ABSTRACT
Central to the kind of education I want to discuss is an acceptance of the symbol as a teacher. Such a basis for facilitating educative experience remains a radical position in the context of western schooling practices, which have been founded upon industrial and positivistic values and practices, creating school systems based explicitly on the paradigms of industry and factories (Bobbitt 1918, 1924; Tyler 1949). Overvaluing these aspects of the human experience does not contribute to the healthful development of the whole human being or of human societies, and these values persist in public schooling systems today. Industry, commerce and an entrepreneurial culture continue to increase the pressure for education to justify itself through relevance to their values, such as standardization, competition, meritocracy and the protection of self-interest (O’Sullivan 2002). Students are considered more in terms of human capital or human resources than as persons; market demands dictate how to shape these ‘raw materials’ (Greene 1995). Education has become a process of training employees and consumers and preparing to compete in a global economy is now seen as the primary purpose of schooling our children (Miller 2000).
