> I think there are problems equating students with say, televisions,
> but I get your point. But let's not forget that schools exist in a
> political context, and generally do not generate obvious immediate
> dollars, so the investment needed to eliminate the scrap is
> difficult to come by. Further, the analogy breaks down. In industry,
> one can work with suppliers to eliminate raw materials that are not
> to standard. One cannot work with suppliers of children to ensure
> that they are all the same, consistent and free of human defects of
> any sort. Short of genetic engineering, one cannot eliminate
> individual differences (variation) in the incoming raw material.
>
> Consider how difficult it would be for a company using steel to
> manufacture products (automobiles) if it was impossible to
> consistently procure high quality steel.
Holy Mental Models, Batman!
People aren't simply "raw materials" that can be classed as "good" or
"bad." People can, and must, be grown and developed. Genetics is
certainly a factor but there are so many other influences which shape the
way we each behave and perform. There is a TON of research that show
this.
Interesting note, if we eliminate the variation in people, we will surely
stop the appearance of such people as Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein,
Martin Luther King ... and most of us in this discussion group. It is
precisely this variation that lets us continue to learn and grow through
discovery.
--Clyde Howell orgpsych@csra.net
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>