Below is an excerpt aken from Mary Thompson's presentation at Exposing the Global Road to Ruin Through Education conference, August, 2012.
Click on: Mary Thompson-Created Classroom Chaos to Cyber Conditioning Disc 2
 |
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4fyV3A0fMk |
Here is the meat of her speech... especially interesting since she supports tax-supported private education/charters.
"Let me tackle just one dimension of the debate: The private versus public school debate -- free access for all versus a free-market voucher driven system. The thesis on the table is: Keep the system the way it is -- a vast system of public schools, some with strong performance, but many that are able to achieve only the lowest commonRemainder of Fiorina speech:
denominator. The antithesis: Let competition reign, give all students vouchers, and let the strongest schools prosper -- and the weakest ones perish.
"If we could invoke Hegel, he'd help us find a synthesis: Perhaps a view that decisively bolsters the public schools system we have, but at the same time fosters more innovation and leadership through charter public schools...."
"The other evening...one young journalist asked me, 'Who is your most influential
business author?'. I paused and said, 'Hegel'. To which the reporter shot me a quizzical look -- evidently Hegel has fallen off the New York Times business book list.
"I expounded, 'Hegel, you know, the process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. I use it every day. . . .
"The Hegelian dialectic is about one point of view pitted against its countervailing opposite. And from that contradiction and conflict arises a true synthesis that unifies
these different views into a cohesive and often unexpected understanding.
"It demands holistic thinking. It demands a clear definition of the problem -- and then a vision of the desired end-state. And it requires finding connections between polar opposites" and in the networked aged, in the digital era, power and value lies in the
connections. It's exactly the process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis -- the search
for new and different connections where exponential power and value can be found.
"Let's test this theory a bit.
"In education, the polarizing debate is about vouchers versus public schools. 'It's about
teaching to the test' versus 'teaching that nourishes hearts and souls'. It's about
squeezing history and music and philosophy out of the curricula in order to make room for math and science and reading in the quest for test scores and future funding. Let me tackle just one dimension of the debate: The private versus public school debate -- free access for all versus a free-market voucher driven system.
The thesis on the table is: Keep the system the way it is -- a vast system of public schools, some with strong performance, but many that are able to achieve only the lowest common denominator.
The antithesis: Let competition reign, give all students vouchers, and let the strongest schools prosper -- and the weakest ones perish.
"If we could invoke Hegel, he'd help us find a synthesis: Perhaps a view that decisively bolsters the public schools system we have, but at the same time fosters more innovation and leadership through charter public schools...."
"It is in that same way that we might find synthesis of the debate between the thesis that says the primary purpose of education is to teach the fundamentals: reading, writing, job skills, technological literacy. And the antithesis: Schools are about providing food for the soul--the literature, arts, music language education that emphasizes seeing connections and gaining perspective. The fact is: We must have leaders who are both technically skilled and holistic in their approach, fiercely analytical and HUMANISTIC (emphasis added by speaker), smart business people and passionate advocates of corporate citizenship. Our challenge as policy makers dispel the myth of 'either/or' -- and find an elegant way to get to 'and'." [emphasis added and adapted for blog posting]
