>
>To my ear, a "choir" in which each member is singing altogether different
>songs sounds distinctly discordant. Even the most fragmented voices may, if
>the conductor is dominant enough, be brought into line. The corporate choir
>in the education chorus is loud. Soon it will be the conductor and will own
>all the instruments. Fragmented self-interests will be easily brought into
>line once everyone begins to sing the corporation's jingle for commodified
>education:
>
>"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. Their big goal is to
eliminate "churning," the wasteful tendency for youth to try out different
jobs and educational opportunities before settling on a career. Workforce
councils are being set up to identify the workers needed in communities and
then steer students into the appropriate vocational tracks in middle school
or earlier. They assert that decisions about careers should be made by
the councils who know more about the needs of business and what is best for
students than their parents.
The other related push is for tests to determine which students are to be
awarded certificates of initial mastery in tenth grade. Without a CIM no
further education will be permitted. Anyway, they believe too many
students are going to college now, better to teach these low performers the
skills needed in local industries than have them waste their time in
useless general education, humanities and arts..