Deming philosophy in educ LO8943

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@CompuServe.COM)
07 Aug 96 10:54:01 EDT

Replying to LO8874 --

Benjamin Wagner makes a number of statements about business and education
that I want to comment on.

== Benjamin ==

I have come to the greater realization that education is unique. It is not
a business, nor should it be. I therefore feel a need to advise caution
whenever someone suggests a business approach to solving the ills of
education.

== End quote ==

Ben, the best business leaders are discovering that business as we have
always thought of it is not what it really is either. In that sense,
neither business nor education will fit the paradigms we have had in the
last 50 years, or even in the last 10. The rapid development of new
'isms' is a reflection of our rapidly changing views about what is
important. The thinking which says that both functions and processes
co-exist synergistically in the best organizations is probably relevant
and valuable to both business and education. I would agree with you that
prior models are generally not appropriate for education, and I would add
that in retrospect, they were not right for business either.

== Ben ==

The community college is ideally situated to fulfill the needs of
business. For K-12 education, I do not think that the goal should be to
serve business, but rather to serve the individual and society. Standards
should not be set by business because they would be self-serving.

== end quote ==

There is actually no data to indicate that the needs of business are
different than the needs of the community. My unofficial poll of business
leaders is very clear and consistent: schools should provide critical
thinkers who can read and articulate.

The view of business that it is based on the assembly line is really
inconsistent with 85% of all businesses, and even the assembly line model
is incomplete for the other 15%. In any event, to allow business to
participate in standard-setting would be productive, and would result in
surprisingly little conflict.

== Ben ==

But is the customer of education, business? society? the individual? the
pa rent? As much as we say, "The customer is always right.", we know that
it is not true. If a business supplies what the customers want, it is good
for the business. If education supplies the workers that business wants,
is that always good for the individuals? How many of us would be happy
today if we had been trained for assembly line work (as so many of our
peers were).

== end quote ==

Partner is a better word than customer in this case. We need to forget
who serves who, and realize that we are in a partnership toward mutually
beneficial ends. In that context, all the grouping you mention need to
participate. The value of the educational professional is that they can
provide the functional expertise to identify HOW to achieve certain goals.
Another equally important value they can add would be to articulate
additional, more challenging standards which they, as overseers of all of
the constituencies, can see, but which none of the individual
constituencies can see by themselves.

How does this sound to you?

-- 

Rol Fessenden LL Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com

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