SYNERGY-NET on http://www.wiredbrain.net/ Peter E. Pflaum Ph.D. 225 Robinson Road New Smyrna Beach FL 32169 (904) 428-1355 TEACHING AS A SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITY - internet In the world but not of it. Society and institutions must have their illusions. The wizard of OZ, the Emperor's new clothes, and the STARWARS myths seem strange - but the bureaucratic power of leaders seems normal. The lion tamer must first convince the lion that he is in charge. The force of modern revolution is the power shift of knowledge from the top to the operational level - profession-alation. The separation of thinking (done by specialist and bosses) and doing (done by workers) no longer is possible. We all have responsibility and freedom for a quality process. This process does not have goals and objectives - MBO - a top down theory - but sincere and correct thinking and feeling about the customer. Education is different from training (schooling). Educated people understand what is illusion and what is more real. Upper class schools have taught "Higher Wisdom" and duty, virtue, character, as a part of the responsibilities of leaders who know more and are "better" than the masses. The Kings and priests always have had a special knowledge of the "mysteries". Now its the other way around. Technical people have an occult art that makes things work. The bosses, supervisors, principals, are helpless and in the way. Internet is a great example. Internet is a model for people power and technical power out of control. It was designed to be without a center to withstand atomic attack. It is described as a virus or mold that grows at 20% a month. What if teachers were infected by the bug. What if they became real professional with special knowledge out of the control of the system? Really? Not very likely but never-the-less possible. What if students were more knowledgeable that the teachers? More likely. It turns the system on its head. The exact model of Demming and the TQM philosophy, The Age of Unreason - perception - intuition - process - quality - speed - responce - Theory Z differs because of the issue of power. Z organizations are collegiate, not a just suggestion box type Quality Control Cycle. When many American companies initiated QC-Circles much of it was based on employee suggestions rather than on a true shift in power. Is teacher empowerment, a real shift in power or merely more manipulation? Teachers know whether they are being manipulated or whether they really have power. Once real test of empowerment is the elimination of quantified goals. But critics say "how can we evaluate without standardized tests?" There are other ways of evaluat- ing -- atmosphere, quality, determining in qualified ways what is really going on in a given situation. The difference in MBO and Z Theory is that- MBO tried to distribute some power but in very prescribed and limited ways. Management negotiated goals and means for measuring achievement This is the idea behind much of the current educational reform movement. A deal is struck with the workers and agreement made not to over-supervise and not to interfere in the means of achievement in the day-to-day operation. But if Deming is right, these numerical goals lead to goal displacement, meaning satisfying management goals rather than customers. The person responsible for meeting objectives does not have control over the critical variables. (Teachers do not have control of textbooks, who gets into their classes, class scheduling and time blocks, etc.) so it becomes a irrational game of beano. There has to be a collaborative model -- a small enough school so teachers can get together and decide what to do and consult with managers or use outside consultants. This is a real shift in power. You do not need five levels of power and bureaucracy. Bureaucrats and highly paid administrators are not only not part of the solution but are part of the problems. They stand in the way. The point of a small school is this bureaucracy is not in the way of teaching kids. Deming starts with the idea of the production worker and production engineer where management is somewhat of an alien and often negative force. Both Ouchi and Deming come to the same conclusion -- that it is the clearly focused work group collaborating with others that creates the difference, the productivity and the quality. Example -- Motorola just reported a 37% increase in profits in a downward economy. Motorola's job descriptions of production worker includes emphasis on ability to define a problem and find a solution. Look at the training program at Motorola that has to take graduates of American schools and retrain them to THINK. Motorola's system will not work with workers who do not or cannot think. A high percentage of American high school graduates cannot go into these work groups. They do not know how to think. Fix the system, not the blame. Ouchi is top down reasoning and Deming is bottom up but they came to the same conclusion. Makarenko came to this conclusion; this conclusion is seen in the wiring room at Hawthorne; Dewey clearly came to this conclusion -- group effort , connection between thinking and doing. This goes back to the moral basis of human development and potential -- creative individuals working collectively to do the best job and constantly improve. Goodlad was concerned about good schools that could be better (they were not trying to improve-- Goodlad and others are frustrated because they are trying to improve within the existing system). We have many examples of very good schools, but we have this bureaucratic superstructure that is a supertanker. One issue is a moral issue -- you