BEAREly Coherent: - How we envisage schooling in the 21st century- Applying the new ‘imaginary

Hedley Beare, iNet Paper originally published in 2006 at: http://www.sst-inet.com.au/files/BEARE_A5_BOOKLET.pdf

Main Points and Annotations

• The paper has a truly global breadth and paints a coherent picture of a quasi utopian world where global networks support a wide variety of educational interactions.
• The central thesis seems to be that “home schools” will still have a role in this world, but that they will serve as mentors and brokers for students who access a wide range of educational services at various times and locations that suit their aspirations and needs.
• Teachers will be contract workers acting for specific purposes according to their s\kills when and where they are needed.
• Apart from many differences in interpretation or inference, and a few disputes over facts, the vision is coherent.
• Implications:
• The paper does not overtly articulate privatisation, but the description of flexible and varied contractual arrangements with a variety of providers would be impossible to deliver within a government regulated bureaucracy.
• The paper valiantly attempts to carve out a residual role for organisations called “schools” but the continued existence of schools as a mandated and universal concept is plainly at odds with the thrust of the paper towards diversity, flexibility and autonomy of both learners and teachers.
• In a multi-cultural “global” society (i.e. one with no shared culture), parents and students should be free to choose the components of their education whether this is a fulltime single site school aimed at transmission of a single world view e.g. “religious education”, or a range of experiences from separate sources and sites.
• The key social and governmental consideration would have to be whether diversification of educational experiences would lead to increased social fragmentation and stratification rather than healthy diversity - as some groups exercised their freedom to make consistently poor choices in the market, and others chose to group their children exclusively.

Summary of Annotations

• pp5. As our view of the world alters, so also does our view of the component pieces that make up that worldview.
  worldview = view of the world n. new word not in most dictionaries. Use of so many new words (worldview, cred), words in new uses (vision as a verb; visionary and futurist as nouns) or uncommon words or usage (e.g. assimilable, involuted) in a document often indicate an attempt to create self reinforcing language sets that are less amenable to challenge from conventional language users e.g. Orwell's "newspeak" or "unspeak" a new term in itself.i.e. "if you disagree with me it is just because you don't understand the new language that is needed"
• pp6. Diversity and resilience now rule; the days of one-best-way solutions have gone.
  "Straw man" - a technique used a lot in this paper. Infer an exaggerated attribute of the past e.g. "one-best-way solutions" and propose a single alternative. In this case, the past was never a "one-best-way" world. History and common culture created relatively widespread similarities in educational organisations (well explained in this paper). Indeed, this paper proposes a movement towards an alternative "one-best-way" solution. Within this new "one-best-way" there is room for diversity and
• pp7. Step aside from the mainstream traffic for a moment, take a good look at it, a helicopter-view as it were, and you will notice that there is a revolution in public thinking and behaving – one might almost say in believing – taking place before our eyes.
  To say that the myriad of changes occurring throughout the world is an "it" - a single revolution - something with a new coherence ¬is a wildly contestable conjecture.Another view - equally valid in my view - is the disintegration of human cultures where they clash with the individualism and relativism that is essential for an open global market. Opposition to "parochialism" is then far more problematic. It is "parochial" for asian or aboriginal parishes to oppose open access to drugs (e.g. alcohol), sex (e.g. marketing of sexual services) and rock and roll. It is parochial for Australian "parishes" to oppose the increasing worldwide trend towards completely privatised education (with extensive involvement of religious bodies e.g. madrasah, catholic school)
• pp8. For centuries, to take an obvious example, people thought that the earth was flat, a kind of disc with water enclosing the land. The evidence of one’s senses seemed to confirm the flatness.
  "Straw man" - "Because intuitively the world seems flat, but is not so, you should beleive me even if my assertions are also counter intuitive." Inference: This paper is as earth shaking as the Copernican Theory.
• pp9. A more recent example, discussed by Taylor, has been the transplanting of monarchy, of power residing in a king, with the idea of democracy
  The success of democracy is a much more pertinent example as it has had a very slow, chequered and variegated. Over more than 2500 years, it has spread slowly with many retreats and re-interpretations. Perhaps iNet needs to consider a similar timeframe for widespread changes to education systems ?
