Re: Here's someone on our side :o)

Ian <ian@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Sat, 09 Sep 2006 10:09:43 +0100, D.M. Procida wrote:

Ian <ian@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Every*one* (i.e. every individual) has a duty to take an interest in
education. I don't think that *business* (i.e. profit-making) has any
right or stake in education whatsoever.

So you will give up your teaching salary because its profitable to you?

I am not making a profit, I am earning a salary. Making a profit means
spending less on resources and labour than you can sell them for.

Your definition.

Look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit

for a more balanced view.

I fail to see how looking up a Wikipedia article is going to help you
understand what I mean when I say that I don't believe business has any
right or stake in education.

I am not buying and selling for a profit.

You are. You are selling your expertise to the students via the school.

I most certainly am not. The students are not customers. That is a truly
revolting picture of education, and one I wholly repudiate.

Your profit margin is your personal expenses taken from your take home
pay. You have a service level agreement with your employer in the form of
a contract which is not much different from the way I have contracts with
customers.

This is just nonsense. You can't take one model of contractual
relationship and apply it willy-nilly to every other. Well, perhaps you
can, because it's what you seem to be doing, but it's still nonsense.
You may as well try to redescribe a teacher's relationships according to
the matrimonial model. It's absurd as describing a garden as a
gardener's customer.

I am not saying that you shouldn't be making a profit or running a
business, even one supplying services or goods to education. What I am
saying is that business should not have a right over how children are
educated.

Which is absurd. Why should business people have less rights than anyone
else?

Because business are not any*one*. Businesses are businesses, not
people.

In any case, it's not what I said. I said *business*, not *businesses*.

I do understand this as well. But if you agree that it should be opened
up far enough so that we get education secretaries jumping out of their
political boots every time the CBI moans that school-leavers don't seem
to be well-prepared to do tedious menial jobs more cheaply than workers
in the poorest countries in the world, then it seems to me that you have
allowed one kind of view or interest to dominate very dangerously over
education (which in fact I think is the current situation).

That is a long way from saying "business should not have a right over how
children are educated." I agree that they should not have a
disproportionate say, you seemed to be saying they should have no say and
have no legitimate interest. I just think that is extreme.

It may be extreme, but it doesn't mean it's wrong.

You could also say teachers have such an interest and are in a rather more
powerful position to exercise it. The strength of a pluralist society is
in the balance of power between the interest groups. If one says the other
has no legitimate interest there will be a predictable reaction polarising
things.

Mostly, the teaching profession has the interests of its charges'
educations at heart. Business does not. Business has business's
interests at heart, and those interest are often inimicable to those of
people who need to be educated. That's why one group has a legitimate
stake in education and the other does not.

Daniele
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Heres someone on our side :o)
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  • Re: Heres someone on our side :o)
    ... I don't think that *business* ... has any right or stake in education whatsoever. ... I am not making a profit, ... and have no legitimate interest. ...
    (uk.education.teachers)
  • Re: Heres someone on our side :o)
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  • Re: Heres someone on our side :o)
    ... these things, which I'm not, I wouldn't stand for business sniffing ... around education, whether around the school gates or the curriculum. ... and then exclude anyone that makes a profit. ...
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