social engineering…

From my situation regarding the teaching business, I have been a student for well over forty years (ahem…maybe more than a few…), and as a teacher I currently have the opportunity to look over (via my memory) the various teaching methods, lessons and curricula which I have been subjected to. Since the early 1960’s there have been some tremendous changes in curricula, classroom management techniques, and even how socialization takes place within schools…

The term ‘social engineering’ is a companion to many of these historical perspectives on education (especially which regard to the post 60’s). I spent some time yesterday, looking over the web to find some worthwhile links which would add some illumination to this concept, as well as to find some potential examples. Imagine my surprise upon finding so few worthwhile references to this topic!

Other than what would appear to be a pretty superficial Wikipedia reference, I found almost nothing with regard to the concept of directed changes in a society… Even the term ‘social engineering’ seems to have been hijacked to describe an entirely different concept (it seems to represent a particular group of tactics which hackers can use to get access to seemingly secured data…).

If you consider that this term is often a subtext of a great deal of current political debate this lack of background is certainly a curiosity…

In any case, Wikipedia has as a definition:

Social engineering is a discipline in political science that refers to efforts to influence popular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments or private groups.

This sounds innocuous enough…that is, until you start to consider who is deciding upon which changes to implement in society, as well as the methods this really entails. Especially in the education industry (about as insular as any industry in our society), I worry about how our education system has been changed. Note, I said ‘HOW’, I am agnostic about the actual changes, other than when ‘playing’ with big systems (e.g. the whole education system of the USA)there are always unintended consequences, and all sorts of secondary effects to consider (as well as tertiary and quaternary effects…).

Some, but certainly not all of our current problems in education may relate to unintended consequences to what may have seemed like a good thing to do…several decades ago… These sorts of actions may certainly be well intended (whatever that really means…), but the actions always create secondary results which are problematic. As a few examples, I would just cite that fact that in the last several decades the enrollment of men in colleges (as well as graduation rates, and entrance into graduate programs) has been dropping…why? The plethora of speech codes on many US college campuses is another topic which may have some simple intent, but the actual results are something which only a hardened revolutionary would want…

So, you see the quandary I am in…there is so little salient reference material out there that any worthwhile discussion or debate on some of these huge, and far reaching topics would be mired in interminable delays based upon trying to define terms.

Social engineering (political science) – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_engineering_(political_science)

Political engineering – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_engineering

Private schools condemn ‘social engineering’ – Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7318961/Private-schools-condemn-social-engineering.html

The Engineering of Social Control: The Search for the Silver Bullet

http://web.mit.edu/gtmarx/www/bullet.html

Corruption of the Curriculum

http://www.civitas.org.uk/press/prcsCorruption.php

Social Engineering for Global Change

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/04/teichrib-engineering-social-change.htm