cannot fake it. The school system is not doing their best -- they are not sincere. That is the frustration of teachers. They know the system is not sincere -- it is political, full of place servers, some working the angles, the reward system is wrong -- you get rewarded for not teaching. Are private schools more sincere that public schools? Do we now trust Mr. Wittle communications? We have experience when business take over schools systems. The Small School Plan -- The use of educational scholarships where the money goes to the student not the school might allow the growth of alternative schools. Among experiments we need more small schools. Small in beautiful and where you can be honest. The school is a moral institution. Small homelike places can work closely with parents. Like the 7th Day Adventist schools, they can work better because they are moral. Successful schools are moral and driven. This can be true of public schools. Public schools can have moral values and educational values. This means doing something about students who are not learning -- not just passing them along. ************************************************************ Where is the power? There has been a lot of talk about school basied management and empowerment of teachers, parents, and local control and budgets. What happened? Are principals using it to fire more expensive experienced and hire cheaper new young ones? Are teachers using empowerment to avoid responsibility? Are parents trying to gain patronage? Computers, Geeen Eggs and Ham. Do you like computers? I do not like them, Sam-I-Am. I do not like computers. Would you like them here or there? I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do not like them Sam-I-Am! I do not like computers Sam-I-Am. Sam, Leave me be! Try them, try them - you will see - you will like Computers, so you see? (Dr. Seuss 1960) Closed minds on the Open-network The Ross Perot and GM syndrome: Freedom and independence are not inherent in every person. It must be sought and be earned. Proactive, responsible, independent people are the result of effort. Some are chosen or born free, some make themselves independently and other are driven to express their individual character and value. Even like computers or green eggs and ham? Bureaucratic organizations, factories have been the dominant form in industrial society. People were interchangeable "roles" with limited capacity to connect thinking (done at the top) and doing (done by the workers). This is the model of the school system. Curriculum planners, supervisors, deans, principals, textbook publishers etc. try to produce "fool proof" systems but the fools are too clever. If the teacher and the students were the real source of information the power structure could be stood in its head as it should be in modern times. Institutions are about power. Information is a major prop for bureaucratic power. Open information and where the lower levels have more information than the top is subversive to hierarchical power. The engine of change is not the technology itself but the redistribution of information and the power for workers to act on their own without someone's constant supervision, rules, procedures (SOP), forms and committees. Some technical companies remain top-down, but software requires flatter and more participatory organization. Top down is too slow and dumb to take on fast markets. This is what Ross Perot (from the computer service industry) tried to tell General Motors in 1975. Financial markets are models where the pattern of information has changed the power structure and organizational form. Small groups and individuals with their own work stations and a home computer - power-books are nice! - They may promote a breakout and help people take charge of their own learning. Synergy is the most powerful social force. The total is greater than the sum of the parts. It is possible to create a synergy on the network if it is free - open -. For information to change power the organization must be competitive in a "learning organization" environment. The group must learn fast to stay in business. Clearly schools can't compete and don't try. Freedom of markets in some form is required. Clients must be free to vote with their feet. Freedom of choice by students and parents can come with "models," such as special schools, school-in-school, learning centers, labs, clubs, or choice, etc. The "system" does not only not support real change but kills it off as a foreign virus. Why the words say one thing "every child a king" the practice does another. "Every bureaucrat a King." Not by evil people but an obsolete system that fights to preserve power - as GM did - it paid Ross $700 million to go away. Subj: Sucess in the 90's/Paradigms Date: 94-05-29 09:19:21 EDT From: cosndisc@yukon.cren.org To: PetePflaum Now for something completely different: Some thoughts from recent lectures on management in the 90Us. Successful Organizations of the 1990's Might Well Exhibit these qualities. * Flat Structure ( fewer levels of management) * Autonomous Decentralized Units (Authority, Accountability, Decision making) * Niche Market ( do one thing very well) * Emphasis on Quality of Service and use of innovative solutions * Exercise ability in decision making processes and information processes I would like to invite a discussion on these ideas and their application to the educational sphere. **************************************************************** Paradigms Brief explanation of Paradigms and their relevance to our society in the late 20th Century. >From a video presented by Joel Barker with credit to Thomas Coons. Paradigms are constructs within our way of doing