I am perplexed by the way education as a social service has so completely been overwhelmed and then accepting of the corporate philosophy, it’s model of management and jargon. What is it about teachers and their profession that makes them especially vulnerable to this model of management? Ah! I know why! Its because it is easier and it is someone else’s responsibility and authority! And it’s cleaner as true education is a messy and unpredictable activity, hardly amenable to an organized market system.

I am reminded of the old department store when I think of schools these days, establishments like the Hudson’s Bay, Eaton’s, or for our American friends Macy’s, JC Penny, K Mart and Target. The parallels are obvious and frightening when we then apply these notions to our children and then wonder why they, for the most part, can’t or won’t think outside the proverbial box.

Stores have to be clean, efficient, show sales figures, draw people in, keep them and make them consume, show profit, and when done hustle the consumer out to make room for new. Customer desires are determined by data from sales figures as to which products need to be stocked and which to discontinue. Accountants and experts in business administration crunch and massage these figures to create sales goals, manage profit margins, properly deploy employees according to their credentials and/or pay rate. Time sheets, punch clocks, rules and regulations between management and labour are negotiated to some degree. Often threats of punishment from above such as loss of hours, loss of pay or the pink slip are implemented with the response from below of work to rule, increased absenteeism or strike. I see the parallels to a school and it’s system in everything stated above. New schools are designed along that of fake town squares, the Mall, owned and controlled by Mall owners and operators. They are no longer institutional looking purpose built structures, but rather commercialized looking places where education is consumed.

In-house security to prevent shoplifting, unauthorized access, annoyance or a sense of insecurity to paying customers is everywhere and growing. Vagrancy is very undesirable, everything has a consumerist purpose. Advertising is unavoidable throughout the establishment, visions of perfect people where envy and jealousy are the prime motivators of purchasing products. Again the parallels to a classroom and school is obvious.

Feeding the instant gratification desires of our clients, that is students, is necessary. They must see their grades online at any time of the day or night. Parents knowing instantly the value of their investments and labour costs is a must. The student consumer also has to know this in order to make useful cost benefit analysis of their time and effort to properly allocate their resources in order to maximize their satisfaction of the scarcity issue within their wants and needs. Short lived use of the purchased item leads the consumer to come back again and again for the new and improved versions of the product.

We are being asked to have ‘marked by’ deadlines to ensure the student grade is as real time as possible. It’s like price versus return in a stock market. Having marks posted and up to date is like looking at the stock ticker flashing past giving real time valuation to a product. I’m at a bit of a loss what that product really is. Hopefully it’s not each course a student is in. Treating a course as a commodity to which cost benefit analysis, market share potential and profit would be applied would destroy education, learning, self improvement and most importantly the search for truth and meaning in life. I am sad to say it looks more like that than not. All the great minds of the past are probably sadly hanging their heads.

We have come to believe the consumer, the parents, are always right even when we know they are not. Whatever the parent wants we bend over backwards to make it happen. They are the paying customer after all, albeit through minimal taxation as opposed to the real cost of educating their children. People without children pay and so too indirectly does business. So, who has the true helm of education in their hands, elected political officials, the electorate, business leaders?

We know instant gratification consumerism is only temporary short lived fulfillment. While instant gratification may sell something to someone, or convince someone they must have something, or getting praise for work (not necessarily good work) is more valuable on a resume than the respect earned from years of experience or a full career, the idea remains that long term satisfaction has always been seen as far more valuable.

Globalized economic ventures and values are also mirrored in education. Competition for the best and brightest as well as comparative advantage in trade between nations is shown through the advertising for and attraction of foreign students as well as educational competition between nations through the OECD PISA exams. These exams make us pit children against children on a global scale between national and regional educational systems. This makes methods and teachers as ‘trainers’ of these children more valuable rather than as true educators. The morality of this is highly questionable and the ethics demeaning to us all. Why don’t our students think outside the box? Quite simply because we really don’t want them to.

The virtues of business practice are well known as are all the myriad ways people lie, cheat, cut corners to maximize income versus it’s costs. Lehman Bros, Murdoch and Madoff comes to mind. Profits must always go up. Growth must always be seen to be expanding. It is perpetual and limitless. It is the definition of modern progress. Our children see all this, the hypocrisy that is there for all to see. We can always demand more from our children whether through ‘modern and progressive’ or ‘drill and skill’ forms of education. That is until the market collapses.

Unfortunately, as we have seen on the economic front in the past few years, instead of making a new, better system for all we shore up the old, entrench it further and take more from the masses to feed a few. We ignore the truly innovative, reward old ways with some twists and turns to make it appear better and press on. We are doing the same with our children. When will they collapse?