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If students were customers, they would be the type who would walk into the
I'm sorry but I just don't think education fits any business model at all.
Students are not products or consumers, neither is knowledge. Learning is
fundamentally different from buying and selling; it is far more complicated
than that. It is quite possible to overlay a business model on many things
(education, sexual behavior, religion etc.) but just because you can draw
some loose analogies doesn't mean this is a meaningful way to look at these
things. A business model is just not a useful way to look at what education
is and does. Sure there is money involved, administrators, legislators and
tax payers want to know how their money is spent, but I think answering
that question with "bottom line" type answers like how many students can be
educated for how many dollars or lets sell (teach) the student or employer
what they want (rather than what they need) is seriously wrong headed.
Instead we need to think about how to convince these people that learning
is intrinsically interesting and a useful lifelong habit (and fundamentally
different from selling refrigerators).
kyle