Friday, May 30, 2014

Hope for the Future


Week 4 – May 25, 2014 – May 31, 2014, EDDC 618 – Course Progress Feedback – Dr. Paul Rux

You continue to do first-class work again this week.  What amazes your humble servant here is how many of you mirror this writer’s values! 
For example, in ranking educational issues, challenges, many of you in effect put discipline, lack of it, at the top!  Wow, discipline in our culture is a “dirty” word to many people; it takes courage to advocate it, even if we use euphemisms like “focused classroom” for it.  After loss of safety, discipline likely “clocks in” as the number two challenge to teachers, sadly, today.  Until we restore discipline as a value, practice, we shall continue to lose competitive advantage in our global economy.  Discipline for sure exists in schools in China! 
The next overlap of values is your esteem of facts as core drivers of OD planning and training.  As Edward Deming, the Father of Total Quality Management (TQM) taught, “Speak with data.”  Use facts.  This sidelines personalities and politics.  Facts are basic scientific method, and it is exciting to find students who want to apply it to education!  Your humble servant did his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Wisconsin – Madison on how to apply TQM to education, and it is a delight to find you eager to apply one of its core teachings:  use facts! 
Thank you for another great week of learning.  Above all, thank you for giving me hope for the future! 

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