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Whltby FmPre ensaAgst3,19 ae~ WCOMMUr 5EWSE The, new education A couple of weeks ago, Education Minister John Snobelen issued a challenge to educators: let's remake dctinin the image of business. That is, with a-focus on customer service and results. Snobelen threw down a further gauntlet: teachers who I see thefr job as, presentters of information must be remoulded. He said education must be seen- as active learning rather than a teaching activity. Not bad for a high ochool dropout. This picture of education may be the only sound emergmng from Queen's Park today with which I could agree. If Snobelen backs bis words with the needed supportmo traiing,. reorientation, empowerment' and, i the right places, money, then hooray! Let the future begmn. But if he is repeating sound and gas, we're in for a __________________________________ dreadful time. By we I mean not only educators, teachers, admninistrators and trstes, but parents, students and other educational "customers. ____________________________________ Customer Service Orientation has been adopted by North American business only since the early eighties. That's when the Japanese started stealing markets: automobiles, copiers, cameras, television. For the Japanese, Customer Service Orientation grew out of the application of Total'Qua]ity Management, or Continuous Improvement. TQM evolved from theories developed by Edward Deming, an American management consultant. Demmng said that every process can be improved, . usually in two ways. First, by letting those who do the job Îedesign it for efricie'ncy. That is, the front line workers will improve all parts of the procese they control. I addition, the managers must listen to workers and provide improvement in aspects of the job beyond the worker's control; In short, customer service organizations must become expert at listening to customer's needs: and customer means anyone involved i the product or process at any stage. Applying this ta industry in the seventies, Japan moved in a decade from producing shoddy, cheap junk ta producing quality, durable, well-designed products. What does this mean for John Snobelen and bis aim ta make education more busmness-like? depend more on the process used to instill that knowledge than the knowledge and skilîs themselves. (How useful is 35 YEAES AGO the software you learned 10 years ago?) From the Thursday, August 25,1960 edition of the If Snobelen can make our education system more WHýITBY WEEKLY NEWS cusome-sesitveconulttiv atalllevls nd espnsie eA special public meeting will be heldby Town Council te, determine if Whitby will establish ta needs, then rm ail for it. If, however, he plans to use the ts own bus service. jargon of cpstomer service ta remake our educational Single signa advertising the Town's four service clubs will be erected at the entrances te system into a cheap assembly Iline driven by poorly defined Whitby. business needs, then I say, beware. That's not education. A three-man cornmitteelias been appointed by Town Council te investigage annexation of That's ignorance. It can be implemented in a few weeks and portions of Whitby Township. will fail for a long time. Doing it right will take-amimu Don Armstrong~s Men's Shop is the newest store to open in the WhItby Plaza at Brock and of five years and will require a lot of political will. Gilbert streets. I know which version I would support I fear the 80 YEAR AGO version the Harris government will implement. Froin the Thursday, August 26, 1915 edition of the Note: Congratulations ta Elsie Teskey of Whitby. Elsie WffTMY GAETIE AMD CHRONICLE won the competition in the June 21 column in which I challenged readers ta find the "inadvertent grammatical 0 Pronunent retired farmer Arthur Jolinston 'of Brooklin died on Aug. 22 at the age of 76. error." The error, which was inadvertent sice I did not 0 Efforts are being undertaken te, establish a Victorian Order of Nurses'Home in Whitby. intend it ta be there, was a missing parenthesis in line 9. 0 Arthur Jubb, formerly a lerk ini the Dominion Bank, bas joined the British Navy. What some of the best minds in journalism and education 0 Mis Cormack is ini charge of a committee for sending chocolates, chewing guin, cigarettes niissed, Mrs. Teskey found. We celebrated with the and tebacco to, Whitby's boys overseas in the European war. promised lunch at Pearson Lanes on Mary Street last friday.