On Re-educating Our Educational System and Understanding the Cultural Phenomenon of What We Have Today Instead

"A funny thing happened on the way to school one day. At an early age, I decided I couldn't stand the slowness of learning that attending school  offered, so I quit, and that's when my real education began." - from my personal history.

I was commenting on David Campbell's Economy blog regarding all things New Brunswick and its economy, and came across his discussion with someone referring to Taylorism.

Taylorism

Frederick W. Taylor was an efficiency expert: the first modern efficiency expert in world history. Around the turn of the Twentieth Century, he developed a set of ideas designed to get employees in manufacturing industries to produce more output
.

His term for this collection of strategies was scientific management, although it is sometimes simply referred to  as Taylorism. In order to implement his ideas, Taylor contracted with companies to rearrange their production processes to simplify the tasks each employee performed. Instead of doing many different things, workers in Taylorized factories would execute the same simple tasks over and over.
This not only increased production, but reduced an employer’s need for skilled labor. For this reason, employers could cut their overall wage costs
.¹
Taylor and his disciples cited the search for efficiency, “the one best way” to do a job, as justification for such changes. Because scientific management consultants claimed they understood the “natural laws” of human behavior and endurance, they argued that the implementation of scientific management would benefit both workers and society at-large.
Nevertheless, skilled workers and their unions often vociferously protested these changes because Taylorism made their work monotonous and also trespassed upon what they perceived as their traditional prerogative to manage their own time on the job. Workers and their unions objected not only to the efforts of scientific managers to determine what workers did all day, but also to efforts to tell workers exactly how they should do it.²
Approaching the end of the Industrial Revolution, Taylor’s ideas provided a catalyst for increasing the output of American factories beyond the promise of technological advances alone. After Taylor’s death in 1914, scientific management spread throughout the world, and it has influenced everything from advice to housewives on how to do their chores to how Japanese (and later American) cars have been made. Taylorism has also shaped the structure of American education. - This quote and more info here.



Below are a few important notes to consider:

Advent of the Industrial Revolution between 1760 - 1780 (give or take).

People began leaving their rural lives behind, to go to the cities where they could be employed in a factory. They in effect were leaving cleaner, less stressful, and more self-sufficient existences for one fraught with dangers to their health, both physical, and mental along with the risks of potential poverty, and boredom as they worked to receive what they initially thought would be better pay, and a better life. Ironically, at the same time, society was also leaving its familiarity with nature behind.

Before the Industrial Revolution many tradespeople made wide use of 'hands-on skills' in their livelihoods, and in their lives in general. 'Self-sufficiency' wasn't an invented term in this era, but was instead universally accepted simply as a way of life - more individuals had more real-life applicable skills.



Today we would say such a person was multi-talented, or multi-skilled which goes against what Taylorism has done for much of our educational system.

Here in St.Martins

Here in St.Martins we have a lot of the things many people are looking for in a place in which to live. There are perhaps a few obvious exceptions to this rule here, but these seem somewhat minor in the face of what many urban populations are having to deal with elsewhere.







Yes, its true the village is located about 35 to 40 minutes from Saint John, and many living here make the daily commute to work in the city. And there is no high school here which makes it tough for families to think about moving here. After grade 8 the kids her are bussed to a high school in Saint John for grade 9 and upwards.

But, if you're an individual looking to slow down, well then life doesn't get much slower than it does here. There are no inner city gangs, or anything else that's much organized for that matter. And most of the village has high speed internet which also makes it an option to work from home if you're so inclined.






Here also, you will find nature galore, from uncrowded beaches, to walking trails that will lead to a perch at the edge of rugged cliffs overlooking the ocean. In the summer, tourists from around the world somehow manage to find their way here, and yet the main road through the village is not crowded, and the tourists are generally of the baby-boomer persuasion so they're driving slower anyway.

But, one thing I've noticed quite distinctly from living here for the last 8-9 years is the age demographics in the areas' population which may spell trouble in the future. I'm not sure if anyone's kept close scrutiny of new people coming to live here. Obviously, I'm speaking of the contrasting out-migration of the younger generation versus in-migration of older ages.






Its my impression of watching the comings and goings, that more individuals fitting the description of retired persons seeking to downsize from Ontario, or countries such as England are coming to live here, than do younger families with school age children in tow, although a few families do come from these places as well. Of course, if you've been paying attention to this issue in the Atlantic region as a whole, or for that matter many rural areas as a whole, then you already know this is a continuing theme as we watch helplessly as our youth leave our locales for greener pastures.







But, here's the problem we need to address. Alongside the out migration of younger people, we are collectively facing an unprecedented health challenge as the large baby boomer generation will start requiring medical care, at the same time that we already have an existing demographically older population here due to many years of out migration of our younger people.

So,  we have a large potential problem looming on the horizon if we can't figure out a real way to keep healthy demographic numbers alive here, which we still haven't been able to do.







So, this raises the all- important question of: how do we do it? How do we make it attractive for young families to remain here, and also at the same time, attract new families here? How do we go about balancing a sustainable age demographic here in New Brunswick?

This is a question our local governments have been trying to figure out for years. They've paid out big chunks of taxpayers change to consultants to help understand how to tackle this on-going issue.

Creating jobs in the 'Energy Hub' of Saint John for instance will only go so far. Other regions (the west) with possibly more to offer in other ways, can effectively compete for those would be workers in their already existing rich job environments.







Creating temporary construction jobs to build the 'Energy Hub' can only play a temporary role in the overall solution.

Currently, our province is having a large, and fractured debate over what age children should begin learning to speak and write French in our schools. This language debate seems to have galvanized many people into voicing their opinions on this issue.

But, I think the debate should include more than the question of French immersion. I think we have a great opportunity to have an open dialog about something much more far reaching, and fundamental.






I think areas like ours actually need to rethink what we are teaching our children in our schools. As a thinking, open, and mature society, we should be ready to begin questioning if the kids are really getting a very good education overall?

Then, New Brunswick could potentially be very attractive for families to both stay here, and come to live here as well!