of teachers
disagreed, and two-thirds of citizens agreed. Apparently there is
a disagreement about the fundamental goals of school..."


At the risk of sounding pedantic, I suggest that the conflict was
in the question, not necessarily the response. This could be
explained at two levels. First, the question specified "A prime
goal..." not "THE prime goal...." As the thread on semantics
would imply, we could all agree on the former and disagree
bitterly on the latter. Second, the question is awfully broad
unless information followed to clarify HOW education should
prepare kids for work. For instance, I could easily agree that "A
prime goal of education is to prepare kids for work" by teaching
them to challenge assumptions, explore their environment, and to
draw independent conclusions. On the surface, agreement with the
stem of the sentence could imply a traditional trade school
orientation; however, I would submit that as completed, the
intent is quite different.

--
Ron Dickson
Intel Corporation
Ron_Dickson@ccm.ch.intel.com