• pp11. So beware! Management terms like ‘restructuring’ and ‘reengineering’ are images which depict the organization as an inanimate thing, as a building or a machine consisting of lifeless component parts or building blocks. You dare not run a school that way.
  Sports analogies are even more frequent and have an extremely corrosive effect on school visions from administrators to the youngest children.Sports values in common global culture (compared to "parochial sports values") are deeply anti-social: individual advancement at the expense of the team; adherence to group rules always balanced against personal cost of breaking them; team loyalty always above justice; the end (i.e. winning) justifies any means that you can afford; pre-emptive violence and abuse are legitimate tactics etc etc.
  Moving from analysis to instruction without any supporting argument.If this is true, and supported in Chap 7, then this bald assertion should have been left to that point.
• pp14. It explains the continuing association between the rich private schools and universities, the intellectual favouritism in the curriculum,…..
  Straw man: "Selecting some knowledge as the most important to teach or learn is favouritism."If we can't cover all knowledge then we need to select. If we select, then we are favouring our selection (or themes assuggested later in the text). If we do not select, then we leave the selection to chance or (even worse) to children.Logically, there is no other alternatives.
• pp15. The new generation of schools for the masses (particularly the government-supported schools) was housed in buildings designed on the logic of the modern factory, and was often like a factory in appearance, in the way they were organized and run, and in the way they treated their staff and students.
  This is not history. This is now ! Clear and accurate description of the current practice. Just look at the type of new school buildings constructed in schools. they are neat replicas of modern office blocks and factories.
• pp16. Concentration: especially the efficiencies in concentrating people in one place.
  I believe that this is the crux of a new vision of education that recognises the fatal straitjacket caused by compulsory "concentration"and its accompanying brutal social side effects.In societies that have lost social coherence, we need to free education from this crucial limitation.We need to "de-school" society.
• pp16. The metaphors, so hackneyed that they are not even seen for what they really are, merely metaphors, are now out-of-date and the formats which they produced now need to be thrown away or radically redesigned.
  Evangalism ? Envy is such a contemporary motivator for action. Indeed, it is the main motivator for the increasing numbers of students leaving government schools.....
• pp17 Globalism, or the planet seen as a unitary, interconnected, living system.
  Before the cultural disintegration of nation states and "commonwealths", there were other "unitary, interconnected, living systems". The reason that so many "think globally" these days is their inability to believe in anything more local ("parochial") than the planet as a whole.Indeed, global terrorism is an extreme example of this sense of "think global act local" where there is no "connectedness" with a local culture; a heightened sensitivity to global justice and responsibility; and a "thematic" study of history, economics, religion and culture through a "network".
• pp18. The advanced economies of the 21st century, however, are overwhelmingly dependent on information and telecommunication.
  And they are losing ground on every measure to the "developing" world.....Behind this reliance on the "information society" is an embeded heirarchical assumption that the "advanced economies" will be able to control those who actually build the physical world by being best at the "information economy". Trouble is, these developing economies are beating the "advanced economies" at this nearly as fast as they have replaced the "physical economy". "Advanced economy" is becoming synonymous with "Senile economy".
• pp18 (1) that learning is the act of systematically acquiring authorised knowledge which experts have earlier generated, and (2) that learning is a conveyor belt which constructs knowledge by fabricating pre-existing simple components together into complex and finished pieces, and which likens schooling to a mass-production exercise.
  In other words, effective learning involves synthesis of facts and information from credible sources through understanding intoknowledge (and hopefully wisdom).This is extant truth !Indeed, the basis of the most respected technique for knowledge creation, the "scientific method" involves this very process.If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants - Isaac Newton - letter to Robert Hooke, 1676
• pp19 Networks consist of links (the connected threads), nodes (the knots which tie the threads together) and hubs
  "Truth by association" Fallacy: Because these terms are closely related to the pervasive and successful structure of computer networks, then they must work in this new context.
• pp19 Morgan makes it clear that we must get beyond regarding organizations (especially schools) as hierarchies and structures. We must now re-image managerial styles….
  Evangelism ! An argument would explain the benefits of adoption. An evangelist will assume compliance of the believer."Slaves to fashion" will adopt the assertion in their enthusiasm to follow a guru.
