Competition

["John Constantine" <thesfg@uswest.net>]

Was Deming psychic?

As noted by Wayne Mack in his post on competition (a subset of Education
...)

"Is this the type of competitive success we want from our schools?
Market share battles for wealthy students and leave the others
out?  Wouldn't it be better for successful schools to share their
methods with the less successful?"

Do we want or expect ANY competition between and among schools, and, if so,
WHY?

What do we THINK we've seen? WHY do we think we've seen it? Can we replicate
the process or, better yet, come up with a better test/experiment for the
answer to the question?

Joy in Learning, Joy in Learning, Joy in Learning...easier on a full
stomach? On a good night's sleep? With two parents in attendance? With good
weather? With earthquake-proof buildings? With smaller "campuses"? With
lighter weight books? With happier teachers? Etc, etc, etc.

A+B+C+D+E+(ab+ac+ad+ae...ad infinitum) = the system/process at work, on a
foundation of Joy in Learning, not based on fear(the F word). Competition
might be suitable for the gridiron or a rugby match, where the basic purpose
is "we are better/bigger/stronger/faster/smarter or some other attribute
than you are". But what place does it have in the search for learning, where
it is more important to learn more, not less, and hiding knowledge becomes a
weapon, not a defense.

Deming's reference to "sharing of methods" takes on a completely new look in
the abscence of competition, does it not? The "proof" of the success of the
learning method is in the fact that there has been learning; the heartache
and the chafing comes when someone or some group states that the learning
should equal a particular thing at a particular time.

(I'm reminded of Deming's referral to the act of an imbecile in memorizing
the names of the fifty state capitals, nothing more, as opposed to the
process of learning how the capitals got to BE the capitals. I'm not a fan
of Woody Allen but he was quoted recently by a candidate as having pointed
out how he (Woody) was given an assignment to read War and Peace, and he
did. When asked for a report on what the book was about, he replied
"Russia".) Similarly, the present day process in our school system can be
summed up as the following:

The purpose of being in school is to get out of school. After that, the
administrators and politicians can have fertile ground for mucking about in
debate on whose test scores were higher, whose lower, what budgets to slash
and which to increase. All without having learned a thing.

More successful - less successful?

X school is not comparable to Y school unless the elements in the makeup of
each are  identical. If not, all you get is the "rugby match" finale. The
cheer goes up and somebody feels like a winner. The rest go home having
learned a valuable, though negative lesson...just make sure you answer the
question, even if it doesn't make sense to do so.

How much of our society remains in this last semi-comatose state?  Are our
leaders helping or hurting our ability to better understand the forces at
work? Or, are we handed garbage on a plate and told to take it as fact?

Deming must have been psychic.
=====================
John Constantine
thesfg@uswest.net