Work in progress -

Friday, December 04, 1998

AE21, Education for century twenty-one:

The school of AE21 will have the following characteristics:

Teaching.htm

Firm foundation the Basics - high standard test scores 80% or better;
Higher level thinking and problem solving;
Technology and communications saturation - lots of links and free enterpise
Inventive, creative - flexible -

( See John Dewey )
Small - stable - smart - un-graded - individualized on-task focus of the one-room school house Mostly private, religious, charter, voucher schools and a few public "site based management" institutions

( See Fiske and Harlem schools in a school )

Human resources are the critical prerequisite to the process of building wealth, prosperity and the civil open society.

The reasons for the "Wealth of Nations" or the relative poverty of "backwardness" has to do with the character and skills of the population. Curiosity and a positive image of the future are the reasons for the industrial revolution, first, second and third.

The religious and political changes in England and the Low Countries in the 15th century made for the possibilities of the modern world.

What is less well understood are the "qualitative" nature of human abilities.

There are the following stages, each not replaced by the next advance but over-layered with each becoming dominate in turn but not replacing previous models. As canals and bicycles still play an important role in European transportation, augmented by trains, cars and planes.

The first level is the "skilled crafts" - a long apprenticeship with hands on methods produces a high level of abilities - Cathedrals with stained glass, Columbus, clocks, water wheels and the first tools and factories of the first industrial revolution. Education was literacy - Grammar schools and basic accounting, drafting and organizing shills.

In the 19th century, higher education in the Agricultural and Mechanical arts began to pay off.

The newly unified Germany began to surpass England because of excellence in technical training while Great Britain stayed with the Classical educational process - founded on Latin and Greek rather than Science and Math.

The United States quickly adjusted to technical training but "trade schools" have always have low status compared to "liberal arts" college preparation. High level technical Universities such as Georgia Tech, MIT, Cal-Tech, IIT, Stanford and Polly -tech parts of the mega-universities have made extraordinary contributions to economic welfare in this country and world wide.

The second industrial revolution of electrical, biological and chemical engineering is based on formal training in math and science.

The MBA in business maybe useful in production of rational "corporate people" and culture.

The majority of mangers still come from the technical, legal and accounting professions.

The third level of human skill for Century twenty-one has to do with creativity in a global communications technology. We still need skilled craft people, we need to improve basic literacy and grammar, enterprise, with science and technology in complex engineering tasks.

Computer people carry the unhappy title of "software engineer" because they are trying to fit into an older model of categories in human resource management. Is someone who creates games and innovative web practices doing arts or sciences or applied technology ? If you visit a trade show in the computer - consumer electronics - communications business you find new younger people doing new things with a "strange" mixture of backgrounds, including a lot of "rock and roll music" nationalities - and very unclear standards of higher education and training. Smart is as smart does - and "stupid is as stupid does".