[NLA] Discussion: Return on Investment

[Catherine King]

David:

Thank you for the Brown piece and your reference to
"General Training Improves Productivity More than 
Specific Training Does." 

A further dimension of training is that all specific training
has "stacked" behind it much more unspecific, or 
general, training than meets the eye.  There is an 
unspoken curriculum that cannot be divorced from the 
specific.  This curriculum is social, political, and all the
things EFF and we have talked about for so long on
this list.  It "rides" in every specified training, regardless
of what "results" we specify an expect, and all 
but the most dense teachers among us are aware of 
it--but often in an unspecified way.    

The hidden curriculum in education is often hidden
and unspecified because we have, over the past
100+ years, tended to obfuscate that curriculum and its
importance in educating and civilizing persons.   And 
when that curriculum is brought forward--as in liberal 
studies, the arts, etc., in general education--we often
find it difficult to recognize as important anymore 
in the context of our emphasis on the "specific" (and
I would say "reduced" in some way when we forget
the meaning of the context) rather than a general 
preparation for a person to live a life in a civilized 
community.  

We are learning that civilizing doesn't come in the air 
we breath.  Rather it is a hard-won product of education, 
both formal in our schools and informal in our culture over
a long period of time.  

Perhaps Brown's article is a point of recovery for 
what has gone missing for a long time in general
education and subsequently in our programs in adult 
education.      

Regards,

Catherine King

----- Original Message ----- 
From: David Rosen <DJRosen at theworld.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2002 9:07 AM
Subject: [NLA] Discussion: Return on Investment


> NLA Colleagues,
> 
> Below is a recent Myths and Realities piece  by Bettina Lankard Brown
> published by the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational
> Education.  Its topic, right on target for the discussion we have been
> having here, is Return on Investment in Training.  The finding that
> sometimes "General Training Improves Productivity More than Specific
> Training Does" may provoke some discussion on this list.
> 
> David J. Rosen
> NLA List Moderator
> 

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