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Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Make Schools More Like Business? (Part 2) � InterACT

Make Schools More Like Business? (Part 2) � InterACT

Make Schools More Like Business? (Part 2)

Recently, I wrote a blog post about applying business thinking to education. This post is Part 2, though not the Part 2 I originally intended to post… so stay tuned for Part 3.
My online wanderings through business reading led me to Dr. W. Edwards Deming, a business and manufacturing expert who worked in the U.S. and Japan, and devised the Deming System of Profound Knowledge. His ideas and reputation are carried forward posthumously through the work of the institute that bears his name. His resumé bore this description: “W. Edwards Deming has been for forty years a consultant, with practice world wide. His clients include railways, telephone companies, carriers of motor freight, manufacturing companies, consumer research, census methods, hospitals, legal firms, government agencies, research organizations in universities and in industry.”
Among other interesting elements of his work, I found “The 14 Points for Management” – and noticed once again that the supposed lessons of business that are offered to education don’t often enough look like the advice I see