Education Education Education

I have my moments when my despair at our education at all levels in the west (and maybe elsewhere, but I don't have any experience or knowledge of that). I came across an interview through one of my blog feeds this morning which focuses on the US college system, (lost the link already!) It's quite long but has one key element for me - the fact that the ways we deliver education seem to have very little to do with people learning what they want or need to know. And by 'need' I include definitions by people other than the student, like business, society and governments. This is independent of the big debate about how we define what we should be providing learning for. We are not providing learning in our schools, colleges and universities.

This has been nagging away at me for many years, I first became disillusioned around my transition from primary to secondary school, and I have had numerous reinforcing experiences through undergraduate, postgraduate and even global scientific meetings.

On the up side, my daughter started school in the UK after a couple of years pre-school, and I have only good things to say about that. If that kind of progress and standard can flow up through the rets of the education system, it could drive significant improvements.

However, since she settled into the French education system, I have had a number of unpleasant flashbacks to my experience, as the French system seems to be contradicting the (now inexplicable) good reputation it had in the UK.

I'm going to chew that fat over a glass or two of wine with my mate the oldest hippy up the road about it all. He's just jacked in a very succcesful university career in France in his early 40s, because of his serious disenchantment with the system.

I'm sure we will find the answers; the question is, will we be able to remember them in the morning?

Small and big don't always go well together

I've been reviewing my working relationships recently and noticed one or two things which might be hypotheses.

1. The length of time that organisations take to pay their suppliers increases with the size of the organisation.
2. Cash flow can be a driver for organisations to become bigger.
3. Cash flow can be one of the biggest problems for growing organisations.
4. Larger organisations may be missing out on valuable flexible resources as smaller suppliers decide not to work for them.
5. Freelance work has many rewards, but worry-free cash flow does not appear to be one of them.
6. Organisations that do pay on time are wonderful. Thank you!

New mouse, new impediment

I'm sure there's some sort of 'better mouse trap, more intelligent mouse' joke in here some where, but I haven't found it.

Anyway, I got a trackball thingy which is great, and together with some expert massage, that problem went away.

So my excuse now is a run-in with a woodpile that put my back out for two weeks. It's just about bearable now, and so I plan to be back from next week, with a weekly post.