Kidogo's World
Kidogo's World: Exposing fraudulent money and the shift of power
The Thief of American Individualism:
SCHOOL-TO-WORK and Total Quality Management, by Tim Clem
SCHOOL-TO-WORK and Total Quality Management, by Tim Clem
Tim Clem is a former Xerox executive of ten years. He held various assignments within XEROX including Certified Trainer for TQM, Branch Office Sales Manager. Tim now owns a Xerox dealership and agency in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and actively speaks out against TQM throughout the United States.
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Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.
Sir Walter Scott
Federal Watch
A culmination of Laws
passed by Congress in recent years
and strengthened in 1990
(with no public debate)
is about to make
radical changes in our lives
. . . .
and especially in the lives of our children.
Tangled Web
![[Tangled Web]](tweb-s.gif)
Is your children's future
caught in a tangled web?
The Thief of American Individualism:
SCHOOL-TO-WORK
and
Total Quality Management
by Tim Clem
Virtually unknown to parents across the entire U.S.A. is the Federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA). For the first time in American history, government and business have joined together to educate our children. Why is this unusual? Government and business operate together in countries such as China, Germany, Russia, Japan, and in third-world countries, not the U.S.A.
Right now, corporations are working with your local school system to create partnerships linking them to the Federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act. School-to-Work, which is based on the foundation of Total Quality Management (TQM), also known as Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), was first introduced and rejected by American companies in the post-WWI-II era. W. Edwards Deming, the father of Quality, presented his theories to Japan and found himself welcomed as a national hero. Japan claimed that its social and economic turn around came from Mr. Deming's TQM Theory. Since this turn around, TQM has been implemented almost entirely within corporate America in hopes of mimicking Japanese successes. Americans have been subjected to the thought that Japan and other countries, such as Germany, are ahead of the U.S.A. in technology and education.
Education and business theorists believe that Americans must "Benchmark" their schools and corporate management against the supposed successes of Japan and Germany. Their speculation is dead wrong. For example, "the American workforce is still 30% more productive than the Japanese. 60% of American high school students are more likely to attend college than Japanese. There is no evidence that Japanese students learn more in school, or that Japanese adults are more literate than Americans. Japanese companies are not more technologically advanced than American companies. Japanese companies don't earn more patents than American companies." 1 Only 40% of Japanese homes have sewage systems. 2 American students and workers have all been intimidated by the misrepresented successes of the Japanese. We are told repeatedly that because of the greater dedication of Japanese students and workers: We are losing our status of world leader; jobs could be lost; America could go bankrupt.
Total Quality teaches students and workers that Americans will never adapt to the preferred Japanese methods unless we change our culture. Changing a culture requires a complete change in the way we think -- a Paradigm change. Americans, always willing to search "within," are giving up their personal responsibilities and their pursuit of individual happiness in exchange for a "we can all work together, appreciate one another as a group" mentality.
Quality training experts admit that telling employees they must begin an entirely new way of thinking is frightening upon inception. Therefore, much time and training is spent in self-esteem building. The employees begin to forget the discomfort they first sensed in exchange for comfort offered in group encounter sessions called "teambuilding." Slowly, along with fear of losing their futures, jobs, homes, food, and all precious vitals, they begin to melt into the safety of the workgroup they encounter daily. This is labeled as a team, a unit, or family group. Each newly trained employee exchanges a spirit of individuality for a safe haven where the mind is built up with positive motivational thoughts. They are told that this new way of thinking is called "higher order thinking skills," which implies that they have reached a new intellectual plane. By this type of indoctrination, we are volunteering the loss of our supposedly outmoded culture so that we may imitate the business management style and educational methods of the Japanese.
The STWOA states repeatedly that TQM and CQI shall be the structure of this program. At first glance, we associate the word "quality" with goodness; however, TQM does not describe "quality" in this manner. TQM defines "Quality" not as an end product but as a "Process." In order for this process to be implemented, the company must first require a total culture change, also described as "Paradigm" change. This paradigm change results in a system where all employees operate under a unified set of "values" or corporate beliefs. Workers go through hours upon hours of in-depth group training before they become a part of the TQM process.
[Training 101: Scaling the Wall of Resistance, Kenneth E. Hultman, a counseling psychologist with the University Counselling Center at Shippensburg University, Training and Development (October 1995), page 15. "... employees who resist change can actually cripple an organization. ... Symptoms and Causes of Resistance: Symptoms are specific behaviors people use to resist change. ... To diagnose the causes, we must understand a person's state of mind. The most important factors that go into a person's state of mind are his or her facts, beliefs, feelings, and values." -- Ed.]
This training teaches workers that individual values can hinder the performance of their team. Workers that question the training are labeled with names such as "snipers" or "renegades." The instructor is taught to use the rest of the employees to pressure the "sniper" to conform. The group then uses a process called "bringing out." Fellow employees make statements to the sniper that imply concern for the feelings of the sniper. For example: "Is there something we have said or done that makes you not want to join our group?" or "What would you be giving up if you decided to go along with the rest of us?" or "Is it fair to take us all down for your one concern?" The sniper begins to feel guilty, thinking his concerns are petty and a hindrance to the group. Before long, each employee in the group agrees everyone must put aside personal values in exchange for a common values system within the group.
