Concupiscence: Strong desire.

Regardless of the particular line of business in which one is engaged, the strong desire is to make a profit.

How can it be otherwise in education?

Removing corporate dollars from education is necessary not because corporations are inherently evil but because their goal, profit, conflicts with the goal of education, to create a more enlightened and loving human being.

Since there is nothing new under the sun, it is not news that corporations, whose business it is to create educational materials must insure profits by updating their product. Updating the information in a book is only necessary every generation and is rarely done that often. Books can be used again and again so there is no resale value there. Consumable items such as workbooks have all but been eliminated from the classroom since their cost made them expendable and replaceable with loose leaf paper, binders, and composition books, all inexpensive items whose cost can be assumed by the home.

In the past, student acumen was tested by the teacher. Teacher’s knew what they taught and knew how to create tests that challenged their student’s acquisition of information. There was a mid-term exam that everyone took before the winter break and a final exam in June. Students knew by the last week of school whether they passed the test and were going on to the next grade or not. Assessment was individual and personal.

As corporations reached out to the leaders in education to fill their need for workers, it became clear that the rationale for education had to change. Standardized testing created a whole new funding stream in education as the goal of education more closely aligned with the corporate goal, “the bottom line”.

The corporate take-over of education is not surprising, it is logical. There is no overhead since public dollars fund education and success depends on the failure to produce a viable product for society while insuring an easily controlled workforce for corporations.

Corporations are fulfilling their strong desire.

Our children’s excellent education must become our concupiscence.

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