• pp20. big organizations must learn to behave as though they are small; they must be continuously innovative to stay alive;
  Inference from the marketplace: Schools exist in competetive marketplace. They will lose students unles they continuously innovate in ways that please their clients. Clients are parents (to the extent that they control enrolments).Trouble with this market driven motivator is that the clients want a school that is subject driven, content driven, test driven, compulsion driven etc etc
• pp20. Come down hard on anyone – staff member, student, board member, or parent – who uses machine analogies to describe the school, its learning programmes, or its students. That kind of thinking has to be erased from the school’s psyche.
  True Colors: So much for debate, discussion, attraction by self-evident truth or succesful experimentation - let's "come down hard !". "That kind of thinking has to be erased". Not the first time an evangelist was found to be wearing jackboots !
• pp21. We now realise that building new knowledge does not necessarily proceed hierarchically through neatly branching specialisation....
  Confusion between the creation of new knowledge cf. the creation of understanding of existing knowledge. Students cannot create significant knowledge - except in an extreme "post-modern" sense where all "new knowledge" is equally valued.
• pp21. … that learning is often chunky, it has its ups and downs, there are plateaus interspersed with explosive spurts,…
  Just like body growth. We maintain a steady healthy diet for students, even though we realise that biology determinses that growthis in "spurts".Likewise, we teach (= create learning opportunities) continuously even though social and intellectual readiness is very varied.
• p22. Thus rote learning tends to shrink to that core of knowings which is essential to negotiating one’s way through the available data.
  There is no shrinking !!! The available data is growing exponentially !! Therefore, as a constant proportion, the "knowings" that are essential is also growing exponentially !!
• p22. how to judge its significance and veracity may be a more productive use of learners’ time
  i.e. judging its "authority". This is where the essential knowings are protective and truly educative.It is crucial that parents, teachers, librarians, editors (paper and web based) "direct" students to learn what the "parish" has agreedas its selection of "knowings".This is the basis on which the student "judges" future information.
• p22. understanding underlying principles more than on committing information to memory,
  Principles (like concepts) are the most difficult thing to communicate to students as they are based on the ability to generalise fromthe many "knowings" provided during education, and apply in totally new contexts in the future.The more examples that student knows the more resiliant and powerful the principle will be to them in the future.
  
• p22 The team of educatormentors and the students involved can assess at the end what skills have been acquired and what knowledge has been gained which is basic to the whole learning regimen. It requires professional insight to make summative assessments like this, but teachers around the world have their own maps of the learning terrain in the form of syllabuses, core curricula or essential knowings, and curriculum frameworks. They know what can be expected of the normal child at specified stages of his or her growth, and they are quite capable of placing any learner in their care within a matrix which identifies what has been learned and where gaps exist
  A team of teachers (where there used to be one, discusses everything and documents each student individually against a huge atomised list of objectives across all disciplines, so that the next "direction" will fill in the "gaps".Basically, write a course for each individual student on the fly in concert with a few others, and ensure coherent coverage as well as accountability and justifiable comparative assessment !!!
• Just search publishers or google for courses that do this..... there are none.
• Oh so easy to say !!! This is the Achilles heel of many of the new curriculum changes. Behind these easy sentences lies an assumption of a vastly increased accountability workload for every topic taught.As each student studies different aspects of the volcano and learns different skills, and knowledge to different degrees - some general some specific to traditional disciplines. The accounting for what is learnt and what needs to be learnt becomes an overwhelmingly bureacratic and distracting exercise for the teacher.
• Teachers who attempt this in my experience (e.g. school based curriculum development in the 1980's; many primary school teachers) hopelessly exaggerate the significance and persistence of the student acheivement (self defense; self justification; self-congratulation).
• "normal" - a very depressing reference point i.e. normative and probably self-fulfilling expectation defined only within the "parochial" environment.Far better to have criterion referenced standards.
• p23 What causes a pothole?
  In the real world, one of the first questions students would forcefully ask would be "who cares ?".Students also ask this question about the need to explain the significance of Macbeth, Beethoven's Fifth, the steamengine and Pythagoras' Theorem. Luckily, we answer the question but we do not accept the implied judgement.Are potholes so much more significant ? Are students capable of understanding the role of harmonic motion in thecreation of potholes without knowing their tables ?The selection of investigations that students are "directed" to shouldvery carefully reflect their importance in communication key "knowings". I don't think potholes are a good example.
