Re: Re(2): drive-thru education (not)

Louise Yarnall (lyarnall who-is-at ucla.edu)
Wed, 02 Dec 1998 11:03:15 -0800

I would appreciate some specific citations on "School to Work." I have
researched plenty of people and companies interested in providing options
to public schooling, and I have yet to find anyone who touts "efficiency,
productivity and profit" as their primary motivation. I also have yet to
find anyone who suggests that the primary goal of education should be to
shut down the arts and humanities and replace it with technology and
vocational training. Where are you finding these people? Provide some
specifics.

My view on the transformation occurring in education today is that there is
widespread popular dissatisfaction with school as usual, and so there's
much interest in looking at alternatives. This movement is occurring on
many fronts, from individual to family to corporate to national. I don't
see any one hand behind it, but I see a confluence of many forces. My
question is: Why is this transformation drawing such heated rejection from
education faculty, and why is their rejection mischaracterizing it so
completely?

Louise

>>"efficiency, productivity, and profit for meeeee.
>>No one will get education for freeeeeee".
>>
>Anyone interested in education needs to get prepared for the huge impact
>the School to Work movement is going to have on this field.
>
>The federal government is putting billions into the hands of governors (the
>sidestep state departments of education that way), to get them, along with
>their corporate cronies, to change the way education takes place in this
>country. They want to make sure that it is made clear that public schools
>work for employers not parents or the students themselves. Anything that
>is not useful vocationally is not to be taught.
Louise Yarnall
Freelance writer & Research assistant
UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Science
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