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Run it like a business



I have no problem with the student as a customer. I'm the store keeper. I
accurately describe my product and if the student chooses to buy he gets what
I told him he would get. If it isn't what he wants he can go try some other
product. Seems like a good system to me. The more I think about it the
better
I like the retailer/customer model. I think it fits very well. Is there a
problem with pleasing the customer? Where we hurt ourselves in education is
that too often we operate on a one size fits all philosophy. Another problem
is that schools are often not honest in describing what they have to
offer. As
a result students often get sucked into something they really didn't
bargain on
Can you blaim them if this makes them unhappy?

I think I am most worried by running education like a business when I
realize how poorly most businesses are run. When long term means next week
and the motivation is pure and especially immediate profit even at the
expense of losing the company, the decisions made are less than ideal.


No one seems to be mentioning the possibility that standards, evaluation,
exams, and grades play a role in education and in motivation. That's not
politically correct these days. You can talk nobly of motivation through
the strategy of making the subject interesting and entertaining, but in
fact we have seen from several decades of experience that it doesn't work
except on the superficial level and for the most trivial aspects of
education, and only for a few students. The difficult material, the
inherently uninteristing and unappealing (to most students) subjects (such
as physics, mathematics and accounting) require industrial-strength
motivational strategies.

Parents can play a role in motivation. "You'll get a whipping if you don't
get A's this term." Teachers can play a role. "You are likely to flunk if
you don't study and keep up with the work." Society can play a role. "You
won't get this very desirable job unless you present evidence of a good
record in school." This is the way it used to be done, and it worked--for
many students. As someone here pointed out, *nothing* works for *all*
students.

Motivation for students is a pretty nebulous thing to me. I have long
wondered if the root of the problem is that students learn their motivation
for anything in their formative years. In other words, societal and family
influences have set them on a course that they are not really conscious of,
and they don't lose their motivation for physics because of learning styles
or lack of "excitement' but because its hard and doesn't offer any instant,
tangible gratification. In today's world, we don't want to do anything
that's hard unless we sure that we are going to get an immediate reward. Of
course, the problem is changing the way society works and the way students
learn motivation is a long, complex and difficult task and therefore hard
and with no immediate gratification. Sort of interesting.
R. Allen Shotwell
Chair, Science and Math
Ivy Tech State College
Terre Haute, IN