things that filters out data that does not fit in that paradigm. (ex. When going to the movies we expect to have popcorn as part of that experience. If we are offered porterhouse steaks it is likely that most of us would think this quite odd and refuse to consider the thought of having a steak at the movies.) Most of us would think this idea of steaks at the movies stupid and reject it out of hand while others might see this as innovation and make big bucks on this idea. Seeing things only in the light of how things have always been and refusing to consider new or different way of doing something is called paradigm paralysis. Our minds tend to make unexpected data to our paradigm seem invisible and hence we lose a chance to be innovative and on the edge or the fringe of where it is all happening. Being flexible to new ideas and creating new paradigms is not a function of age, only a function of the flexibility of our own minds. Institutions like the schools are good examples of paradigm paralysis. Data is filtered out that does not fit our paradigm of how things have been done, so that it is very difficult to be creative and innovative. We tend to gripe about the way it is and wonder why we cant do it the way it used to be. If the paradigm shifts as I think it has in the past 20 years, we need to realize that we all start over at zero again and we need to adapt to the new paradigm or perish. This is very hard for us teachers to contemplate. Those teachers who choose to adopt the new paradigms of the 90's will surely be paradigm pioneers and the others will be left behind. The question Joel Barkley posed to us is: What can't we do? If we changed our paradigm could we do it? ********************************************** I would like to invite comment and discussion on these topics as they relate to educational values we have now and we might have in the future. Certainly I invite expansion of these topics especially the application of new paradigms to technology in education and networking specifically. ........ or anything that you think is relevant from an educational point of view Cheers! Currie Morrison Nathan Hale HS Seattle Schools From: Currie Morrison To: Multiple recipients of list COSNDISC RE: Platform - Contract II RE: Tranquilly Base Here - The Eagle has Landed A Teacher can only teach what a student will allow himself to learn. The techniques of learning come first. THOSE WHO STUDY THE TECHNIQUES OF LEARNING ARE STUDENTS. YOUR TEACHER CAN ADVISE A STUDENT BY WORDS, THE EXAMPLE OF DEEDS, OR BY BAKING BREAD. The Nurbakshi writing on teachership, Idries Shah: Thinkers of the East Some people seem to want to argue. I don't think my opinion matters. I have read and met people I think possess greater wisdom, knowledge, and experience than I have. When I want to find out something a look for such guides. ************************************************************ IS THE ART OF GETTING YOURSELF OUT OF YOUR OWN FACE ************************************************************ No 1.) Medical payments are at a fixed amount which can be used for premiums (all or part) for insurance (private) or HMO. If Medicare is $6500 that is the amount, no more open check book Under fee for practice, the more you spend the more you get, this turn it around - We can use assigned risk for the high cost patients. 2.) All benefits (direct or indirect - taxes or subsidies) are taxed at 1% starting at the median level of income and the rate rises 1.2% over the median (gross adjusted income) for each 1% so that the top 1% have a 100% tax on benefits, including the real estate tax benefits, social security, federal military and civil retirement, VA, and farms etc. 3.) The IRS is replaced by a VAT. (value added tax no tax on income, investment or savings - tax what you want less of (debt) and don't tax what you do want more of (work saving and investment) - Freeman) 4.) All direct state services are receivable from any certified provider. Education, mail, fire protection, inspection, trash, can be provided by any government or private server. Assigned schools is a violation of law. (charter schools, charter trash, charter mail, (from P.O.), charter phone, charter cable... Charter Welfare on fixed price - say 100,000 per household - that's it no more - less is profit or to more difficult cases - treat welfare like health care, so much no more - no open ended entitlement. 5.) Any legislative expenditure or regulation or administrative instruction has line item veto - cut the micro-management by committee chairmen. 6.) Constitution convention to reorganize federal powers, many fewer elections and integration of executive and legislative functions (parliamentary system and portion representation like the German Federal Republic as a model - a constitution American Political Scholars help write -) Responsible political parties where the franchise belongs to the level of the election. The right to be a democrat or republican is controlled by the national party for national elections (congress and president) with laws about qualifications, so not everyone can run as anything and do anything once elected. Some rules of agency. 7.) Regional Government - everything that can be must be administered by the Federal Regional Councils representing about 10 % of the population. Federal regions take over everything in the domestic area except disaster relief, revenue equalization, taxes, interstate commerce, Federal reserve, etc. that must be federal (as enumerated powers in the original constitution ). 