Hey, I posted this on another blog but would like to get some of this class' input as well.
Last week the students in the social studies method classes were exposed to a guest speaker "presenting" their civic simulation. Though his model was interesting, had many well thought out aspects and years of hard work invested it was soon obvious that the nonchalent and casual demeanor of the presenter was a carefully scripted sales pitch. This program was available to teachers at an expensive cost for the teacher edition guide book and the student books. Furthermore, there was a fee per class per semester. I believe that a person is entitled to reap the benifits of their hard work but at what cost to the ideological foundations of teaching should they be compensated? I think that we will see more of this lesson for proffit model as teachers are increasingly overworked and salaries are not sufficient to live in many of the urban centres throughout Canada.
Another aspect of education for profit is private schools. I had the opportunity to work for a year at a private ESl kindergarten in Seoul, South Korea. This situation was an interesting clash of "education" and parent satisfaction. Partially due to cultural differences, but mainly caused by the school as a business model, kids' educations were comprimised due to the priority of student retention. It may be possible to obtain a for profit school model that puts forth a quality education. However, once the main motive has shifted from educating a student to the best of their ability towards generating the most amount of profit who gets left behind? At my private ESL kindergarten I continually tried to convince the school to push their finished educated product as the beacon that would guide parents of future students towards the enrollment table to sign up their children for 2 years. Unfortunately the tactic undertaken to increase enrolment and maintain student retention was parental appeasement.
I have come to terms with the fact that if I am going to teach internationally that I will most likely be working within an education for profit setting again. However, I hope that there is a focus on education as opposed to profits.
What are your opinions on education for profit? Have you had any experiences with this system? Do you plan to seek employment in this system?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
hi toban
did you follow my blog discussion with mr. ross? here are the blog titles (they follow one right after the other on our blog).
JIMMY-JO RESPONDS
Regan Ross Responds
HEY BUDDY, SPARE SOME OPPORTUNITY?
i've not had experience with education for profit the way you have, but i did attend a self-directed private school from grades 6-9 and a private catholic school from 9-11. my sister attended st. michael's here in victoria for grade 11 and 12. all are private, but i don't honetly know if they're "for profit." mabe someone else could clarify.
do i think it could work? i really don't know. i don't think our system is working that great as it is, but i don't think "for profit" is the first alternative i would see as the answer. "for profit" public services are usually exclusive and as long as they are focussed on the bottom line, discriminatory. is uvic "for profit"?
it's interesting that k-12 is free (relatively speaking) and seen as vital enough to be so, pretty much unquestioned; yet, the opportunities that a university can provide, are almost, in this country, not valued enough to be all inclusive. not only the actual cost of university is a barrier to many, but the burden of transferring that debt to society can nulify the benefits, and, i would say, certainly influences the hierarchy implicit within the "real world" mr. ross talked about.
i agree with you. i too hope the focus remains on education. further, on the kids.
Post a Comment