Mark Feenstra wrote:
> During this conversation the question arose as to what the essential
> identity of OL is that will survive the life time of the term itself. The
> ostensible reason for our interest was to enable us to bring some broader
> and more inclusive coherence to the "cause" that OL itself is an aspect of
> (or perpaps a partial description for).
I have the idea that the grater context of which LO is part is education.
The broad idea of education is to provide the conditions for people to
develop to their fullness, both individually and collectively.
Some of the great ideas behind LO are common to all times. They can be
found, for instance, in Plato's "Republic", where he applies the idea of
education to justice and the government of city-states. They can be found
in Comenius' "Didactica Magna", where he presents the basic principles of
learning and develops the idea of education to improve work economy. They
can be found in John Dewey's "Democracy and Education" where he shows the
role of education in social life.
Organizations are the "polis" of our times. Applying the idea of education
to organizations may transcend the immediate target of improving business
results and prove to be the leverage point to change our society.
Durval
-- Durval Muniz de Castro <durval@ia.cti.br> Fundacao Centro Tecnologico para Informatica <http://www.ia.cti.br/> Campinas - Brasil - Fone: 55-19-2401011 - Fax: 55-19-2402029Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>