• p23 A person who learns in this mode will become increasingly sophisticated about the tactics of learning, about learning how to learn. In the summation to any learning exercise, the learner will be inclined to ask herself four questions: The knowledge question: What knowledge is essential to my understanding of this exercise?
  Fallacious inference: (problem solving is a generic skill useful regardless of context) therefore (problem solving skills canreplace detailed contextual knowledge).The stories are legion of those who have found the fallacy of this assumption after hiring "consultants".Year 11 Maths students regularly experience its limitations when they find that the answer to the knowledge and skillsquestions is: You need 3 years of "scaffolding" knowledge and essential skills before you can succeed at this level. Pity,all you have really learnt in detail is generic problem solving...
• p23 Where can I apply and use….
  Extreme utilitarian view of the purpose of learning. The arts would fare very poorly on htis question.Question should be:How does this improve my ability to live, work understand and contribute to the "parish" ?
• p24. Indeed, a fellow learner has in many respects been considered a competitor
  Nature is competitive "by nature". Most key life experiences are competitive - attracting a lover; gaining a job or promotion; gettingIN a team; etc etc.Co-operation is effective as part of a group competitive strategy - i.e. students will subjugate their self-interest where they realise itwill help their team to win.Group competition is an excellent and effective motivator as well as a key life preparation.
• Both group and individual learning are essential preparation for a successful life.
• p24 which essential learnings are age-appropriate,….
  Inconsistent and fallacious: The spread of "learning readiness" is widely acknowledged to be enormous. The only reasons for the outmoded age-grade learning practiced in schools is
  (1) individual learning is less important than social conditioning i.e. get on with your peers even if they are comparative idiots
  (2) schools are flat out protecting students that deviate from the norm (physical difference NOT arising from age; social behaviour;cultural difference etc etc).They can't/ won't cope with protecting high and low achievers with exactly the same differences.In summary, a crucial change in vision must eliminate the forced "centralisation" of immature humans in schools.
• p24 good educational facility ought to be readily available, probably on a round-the-clock basis,
  We don't need schools to do this. These services can be provided through libraries, internet cafes, drop in centres, private homes,study groups etc.Why try to develop new uses for an outmoded institution ? Protect the current workforce ?The crucial point should be to recognise that lass and less education needs to be delivered through school programs, by schoolstaff or on school property.Parents and students should be free to select parts of their child's education from a diversity of organisations offering a dicersity ofmodes (full time, part time, after school, online etc) that offer different styles, components of a full education.
• p25 Those divisions were produced by the medieval imaginary, were extended by the industrial imaginary, and look like surviving.
  The reason is simply because they work ! Just like biological taxonomy, there are real efficiencies in conceptual thinking, research organisation, and increasing the efficiency of mutually supportive knowledge and skills. At the forefront of any of the existing disciplines, hybrids are always developing. Students rarely work at the complexity levels that require this hybrisation. Over centuries, these disciplines change. It is a gross exaggeration to imply that nothing has changed since medieval times.
• p25 What can schools do in such a structured and entrenched context to travel by a different roadmap?
  Is it the role of schools to travel by a different roadmap in an area ("subjects-based imaginary") where the social consensus is quite clearly different ? What gives schools that right or mandate ?
• p26 At the very least, the school can encourage incidental cross-referencing.
  Totally agree:The best way of achieving this is to purchase/ develop/ systematise a week by week scope and sequence available online to allteachers as well as students and parents. This is a form of accountability that actually serves good curriculum development as wellas many other initiatives such as "connectivity", curriculum auditing etc etc.
• p26 A hybridised project can be a whole-school, year-level, or classgroup exercise.
  Cross curriculum thematic approaches must be designed very carefully (i.e. by professional curriculum developers, not by teachers "on the fly". As they limit the curriculum breath of each individual subject, they must be chosen very carefully. They must not be repetitive. They needn to deal with the response of students and parents who feel that each theme is "done to death".Badly done, they are anti-diverse, unbalanced, patchy etc.
• Is there any better rationale ? "seems sensible" - NOT a great basis for radical change.
