Trends in Organizational Learning concept LO29386

From: AM de Lange (amdelange@postino.up.ac.za)
Date: 10/24/02


Replying to LO29375 --

Dear Organlearners,

Hal Popplewell < GaltJohn44@aol.com > writes upon my disclosure:
>> I seldom become angry, but my vice is that i become
>> raving mad when a leader/manager says "give them this
>> or that document so that they can learn and thus
>> become useful".
>
>This statement interests and surprises me. I once chose a
>University on the a sole basis (after passing certain threshold
>requirements) of NOT requiring class attendance. I learn
>best working at my own pace reading the text and doing the
>exercises provided for the class. I assume I am not the only
>person in the world whom learns best in this manner. So
>why be angry at the thought?
>
>I understand your point, of course, that giving someone a
>document does not guarantee SUFFICIENT learning - but
>it will certainly provide SOME learning (caps for emphasis
>only).

Greetings dear Hal,

Up to four years as a researcher in soil science, after my university
training, i was under the impression that everybody who had a schooling,
could study a document. Then i realised my mission. I had to become a
teacher. Within the first year i discovered that there are pupils in their
final year of secondary schooling who could not learn from any document.
It is called technically "functional illiteracy".

That was more than thirty years ago here in South Africa. The situation
has worsened gradually.

Many things can contribute to this "functional illiteracy" like an
inferior vocabulary or grammer, an inability to comprehend composite
sentences and even a dyslexia. Unfortunately, it goes with functional
illiteracy worse than with AIDS. Not only is there very little discussion
on it, but virtually no self-examination by the educational departments
why they are failing despite so much schooling designed by them. I have
even seen teachers having been trained by education faculties who are
still functional illiterate.

OK. Let me shock some of you fellow learners. Just for the sake of
getting an idea of the maginitude of the three monkey
"speak not this very evil, hear not this very evil, see not this very evil",
i used Google's advance search engine at
< http://www.google.com/advanced_search >
and put the following two words in the second window (exact phrase)
   corporate identity.
I got 235 000 hits. Then i changed them into
   mission statement
just to make sure that i am not foolling anybody.
I got 2 040 000 hits. Then i finally changed them into
   functional illiteracy
I got but 4 090 hits.

Let us now see how many of these hits deal with the causes and
symptoms of functional illiteracy. Put in the first window
   causes symptoms
and keep in the second window
   functional illiteracy
I got a meagre 135 hits. Obviously, since something is seriously
wrong with these educational systems, i added in the first window
   causes symptoms reform
and put in the third window
   education educational schools instruction
One would expect that the stubbornness of the Roman Catholic
Church would not repeat itself in modern education.
But i got as little as 64 hits.

Here is one of the few worthwhile documents which i could find on
internet out of those 64 hits. It is
"Functional Illiteracy: Culture Is Part Of The Problem"
< http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9318/literacy.html >
It begins as follows (concerning Canada):
"Just before Christmas Nova Scotia's Education Minister Jane
Purves released literacy statistics cited by a government task
force suggesting that up to 50 percent of adult Nova Scotians
are functionally illiterate, which means that they may be able to
ead road signs, write their name, and perform other simple
reading and writing tasks, but beyond that are pretty helpless
in the world of the written word."

Another hit which i want to mention is:
"The Dumbbell Curve"
< http://www.ocpathink.org/Education/dbellwww.htm >
It begins as follows (concerning the USA):
"Since American teachers switched in the 1930s from reading
instruction that worked for everyone to reading instruction that
neuroscientists now tell us doesn't work for anyone,
school-produced illiteracy has soared. And it is illiteracy--not
low IQ--that is not only responsible for decades of declining
test scores but is also critically linked to every critical social
problem in Oklahoma and nationwide."

CEO's doctoring them books? Teachers and lecturers doctoring
them text scores, handing out worthless certificates!

Now let us see what is the real problem we are up to. Use in the
First window
   causes symptoms reform creativity
Second window
   functional illiteracy
Third window
   education educational schools instruction
since silly Einstein said
"Thank God that not all the schools kill the creativity of all the pupils"
The result? Hold fast to your chair -- 13 hits.

What is the problem with the lacking of creativity leading to functional
illiteracy? Unfortunately, Google's advance search engine can handle only
ten key words. We have already ten key words. Remove in the third window
instruction and add in the first window wholeness since it is essential to
creativity. Guess how many hits? One.

>Further, it is probable that there is great variance between
>individuals in how well they will "learn by reading" - so I
>assume this is the basis of your anger: someone's assumption
>that learn by reading is sufficient?

No, dear Hal, it is the assumption that a person can read functionally
having completed the usual schooling years. It is the inability to admit
that something horrifying is wrong with our education. It is the lack
of wholeness which is bringing our societies down like the two WTC
towers. While it is happening, our academies and research institutions
are producing mountains of new information. Silly old Einstein for
having said:
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
Perhaps he had the above in mind when he also said:
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity;
and I'm not sure about the universe."

With care and best wishes

-- 

At de Lange <amdelange@postino.up.ac.za> Snailmail: A M de Lange Gold Fields Computer Centre Faculty of Science - University of Pretoria Pretoria 0001 - Rep of South Africa

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