jhansen@unitec.ac.nz
Thu, 5 Aug 1999 17:17:54 +1200
From: <jhansen@unitec.ac.nz> Date: Thu, 5 Aug 1999 17:17:54 +1200 Subject: Re: William's posting on Lifelong Learning
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Although Dr. William Terrell of the Naval Air Warfare Center indicates
that because he spent seventeen years as a university faculty member, and
that he, therefore, understands why academics are warm, glowy and
humanistic when describing lifelong learning, he also provides a very
financial accountability when describing his example of a bottom line
approach to lifelong learning.
I wonder how William might account for these two, perhaps related, and I
believe, non-syllogistic, phenomena ....
PHNOMENON ONE: The current federal administration of New Zealand (i.e.,
the National Government of Jenny Shipley), primarily comprises market
driven liberatarians who strongly advocate, legislate and regulate for
greater privatisation and for the commodification of not only the private
sector, but also services such as all roading and electricity systems and
hitherto public utilities such as health, welfare and education services.
They seem to do this in accordance with the mantras of the new right. And
quite clearly, some (few) members of the population have become very much
more wealthy although at the same time, it can be argued that the majority
of people have become, relatively speaking, much poorer, far less eligible
and far less empowered in their ability to access services that were
previously thought of as being public goods (eg. health, welfare and
education).
PHENOMENON TWO: The rate of youth suicide in New Zealand is reputed to be
higher per capita than anywhere else in the world.
What cost to the (national) economy and social fabric the absence of a
humanitarian approach towards lifelong learning; and what cost to the
spirit of humanism the widespread proliferation of anomie?
The above, quite harsh commentary reminds me of something I read once
about telecommunications which was far more light hearted but which also
highlighted more or less the same issue. Accordingly, I thought I'd share
that excerpt with you, even to the extent of including a second seemingly
irrelevant and irreverant paragraph:
"There were in this country two very large monopolies. The larger of the
two had the following record: the Vietnam War, Watergate, double-digit
inflation, fuel and energy shortages, bankrupt airlines, and the 8-cent
postcard. The second was responsible for such things as the transistor,
the solar cell, lasers, synthetic crystals, high fidelity stereo
recording, sound motion pictures, radio astronomy, negative feedback,
magnetic tape, magnetic "bubbles", electronic switching systems, microwave
radio and TV relay systems, information theory, the first electrical
digital computer, and the first communication satellite.
Guess which one got to tell the other how to run the telephone business?
To understand this important story, you have to understand how the
telephone company works. Your telephone is connected to a local computer,
which is in turn connected to a regional computer, which is in turn
connected to a loudspeaker the size of a garbage truck on the lawn of Edna
A. Bargewater of Lawrence, Kansas. Whenever you talk on the phone, your
local computer listens in. If it suspects you're going to discuss an
intimate topic, it notifies the computer above it, which listens in and
decides whether to alert the one above it, until finally, if you really
humiliate yourself, maybe break down in tears and tell your closest friend
about a sordid incident from your past involving a seedy motel, a
neighbor's spouse, an entire religious order, a garden hose and six quarts
of tapioca pudding, the top computer feeds your conversation into Edna's
loudspeaker, and she and her friends come out on the porch to listen and
drink gin and laugh themselves silly."
-- Dave Barry, "Won't It Be Just Great Owning Our Own Phones?"
Wow!!
Jens
___________________________________
Jens J. Hansen, Ph.D.(New England)
Programme Leader, Master of Educational Management,
UNITEC Institute of Technology, Te Kura Puukenga o Wairaka,
Private Bag 92025, Auckland, New Zealand
UNITEC Phone: 64 9 815 4321 Ext. 8797 UNITEC Fax: 64 9 815 4310
UNITEC email: jhansen@unitec.ac.nz
91 Domain Cresent, Muriwai Beach, RD 1 Waimauku, West Auckland, New Zealand
Home Phone: 64 9 411 7703
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