• p27 This has been a long section. It needed to be,
  What about assessment ?Assessment is the key driver of curriculum change in the real world of school systems. It is also the choke point for curriculuminitiatives - "If you can't explain, implement the assessment then forget it !"The only way to get curriculum change as proposed is to structurally remove external or system assessment from the responsibilityof the classroom program.An approach similar to the way governments are increasingly removing data collection for school assessment from the control ofthe school.
• Courses should contain assessment designed to inform the course by guiding learning and giving feedback to students & parents.This assessment will mirror the diversity of course approaches and be radically different from school to school, from course tocourse within a school, and between different implementations of the same course within a school.
• System-wide summative assessment should be handled separately, independently and objectively (e.g. independent externalassessment which measures the attainment of key system valued goals.).Teachers have no role in its design or implementation, but their practice and curriculum is informed by its data.
• p28 Certainly the physical configuration of the school’s learning premises
  Implication: If they are not classrooms, there are no classes (Otherwise to change the term would be facile faddism.)Freedom without responsibility is anti-social and anti-educational.If there are no classes, then most compulsory organisational regimens of schools (such as attendance in room 4A at 10:15) areirrelevant.As we give students more freedom, we need to take care to ensure that parents and the community realise that schools no longeraccount for student attendance.Implications of small organisational changes can have profound effects !
• p28 The emergence of teacher professionalism:
  Professionalism: Much abused term. Merely means skill, competence, or character expected of a member of a highly trainedprofession. What's new ?Often the term is a "container" term for increased workload as "professionals" are supposed to work "as long as it takes" to do aprofessional job cf. wage earner who will knock off at 38 hrs.What it means here is anyone's guess...
• pp29 'New’ organizations: A fourth factor is that the kind of advanced, globally connected and information-rich firms
  The evidence on successful organisation structures is very complex and varied. Walmart operates on a very different organisationalmodel to google, but both are astonishing new success stories. the success of the approach is closely ties to the product/ serviceoffered, the character of employees etc etc.No clear evidence of what "new" organisations will be like, let alone whether schools should follow them.
• pp29 'based on the mobile knowledge worker’.
  Aspects of a truth being expanded to being the whole truth....Mobile knowledge workers in the information economy are similar to the factory workers in the industrial revolution - low bargainingpower, no collective organisation, no reciprical obligations from their employer etc etc.This is why so many of the knowledge work is being "out sourced" to India and China.We have accepted the loss of the competition to maintain a manufacturing industry, there is no evidence to show that we have achance of retaining a competitive edge in the information economy.
• pp30 Their learnings may not be acquired through one particular school,
  Why persist with the idea of a home school ?Using the term "home" implies a role for the school which is poorly defined.The student has a home. There is no need for a "home school". The parent and student can navigate between differenteducational offerings for themselves without the support (interference) of a "home school".
• pp29 The student (like other knowledge-workers) understands that she herself is responsible for her own learning career,
  Moving responsibility to the student is directly against the international trend of increasing freedom for individuals (especially children) and removing any responsibility from them for their actions. As long as we retain a "home school", the implication is likely to remain that that some-one other than the parent and student is responsible for their learning. If we move to a diverse and responsive educational services market, then each component can negotiate clear responsibility withthe parent and student.
• Are we so politically correct now that "she" is the new "he" ? "he/she" is a surely a small price to pay for equality cf. discrimination.
• pp31 for mentoring a group of learners, a kind of homestead group, directing them sequentially into projects or modules of activities, and keeping track of progress and outcomes.
  An excellent idea !As long as the role of the teacher is clearly redefined as a mentor rather then a teacher.
• pp31 integrating the components it supplies with those of other providers.
  This job is unnecessary, limiting and impossible. Unnecessary, when parents and students can choose their own "components" according to their interests, life plans andcapabilites.Limiting in that the parent or students should be free to choose from a global range of services rather than those preferred or knowsto the "home school"Impossible because the organisation would have little or no power and presumably retain some responsibility for uncooperative orirresponsible students or parents. For the "good" student it is unnecessary. For the "bad" student, it is irrelevant.