8.)If we do 1 - 8 the problem of money in politics is reduced and silly attempts to control election expenditure is also reduced. Official Campaigns can be limited to one month (or two weeks) which will help. If we have responsible political parties primaries can be reduced. Elected representives are members of organized political units not all independent business people. 9.) Limit all direct public expenditure to 25% of the GNP, with 5% depression fudge factor. 10.) Allow for private taxing district at the federal and state level outside the limits. You want it pay for it principle. Remove all federal drug and most crime laws ( A state and local matter ) Therefore getting rid of almost all the of the DEA, FBI, ATF, and other federal cops. Stick to the basics. RE: Synergy-eulogist, an introduction Education (vs. Training) What was called an Education, required a profound personal change, in developing character and knowledge (Information plus Understanding) based on a deep respect for the truth. The process of education involved doing and learning. The methods of Classical education, Gestalt, Zen, Sufi, and other traditional Practices are profoundly educational. A practice is something you do with internal "knowledge". Bakers know the condition of the dough, musicians the music, the dancers the dance, doctors practice the art of medicine, teachers practice the art of education, artist and sport people the art of performance, the scientist the nature of things. People learn how to learn and how to judge what they are doing, they know the quality of their own work. This knowledge and attention can produce quality sailors in Sail Boats, excellence in making boots and beer, in good books and battles won. I am a student of how people gain internal knowledge. I have conducted an on-going experiment for thirty years. I have worked with the conditions that promote learning under many different conditions. I have made significant progress in understanding the core of the educational process. I have rediscovered what was know by experts in pedologist through the ages. Maybe because of by background I see things from several viewpoints. Baby Born Under Bombs: I was born in Barcelona during a complex way war in the Generaladad de Catatonia involved the anarchist, the republicans, the communist, and the nationalist (Fascist). ( See Orwell's Homage to Catatonia). I am the only native born America anarchist since the anarchist were the official government of a short lived independent Catatonia. My father, Irving Peter Pflaum, was the UPI reporter in Madrid during a three year battle, mother, Melanie Lowenthal, was with my older brother and her parents in Barcelona. In a month or so we took the last train from Spain to France and stayed in a small town near the border - Collioure that remains today a charming artist colony and fishing village. The end of Liberal Education: Irv returned to Chicago to become the foreign editor of the Times (then the Sun-Times). I went to the University of Chicago in the last days of the Roberts Hutchin's program. I receive a form of a classical education, organized on Aristotle principles. There was a common assumption that the education of leaders involved the transmission of "Western Civilization", culture, attitudes, this required the values suited to a Roman Gentleman, a British Officer, or an American Scholar. I did further studies at the University of London, LSE. I taught school and community college in St. Albans and Turin Italy. I started teaching college at the Inter-American University in San German, Porto Rico. I went to summer schools at Harvard and completed a Ed. M. in Education and Economic Development. During the integration of the south I was a graduate student at Florida State and a consultant on integration of schools. I spent a year with the Legislature working on issues of Higher Education. My Thesis was on Geographic Data Base systems and their application to drawing school zones. (Ph.D.) I then have worked in a variety of Colleges and Universities working with students from people just out of High School through Graduate School. I learned a lot about process doing industrial training for private business and public agencies. I have run hundred of seminars and workshop with hands on exercises and group work. I learned about learning through Gestalt training which required a profound personal change. The physical and psychological (mind- body) connection became obvious. I have practiced the art of setting the condition where groups can produce synergy. RE: Synergy-eulogist The organizations that succeeds today and tomorrow will have turned on groups. MASLOW ( Further Reaches of Human Behavior ) tells how Ruth Benedict was interested in cultures that promoted cooperation and "team work", vs. those that were aggressive, cranky, and mean. Team work creates a level of high energy, creativity, focus, and joy. The excitement and energy of groups is know to good leaders, teachers, coaches, and managers, everywhere and in all times. Organizations that can promote the formation and support of small, stable, focused groups. These groups are and will be winners. This is the secret of Z organization, quality circles (Deming), those who will thrive in the new world economy do so because of effective work groups. These organizations are quick and flexible in the rapid changing market. There is a way to promote synergy. The "way" is well know and has been known for thousands of years. It is the seven step method, rediscovered or transmitted through the ages to produce leaders, winners, soldiers, and rulers. The method by tradition takes 1001 nights (three years more or less). It is mind-body work, gestalt, bio-energies, Zen, mind control and focus, self and group hypnotism, song and dance, ceremony, magic, mystic physics of matter