by Steve Wyckoff on February 24, 2010
Earlier this week I attended a State conference for Career and Technical Education. I’m trying to learn all I can about the do’s and don’ts, and the rules and regulations. Now I may not be the brightest guy in the world, but I find the maze of regulations to be, well, amazing. Furthermore, what you learn may vary based on whom you’re talking to. It’s very frustrating.
All of the discussion about what you can and can’t do, and how you can and can’t do it got me thinking about a quote from Tom Peters in his book Re-imagine. He talks about what gets companies in trouble, I would add, what gets bureaucracies in trouble as well. Peters said,
“And yet most of the trouble businesses get into – in serving their customers and in general getting things done with dispatch – is directly attributable to the ugliness of their systems and processes. Over time, even a beautiful system tends to get elaborated and elaborated … and then more elaborated … with every change. Each one made of course, for a “good reason.” Until the whole ugly, sloppy, inefficient, demoralizing, dehumanizing, mess makes everybody unhappy. We end up “serving the system” rather than having the system serve us.” – Tom Peters
Oh so true! It’s not that the people at KSDE aren’t good people, or they don’t care. And it’s not that in isolation each of the rules and regulations isn’t good, and makes sense. It’s the interaction of all the rules, and all the regulations, over years and years. Indeed it appears to me that instead of serving our kids, and preparing them for the 21st century, we end up serving the bureaucracy.
Perhaps the solution is to unwind the whole big mess. To throw out all the rules and start over again. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works. In fact, more and more, we deal with rules and regulations from the federal government. These rules and regulations make even less sense, and do less good, than rules made by the well-meaning people at KSDE.
I know one thing for sure, in the 21st century, a time of individualization and customization, one set of rules designed to cover every situation, for every individual, and every school, makes no sense. One of the speakers proclaimed that the administration wants all of the resources for career and technical education expended on solutions that are creative and innovative. Just so long as every rule and regulation designed to make sure nobody does anything different is adhered to! Proving once again that Tom Peters was exactly right! - Steve Wyckoff
by Steve Wyckoff on February 23, 2010
I received an interesting phone call the other day from a consultant who is working with one of the largest cities in Kansas in determining their workforce needs and attempting to determine why there is a lack of skilled labor available. I had been referred to her by an area superintendent that was aware of my involvement with career and technical education, career planning, and the Kansas Career Pipeline.
She asked if I would share my opinions with her regarding the shortage of skilled workers. And, as you know if you’ve read my blog before, I have no shortage of opinions. And besides I was in the middle of a three-hour drive and I welcomed the distraction. So we had a very interesting and engaging conversation.
We talked about the fact that our schools, regardless of their mission statement, really don’t intend to prepare kids to be productive members of society in the 21st century. Their focus is much more on college preparation than real-world preparation.
She did remind me of a piece of data I found last week. Four out of 10 college students major in Social Sciences (ex. History and Political Science) Psychology, Communication, or English. Popular careers of these majors include retail store manager, customer service representative, and administrative assistant. These individuals are an example of being overeducated but not underemployed. They simply don’t have the skills necessary to compete for other jobs in the 21st century. they lack the technical skills necessary for high wage jobs, and instead opt for low-wage, low skill, service jobs.
They are highly educated but lack the necessary skills. In our society today that seems to be preferable to individuals who have the necessary skills but lack a liberal education. Perhaps it’s time that we started analyzed this gap to decide what’s most important to us as a society. Then maybe our schools will work to help eliminate the skills gap that we are currently experiencing. – Steve Wyckoff