• pp32 (treachers) behave as private operators
  This is completely erroneous description of the highly centralized and regulated education employment
• pp32 The nature of the teacher’s work is now far more sophisticated than mere instruction
  High quality instruction is no "mere" feat.Indeed, there is likely to be more instruction embedded in the actual experience of a self-selecting learner than was allowed in thedays of a "broad and general curriculum".Give students the freedom and they will be getting instruction in Microsoft Certification rather than education in AustralianHistory.
• p32 Working hours have become more flexible, and are no longer a standard day
  "Piece Work" is now often dressed up as "Contract Work".Technololgy (e.g. podcast)allows for the centralised delivery of a single instance of an excellent teachers work.This is not ALL teachers are needed for, but it is likely to be a substantial proportion.Another reason to dispense with the school altogether.
• p33 comparable with what is paid to knowledge workers in other industries.
  "Knowledge workers" range from VERY lowly paid call centre operators in India to VERY highly paid System Analysts etc. i.e. here is NO certainty of continued high levels of remuneration.
• p33 Professionalised workers want ‘to do whatever needs to be done...
  This is fine where the employment market gives the contractor good bargaining power.In the knowledge economy (like the industrial revolution) there many in this position - but most are likely to be at the mercy of"market forces"
• p33 They do not think of themselves as employees but as partners,
  Partners share the profit of the enterprise.More and more of this model is only workable within the concept of a fully proivatised education system.
• p35 Parents may not have the continuity of knowledge and engagement with each student formerly assumed.
  One completely consistent outcome of the current policy support for "social diversity" is this increase in the extremes.Many students come from homes which will provide more and more of the support for a varied education using different modes and"components".Others will exercise their freedom to fail.
• p38 The network organization has a centre or core which retains ‘tight control over technical quality, research and development, major investment decisions, planning, training, and coordinative activities’
  Educational Leadership has long hidden its responsibility behind a curtain of consensus, democracy and central dictate.the idea of a central core taking responsibility for clear planning goals will be very welcome to teachers whose main interest is inbeing given practical guidelines and practical support to deliver to students.The problem is the long history of educational leaders delivering totally impractical curriculum and organisational arrangements andthen bemoaning the lack of quality implementation.
• p38 rest of the organization’s activities can be turned into separable functions, capable of being contracted out or franchised to satellite or subsidiary units
  The school should design and offer ONE or MORE of the optional "components" of a successful education according to itscapabilities.There is no need or rational for the continued existence of the school as an overarching co-ordinating body for the totality of astudent's education.
• p39 … displacing the assumption that learning needs to take place in geographically bound spaces and in a stereotyped set of facilities called schools and classrooms.
  At last.these structures only need to continue where and if students and parents choose them compared to other styles of educational"component".
• p41 A team works on the principle that unless everyone pulls his or her weight, it can’t win.
  Team co-operation exists because it makes the team more effective in achieving the goals of the individual members.
• p44 We now use language about collegiality (equal power but varying capabilities), co-operation (literally, the means of acting together), teamwork (the notion of each member playing a part and of all being responsible for the outcome, for winning), and of coordination (of every member willingly harmonising with others’ efforts).
  Most education leaders in government schools only give lip service to these terms.The combination of strict line management above them and the lack of power to actually control those below them means that mostof the possibilities inherent in these operating styles are sterile rhetoric.
• p46 A system which enforces conformity, uniformity, and orthodoxy is on the road to death, but a system which breeds diversity is on the way to vibrant growth.
  NOTE: the system is robust but no specific element within it is essential.The enforced "biodiversity" in government schools is proving dangerous to the system due to the schools' inability to rid themselvesof environmental toxins in the form of ineducable students and incompetent teachers.
• p48 interactions within living systems; a live, energetic, interdependent environment of which we as individuals, learners, and the school itself are integral components; the openness of a living system where mutual support guarantees survival,
  Biological metaphor also leads to many Darwinian concepts such as:
• -"survival of the fittest" (closure of poor performing schools; duplication of school types that have increasing enrolments such as selective entry and single sex)
• -natural diversity (enabling schools to be creative make their own mistakes and live or die by their ability to attract students.