Quality training and educational manuals state that once workers adapt to a new method of thinking, the workgroup can efficiently function as a team. Individual performance is never rewarded or encouraged. All problems in the workplace can be settled by a predetermined "Problem-Solving Process." No problem can be solved by an individual; the praise that an individual receives from solving a problem could detract from the accomplishments of a workgroup and possibly cause hurt feelings. Therefore, all the workers of a group must meet and utilize the Problem-Solving Model before coming to a solution. This model systematically takes the group through a Serendipity or Encounter Group session which utilizes methods of free discussion called "freewheeling," "round robin," "slip-sheet," and "brainstorming." A sense of security and openness is established through a "facilitator." In a group which meets intensively, a facilitator can develop a psychological climate of safety in which freedom of expression and reduction of defensiveness gradually occur.3 The facilitator sets the ground rules of the session. Ground rules typically include the following directions: no criticizing, no shutting out, all ideas must be recorded, all ideas must be evaluated, no preconceived solutions are allowed to be brought to the meeting. A solution must have group consensus before it is implemented. All solutions are tracked and monitored for effectiveness.
By utilizing the Problem-Solving Process, TQM experts ensure that the employee and the team will be able to find ways to solve problems on an employee level, eliminating costly management input. TQM labels this employee level of problem solving as "empowerment." These employees are then to become a "world class" workgroup, able to compete within a "global" economy. This global economy is described as a workplace where a state of continuous quality occurs. This state causes change at a very rapid pace and only companies with employees highly trained in problem solving and TQM processes can survive.
This state is called "Kaizen," the Japanese word used for describing a state of continual changing where one can always adapt without hesitation or question. Reaching this level takes hours of employee group training sessions. Therefore, TQM has been described as an "evolutionary method to bring about revolutionary change, conditioning people to change, winning converts as we went."4
[Implementing a Local School-to-Work Partnership: A Series of How-To Modules, Success in the Workplace, Number 11 (Stillwater, OK: Oklahoma Department of Vocational and Technical Education, 1996), page 33. "Realize there is no closure to the process. The need will be ongoing and forever changing and dynamic in its nature, direction, and vitality." (Does not this reflect dialectic materialism?)]
Quality experts state that it takes up to ten years for a company and its employees to reach "Kaizen." Therefore, TQM-based companies are looking for employees that are already "globally trained." If a TQM company could hire this "Kaizen" level of employees, millions of dollars could be saved in training and more management positions could be eliminated; thus increasing profits greatly. One can see how a recent graduate of School-to-Work, who has been prepared in this "process," would be met with open arms within the corporate world.
The STWOA states that all students will be adept in TQM techniques of problem solving and associated behaviors. All students will be tested to determine Affective Skills which include (in addition to reading, math, and writing) self esteem, ability to relate to others, diversity, and appreciation for other cultures. The STWOA states that student skills will be assessed and described according to the Jobs Program Training Act (JPTA). JPTA standards are found in the federal skills catalog called SCANS (Secretary's Commission for Achieving Necessary Skills, U.S. Department of Labor).
As in Total Quality Management, all jobs are reduced to a "Task Level." For instance, the SCANS lists the various tasks of a farmer: plowing, planting, harvesting, feeding, even menial tasks such as shoveling manure. These various tasks are given a rating showing the level of skill needed to accomplish each task. This skill rating is then matched with a School-to-Work student and a vocational career training path that may be difficult to change through the remaining years of the student's education. The STW student is then placed in a vocational apprenticeship at the local VoTech to perfect the skills needed for the future. The STW student must have school and work related experience within the apprenticeship program. Between the ages of 16 and 17, students must work in a field of their training to gain on-the-job (OTJ) experience.
When the student has completed both school and OTJ requirements, he is given a certificate that enables him to be placed in the workforce. Prior and after STW training, the student may allow the state to make available personal scores and records to potential employers. Potential employers will then search the STW Computer Database for students meeting job requirements and test scores necessary for employment.
The dangers of the Federal STWOA are frightening. Just think, the life-long vocational destiny of a student is determined by a test -- which is given at the most awkward stage of one's life: adolescence.
Time and perseverance are always on the side of the American Dream. We are in a country where all citizens have the same opportunity to pursue a vocation or goal of their choice at any stage of life if they so desire. STWOA removes these entrepreneurial elements and replaces them with social engineering and captivity.
__________________1 Ray and Cindelyn Eberts, The Myths of Japanese Quality (Prentice Hall, 1995).
2 "Prosperity's Base: ODA," Japan Times (16 October 1990) p. 2.
3 Carl Rogers, Carl Rogers on Encounter Groups
4 Bill Creech, The Five Pillars of TQM
About the Author:
Tim Clem is a former Xerox executive of ten years. He held various assignments within XEROX including Certified Trainer for TQM, Branch Office Sales Manager. Tim now owns a Xerox dealership and agency in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and actively speaks out against TQM throughout the United States.Tim Clem
600 S. Post Road
Arcadia, Oklahoma 73007
Office: 405-848-0010 Fax: 405-843-6939
Link to Tangled Web
Researched and Compiled
by Joe Esposito
The fully documented reportTangled Web in hard copy (28 pages) can be found on the Internet by following this link: Tangled Web