itself. Strange but not unusual. It works. For dynamic education (and training), for reformation and renewal, for aggressive competitive realities - "get with the program". It is a lot more that "just" talk. I am look for ways to demonstrate and apply the "method" of synergy-alogia. (no labels please) The few, the brave, and the creative will even consider real change, and doing something different, with the goal of profound knowledge and action. Character is required and many only a few will stick with the program,(in the beginning); when the going gets tough, the tough get going. There is no quick and easy way. Therefore, I am looking for those that after due consideration and proof will commit for 3 years (1001 days) and not look from instant gratification. The important issue is serious intent, the terms can be worked out. I like Deming's arrangement with Ford. He did what he though was useful as long as he believed Ford was really trying, learning and making progress, and send them a bill from time to time, a reasonable bill. I have no interest in wasting my time or your money. Clients include business large and small, schools and colleges, government agencies, social service programs including corrections, churches, and other groups. Let me know and we can have a conversation. RE: How bureaucracy finally strangles its own ability to survive! It is an old family story that Grandfather Edwardo put himself to sleep for several decades reading Gibbon's "Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire." One essentials point is made in that great story: "the Empire fell of it's own weight". It was not overwhelmed by external enemies but simply had become paralyzed by its own bureaucracy. The social law of bureaucratic cancer put an end to the Roman Empire after 25 generations, the Spanish Empire after 5, the British Empire about the same, Soviet Empire in three generation, to IBM and GM in two, and MICROSOFT in one. What brings this topic on, is looking at my institutions phone book and realizing 80% of the names and positions have little or nothing to do with the mission of the organization but could be called support, such as a communications or women's center, but they provide no day care that would support the clients, they have administrative enterprises of all kinds that don't return a unit of measured work or in private terms " PROFIT." Less than half of the institutions resources go to serving the institutions mission. I am not sure people realize this. You need administration, staff services, buildings and grounds etc but enough is too much. They have become so large that the central role of the institution is almost forgotten and becomes secondary to the administration of itself, just like under communism in the USS was. This is an organic and natural process, of bureaucries feeding on themselves, and can only be stopped or reversed by great external pressures. There are more people in the Department of Agriculture, the Agricultural extension services and land grant colleges than farmers. In most large school systems, colleges and universities there are more non-teaching staff (often hidden with teacher sounding titles, than classroom instructors). There are twice as many clerical than sickness treatment people in the modern hospital, including Floor people who do only paperwork , insurance and such like. Is a serious problem. All these people are busy but unnecessary. The fact that they are working hard blinds them to the fact that what they "do" doesn't need to be done. It is only required by themselves and their own system. When the administrative overhead becomes more than half of the total operating cost, it clearly represents a problem. The rebellion of the right led by Newt feels the federal state is strangling the enterprise that makes social life possible. All Bureaucracies in quasi-monopolies, in communist states, in public schools (where less than 50% of resources get to the classroom) , in any big organization's administrative systems, are clearly a necessary evil that can become so large and expensive it overwhelm the ability of the organization to produce and survive. The value of capitalism is that sometimes there is real competition. Real competition forces the reduction in administrators vs." Doers" or downsizing - becoming lean and mean. The Airlines reduced overhead by more than 50% from the fixed price era to survival under competitive conditions, ( not PAA and Eastern, etc.. who are no longer with us) AT&T likewise has been drastically cutting overhead, planes still fly, calls still work, what were all those people doing? Having meetings and passing paper among themselves and creating more paperwork and more administrative positions - this is why deregulation is so important. The Japanese culture promotes decentralization. Decisions are pushed down as far as possible. Western cultures promote centralization. Decisions are pushed up as far as possible. The Western character looks for "heros", who take charge, who are leaders, the cowboy John Wayne enterprise. The oriental civilizations are collective, the desire is to blend in, not stick out. The work groups, the project teams, the "skunk works" are the source of creativeness, synergy, and power not administrative systems. Promotion by seniority has lowered the pressure to create more high level jobs so people can get raises. Flatter pay scales reduce the pressure to have so many captains, majors, col., and generals. This is the real social change going on and sooner or later will get to public bureaucries, schools, banks, police departments. Etc. if they are to survive rather than be replaced or fall of their own weight.