• p50 the (planetary) crisis was in part created by the traditional academic disciplines themselves
  Talk about a long bow !!!Blaming the global ecosystem crisis on Western academic disciplines is a very convenient (and common) whipping horse !The greenhouse contribution form the Asian and Indian subcontinents is by far the greatest contribution to global meltdown - due totheir "centre of gravity" position in world population.The planetary crisis cannot be fixed by any amount of ecological responsibility on the part of the "Free World" (although we canobviously research and model the way forward).
• p51 ‘every modern economic system…is anthropocentric and exploitative in its programmes; the natural world is considered a resource for human utility.’ He argued that economists ‘were caught in a mechanistic world…derived from Newtonian cosmology’
  Ockham's Razor: Humans population growth displays the dynamics commonly seen when environmental limits such as food andpredators have been removed from an ecosystem.When food or water run out or predators (almost certainly viral) discover the opportunity, population models suggest an extremelyrapid "over-correction" possibly to near extinction.This is all very "natural".We are not so much ruining our planet, as changing it in ways that may not favour our species survival.
• pp51 destined to become truly global citizens, iterally citizens of the world.
  This is an unsupported assertion.As explained earlier, humans only co-operate to achieve personal goals through groups more efficiently.A reading of ancient and recent history would suggest that it is far more likely that as resources (esp. water and food) run out orpredator pressures (e.g. virus) arrive, human conflict will rapidly escalate.
• p53 nation-states’ influence is being supplanted by the activity of regional trade centres. Silicon Valley outside of San Francisco is the prototype, and the city of Singapore is another.
  Untrue of Singapore: This country has a very well developed sense of national destiny. It sees itself surrounded by hostile nations. Nationality is far from a non-issue.
• p54 there is not a ‘brain drain’ so much as a ‘brain circulation’
  Again Singapore and many developing nations would disagree most strongly with this wild assertion. They lose many of theirhighly educated citizens to countries which can afford to reward skills and knowledge and provide a better lifestyle.This is a serious and continued retardant to improvement in these countries.
• p54 student body borderless, technologically adept, unencumbered by distance, and at ease with being a global citizen; and how well does the school’s curriculum foster such globalism?
  Unless these features emerge from a social consensus of the school community or the wider society, the school has no right toencourage them.Aspects of these values are commendable, but unless put in the perspective of the prime duty of loyalty to the nation, then they aredangerously destabilizing.
• p55 The social imaginary being considered here is based also on the shift from a Newtonian (mechanistic) view of the cosmos to an Einsteinian
  This differentiation between Einsteinian and Newtonian is fallacious but illuminating.Einstein was highly mechanistic in his conception of the world to the extent of resisting the role of an uncertainty principle.The reason that such a tiny proportion of humans understand Einstein's work compared with Newton's is an example of the need tolimit educational topics to the capacity of students and the time available. It is simply NOT possible to get students studying queuetheory in year 7 without trivialising the content or leaving the vast majority out !Most thematic topics that include maths either deal with trivial maths or complex maths in a trvial way.
• p55 Every one of those (Newtonian) descriptors is wrong!
  Extremely simplistic and unfair to describe these models as "wrong". they not only derive from one of the greatest minds of history, but are still in daily use today and provide perfectly acceptable approximations for everyday events.
• p56 Avoid saying things like ‘the moon comes up.’
  A simplistic notion again that it is better for a child NOT to learn that descriptions differ from different view points, but rather to try to avoid plain descriptions in favour of the cosmically correct.
• p61 People who are fit, alert, interested in life, and thirsty for learning will insist on having specialist educational institutions geared to their needs.
  This is a VERY optimistic assessment that ignores the proportional decline in support for intellectual engagement and creativity in favour of anti-intellectual consumerism. This can be seen in the massive growth in passive recreation (even if we define reading as "active"). The proportion of our population engaged in recreation that requires active physical or intellectual engagement shown no sign of increase.
• p62 In such a context, ‘school’ is no longer imprisoned geographically on an island site, but interacts with clusters of compatible enterprises, shares its facilities, and leases its physical space. Its teachers are no longer employed by a single school, nor need they work entirely in education.
  As the paper develops the vision of a school as a unitary organisation makes less and less sense. Educational services can bedeilivered by a wide reange of people and organisations of a variety of types in a range of loactions at a range of times.Any (or none) of them could be called "schools".The school as we know it - compulsory, controlling, accountable for the totality of a child's education - will have no reason to exist.