In reply to Harold Jarche » Born in a storm. Re: unthinking labourer is no longer in demandNice to have you comment on this blog Rory :-)
So what do we do now? Do we try to change the system, which seems to be a damned difficult thing to do, or do we create new systems and let the old one rot? Unfortunately a rotting old system will take many unthinking labourers with it. I see kids in school here and many are not prepared for the potential global competition that will be thrust on them. You, of course, have a good understanding of the capabilities of our public education system.
My main aim for this post was to get a conversation going around the first principles of education, as there is no agreement on even the options. I recently posted this comment on Brian Alger's blog:

A few years ago I was working on a project for a provincial Department of Education and I asked about their curriculum development process, particularly how they arrived at what subjects should be taught. After many more pointed questions (with the ADM in attendance) and very few clear answers, I came to my conclusion:
Curriculum is developed in a dark arts fashion, where a select group of wizards are sequestered into a closed environment and following some magical incantations arrive at the official curriculum. It's magic!

I think that curriculum development is a black art because we as a society and educators have not confronted what we really want from education. The disagreements that I hear over our education system are focused on symptoms and we'll continue to tinker with the system unless we can find a way to address the foundations, such as "what the hell are we really trying to do and how are we going do it?" ; and even more importantly "how are we going to measure ourselves?". No BS about "no child left behind" or back to the basics of the 3 R's.
We need real discussions about what education in our post-industrial society is all about, and I'm not hearing it. All I'm hearing is a lot of posturing by special interest groups inside and outside the system.