Re: mastery learning gone bad -- the bridge school

Jay Lemke (jllbc who-is-at cunyvm.cuny.edu)
Fri, 08 Oct 1999 11:04:46 -0400

Another 'bridge to nowhere' ...

.... isn't this a motif of very late capitalism?

... all those superhighway ramps and bridges to uncompleted extensions ...
all that political pork never really meant to take people anywhere, just to
keep them content a little longer ...

... all those relics of projects that become obsolete before they can be
completed, because only a breakneck pace of 'progress' can keep an
overextended economy (built mainly on producing goods and services that
aren't actually needed but amuse people with surplus resources, while real
needs cannot be met because there is no profit in doing so) in the air ...

... and so also these 'bridge schools' , like urban planning gone rational,
to concentrate those from whom there is no profit to be made all in one
place, where they can be, very conveniently for those with the biggest tax
liability, forgotten ...

... while global modularization, a much smarter strategy to achieve the
same ends, will rapidly overtake the bridge-builders, creating new and
better information superhighways to nowhere for some, and somewhere for
others ...

... and not a thought of human feelings anywhere.

JAY.

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JAY L. LEMKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/index.htm>
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