Robert Pondiscio of CitizenshipFirst writes to Deborah Meier again today.
"Dear Deborah,
In my last post I pointed out some of the ways in which education misunderstands business. One of the points I made was that schools, more than businesses, tend to demand compliance. As if on cue, the same day I wrote that a video appeared on YouTube of Chicago teachers sitting through an infantilizing call and response "professional development" exercise. It was a depressing, demeaning thing to see. I can't imagine sitting through it. I'd probably have walked out.
The misunderstandings go both ways. If education has an outdated view of business, the business world can be equally clueless about education. Business people tend to be frustrated by education's slow pace of change and inability to be nimble. Schools resist or fail to respond to financial incentives, and when we respond to external pressures like testing, we often do so poorly. Like most institutions, schools are inherently conservative. That's not a flaw of our education system; it's a feature of it.
Education, by nature, is not forward-looking. We share the best of what is known about the past, not just in history but in all subjects. Newton's famous remark about seeing further because we stand on the shoulders of giants applies here. We prepare children for their future by sharing and transmitting our accumulated knowledge and expect them to build upon it.
Businesses respond to performance incentives. Merit pay has a weak track record in education. New products and services are launched constantly to respond to changing tastes, markets, and technologies. A high failure rate is not only accepted, it's expected. When schools try to emulate the forward-looking nature of business, we tend to do so very badly. We fall into the thrall of fads and charlatans (21st Century Skills, anyone?), or spend a lot of money with little to show for it.
Strong companies tend to do few things, but do them very well. Regardless of what product or service a company provides, it is commonly accepted that a successful outcome is the creation of shareholder value and profit for investors. There's a single metric, and disciplined management ensures that all activities are focused on that goal. In schools, attempts to impose a single metric—test scores, for example—disregard and even thwart the broader public purpose of education.
In theory, and increasingly as a matter of public policy, we might say we want our schools to be singularly focused on academic performance, but in reality they cannot be. We can't ignore the public purpose of schools in shaping habits, transmitting community values, developing character, and preparing children for citizenship. Whether we explicitly say so or measure it, we expect schools to reward not just academic performance, but positive behaviors such as caring, compassion, cooperation, and generosity in our children. If you question whether those are the proper role of education, ask how long you would allow your child to attend a school that was cavalier about these things, or where there were no consequences for their absence."
"Dear Deborah,
In my last post I pointed out some of the ways in which education misunderstands business. One of the points I made was that schools, more than businesses, tend to demand compliance. As if on cue, the same day I wrote that a video appeared on YouTube of Chicago teachers sitting through an infantilizing call and response "professional development" exercise. It was a depressing, demeaning thing to see. I can't imagine sitting through it. I'd probably have walked out.
The misunderstandings go both ways. If education has an outdated view of business, the business world can be equally clueless about education. Business people tend to be frustrated by education's slow pace of change and inability to be nimble. Schools resist or fail to respond to financial incentives, and when we respond to external pressures like testing, we often do so poorly. Like most institutions, schools are inherently conservative. That's not a flaw of our education system; it's a feature of it.
Education, by nature, is not forward-looking. We share the best of what is known about the past, not just in history but in all subjects. Newton's famous remark about seeing further because we stand on the shoulders of giants applies here. We prepare children for their future by sharing and transmitting our accumulated knowledge and expect them to build upon it.
Businesses respond to performance incentives. Merit pay has a weak track record in education. New products and services are launched constantly to respond to changing tastes, markets, and technologies. A high failure rate is not only accepted, it's expected. When schools try to emulate the forward-looking nature of business, we tend to do so very badly. We fall into the thrall of fads and charlatans (21st Century Skills, anyone?), or spend a lot of money with little to show for it.
Strong companies tend to do few things, but do them very well. Regardless of what product or service a company provides, it is commonly accepted that a successful outcome is the creation of shareholder value and profit for investors. There's a single metric, and disciplined management ensures that all activities are focused on that goal. In schools, attempts to impose a single metric—test scores, for example—disregard and even thwart the broader public purpose of education.
In theory, and increasingly as a matter of public policy, we might say we want our schools to be singularly focused on academic performance, but in reality they cannot be. We can't ignore the public purpose of schools in shaping habits, transmitting community values, developing character, and preparing children for citizenship. Whether we explicitly say so or measure it, we expect schools to reward not just academic performance, but positive behaviors such as caring, compassion, cooperation, and generosity in our children. If you question whether those are the proper role of education, ask how long you would allow your child to attend a school that was cavalier about these things, or where there were no consequences for their absence."
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What Business Doesn't Know About Education - Bridging Differences - Education Week
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