Deming philosophy in educ LO8449

Taylor Jenkins (TAYLOR@caedm.et.byu.edu)
Thu, 11 Jul 1996 10:29:25 -0700

I am a student in manufacturing engineering technology at Brigham Young
University. I have recently been introduced to the teachings of Deming,
Shewhart, and Taguchi. The philosophy they put forth is profound truth. I
am eager to learn more and understand even better the Deming philosophy.
One of the teachings of these men is to focus quality improvement
efforts at the primary stages of a process, namely the design stage. We
have been making great strides in industry by implementing this
philosophy, however it seems to me the most basic design stage of the
system has been forgotten, or simply skipped over. I'm speeking of the
public education system. Industry is making great strides, but if we are
truly concerned about continuous improvement, we must transform the
education system to reflect this new philosophy.
The public education system has been producing to specifications
long enough. This hinders growth of the students passing through the
system. What's more, they come out tired of learnig and ignorant of
quality. How could they learn it; Why should they? It's been trained out
of them.
One of my teachers, a great man trying to invoke change, but bound
by the system, said, "Education is the only industry that prides itself on
scrap and rework."
A profound statement! By use of the forced curve and the grading
system, it is required that schools produce scrap and rework. In other
words, noteveryone can get an 'A'. There can only be so many A's and so
many F's. Well you might ask, "What if the class consists of the 50
brightests students in the nation?" Yes, someone must fail, otherwise
grade inflation will occur.
When a student fails, he must retake the course and become rework,
or he can drop out and become scrap.
Well, I think I've said enough.
If anyone Knows of a case study, or incident where The Deming
philosophy is being applied in education, please E-mail me. I am
interested in where and how it is being applied, and what the effects are.

My E-mail address is: Taylor@caedm.et.byu.edu

Any responses are much appreciated.

Thank you, Taylor Jenkins

-- 


Taylor Jenkins <TAYLOR@caedm.et.byu.edu>
 


     Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations
    For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>