I have not seen Senge specifically address unions, but his core idea is that schools are highly complex systems which can only be made to work if all of their parts are organized so that all involved stakeholders (teachers, admin, parents, students, government, etc.) have the same goals and are aware of how each of their roles contribute toward achieving those common goals. I suspect, therefore, that he might say that unions are one of the stakeholders involved and that they must be reoriented, at the least, so as not to be working against the rest of the system.
He also points out that the way public schools are currently organized is based on the needs that stakeholders had at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, rather than on the goals that the people involved have today, and that the cookie-cutter, assembly-line approach which worked then can never be adapted to contemporary society, but needs to be replaced.
So to the extent that unions have disparate goals from the rest of the system, and insist on the same work rules across the board, I'd bet Senge would agree with you. But he'd also probably point out that that's only a small fraction of the problem that needs to be addressed.
Ah.
Sounds (your descrip in para one) like a lot of the same old same old then?
I think someone, somewhere has perennially been calling for just this for as long as I can remember, often simply changing emphasis to make it appear "fresh."
I don't agree that all of these agents, in general, have the "same goals" in mind, and can't imagine that anyone who believes that knows much about or is being honest about the schools.
If, as you believe, Senge would say (and I don't require a qoute or link...this is just us discussing it, I'll take your word for it) that the unions simply need to "reorient," so as not to be working against the rest of the system, he doesn't know much about the schools or the union.
In fact, if the unions are not a prominent player in his theorizing...I can't imagine how he can possibly be taken seriously. Can anyone deny that this, the most powerful union in the country right now (and for some time) is hugely influential in the schools? If the union is not, at minimum, #1 on his list...I can't say that I'd take him terribly seriously.
Many others, for decades now, have pointed out that the schools are old-fashioned in many ways...look at summers off...how many kids need to have summers off to help on the family farm? None would be my guess, given what I know of modern agriculture. Not sure I'd WANT my 8 yr-old running a $240,000 harvester...would you?
If Senge is not addressing the "cookie cutter" orientation of the schools from the understanding that this is designed, entirely, as a means of making it "easier" on teachers who may not be terribly competent teachers and may be even worse in their particular discipline, then he does not understand the problem at all. The schools are not at all, today (and have been getting away from that, rapidly, since I was a kid in them in the 60s and 70s) turning out kids able to read and write and do math at the minimal levels required by (past) American industry, but instead concentrate almost entirely on sending kids to college...in fact, districts and sometimes individual schools brag on how many of their graduates go on to college, don't they? Do they brag about their auto shop or woodworking or metal shop classes and how many graduates with an emphasis in those areas go on to get jobs in those fields?
Do most schools even HAVE shop these days? I know for a fact it has been phased out of the middle/jr high school system where I live (the new middle school here has NO shop classes and NO shop teachers).
It seems Senge suffers from some of the "old-fashioned" thinking he is accusing the schools of.
No, the last thing the schools "suffer" from is "old-fashioned" thinking..unless Stalinism is viewed as "old fashioned".
If Senge believes the uniona are only a small part of the problem, then he is either not paying attention or like so many other "reformers" knows very well on which side his bread is buttered: make the unions happy and as a "reformer" you may go far...piss them off, and you will find your maunderings relegated to the "rightwingnut kook" stacks in the library.
Best wishes,
Tokie
