Education Reform LO9342

jpomo@gate.net ("jpomo@gate.net")
Thu, 22 Aug 1996 11:24:27 +0000

Replying to LO9300 --

Pete Heineman wrote -

> I know that we have ventured down this path before, but Perhaps Joan
> can provide additional enlightenment on how she proposes to reform
> education. Joan posts:
>
> "IMO our schools are creating a lot of unemployable people, people who
> are a detriment to themselves as well as to any business who hires
> them. Since most of our foreign competitors do not have a similar
> problem, it would seem that we will suffer competitively unless we
> start doing a much better job preparing our children for work."
>
> I don't agree that other nations _don't_ have similar problems.
>
> Just a few questions come to mind:
>
> How do we prepare a "child" for a dynamic, possibly virtual
> work place?
> Are you proposing that we "track" children into professions
> or place them into apprenticeships? If so, how are those
> placements determined?
> Do we prepare our children only for a life of work? Is this
> the principle responsibility of education?
> Do we teach our children to pursue a pension instead of pursuing
> their passion (Dennis Waitley)?

Sorry that I did not explain enough. People are unemployable because
they cannot read (are functionally illiterate), do not have the
ability to learn new things and are ill equipped in math. As concerns
math, the high school equivalent Japanese person has skills in
probability and statistics comparable with our Master's program
graduates. TQM requires this simple math in order to gain its full
value.

If schools turn out people with these basic skills, companies can
provide the job specific training to convert basic skills into
workplace skills. But the large number of high school dropouts and
many of those who graduate do not have these basic skills. My
experience came from hiring attempts in the New York City area of
trainees for machinist and repair mechanic positions. Immigrants from
Europe and Asia proved far superior to U.S. citizens as feedstock.

Pete, your description of the issues sounds somewhat like a
philosophical discussion designed to obfuscate the simple problems
which exist today. I know people who were educated in one room
schools who gained the skills which I have found lacking and did so
at a cost less than one third the cost of what is spent today per
studnent.

The solutions are simple. Teaching and requiring proficiency in the
three R's would be sufficient and as in Chicago, New York would have
to reinstall phonetics, testing before promotion to the next grade
level and a safe environment conducive to learning. In New York,
school principals cannot even keep the toilets and lights functioning
with the current bureaucratic control and waste. Teaching the three
R's has been abandoned to diversity, concepts, culture, synthesis,
sex, use of condoms and a variety of politically correct hot buttons.

Regards, Joan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joan Pomo The Finest Tools for Managing People
Simonton Associates Based on the book
jpomo@gate.net "How to Unleash the Power of People"

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