Mike,
You are clear in your own mind that some governments focus their resources
with the intent to create learning societies. Who? I can only think of
Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries, and I know many people who
would argue with even them.
And your second comment, that evidence suggests that business tools are
applicable to non-business sectors, I would be careful of a bit. yes, in
general business tools are applicable in non-profit organizations. In
government, though, I wonder if goals are not so dramatically different
that use of business tools would need to be seriously evaluated before
application. For example, businesses use various measures of
productivity, and productivity is a key measure of most businesses.
Productivity in education, though, would result in educating those most
likely to succeed, and that is a contradiction to the goals of many
states. So, to make it work, we end up with a lot of exceptions and
caveats, and in the end productivity is probably not a good measure for
government.
At least that's how I see it...
--Rol Fessenden
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>