RC 11 NOV 14

Teaching is a paradoxical profession. Of all the jobs that are, or
aspire to be, professions, only teaching is expected to create the
human skills and capacities that will enable individuals and
organizations to survive and succeed in today's knowledge society.
Teachers, more than anyone, are expected to build learning
communities, create the knowledge society and develop the capacities
for innovations, flexibility and commitment to change that are
essential to economic prosperity. At the same time, teachers are also
expected to mitigate and counteract many of the immense problems that
knowledge societies create, such as excessive consumerism, loss of
community and widening gaps between rich and poor. Somehow, teachers
must try to achieve these seemingly contradictory goals
simultaneously.

In the industrial revolution, resources of human labour moved from the
country to the city. This mass migration filled the Dickensian
factories and dark satanic mills of the period with labour power. But
in the face of overcrowding and urban squalor, this movement also
prompted the creation of great institutions of public space and public
life such as state education, public libraries and the great municipal
parks. The economic explosion of the industrial revolution was not
limitless. It was counterbalanced by acts of civic and philanthropic
responsibility that provided learning, schooling and green urban space
that would benefit the people.

The knowledge revolution has been redirecting resources once more:
this time from the public purse to private pockets as a way to boost
consumer spending and stimulate stock market investment in a global
casino of endless speculation. There is little sign of social
compensation or counterbalancing in this second revolution. Indeed,
its drain on public spending and its championing of private choice is
placing many of our public institutions in jeopardy. Just when we are
expecting the most of teachers to prepare children for the knowledge
society, their total salary costs that result from being a mass
profession have driven many governments to limit or withhold the
resources and support that teachers need in order to be more
effective. In damaging the teachers of the next generations, the
knowledge economy is eating its young.

The knowledge society finds it difficult to make teaching a true
learning profession. It craves higher standards of learning and
teaching, yet it has also subjected teachers to public attacks; eroded
their autonomy of judgement and conditions of work; created epidemics
of standardization and overregulation; and shortages of eager and able
educational leaders. The very profession which is so often said to be
of such vital importance for the knowledge economy is the one that too
many groups have devalued, more and more people want to leave, fewer
and fewer want to join, and very few are interested in leading. This
is more than a paradox. It is a crisis of disturbing proportions.

1

In today's knowledge society, teachers
a)
are expected to play the role of a catalyst to promote growth.
b)
are required to handle the problems created by this society.
c)
may become a casuality of society's attitudes.
d)
all the above are true.

2

The difference(s) between the industrial revolution and the knowledge
revolution is/are
a)
the urban to rural migration.
b)
the degree of consumerism and materialism.
c)
public versus private spending.
d)
the focus on skills and knowledge.


3

The 'crisis of disturbing proportions', according to the passage, is
a)
the absence of devoted people in the profession of teaching.
b)
the inability of teachers to impart real learning.
c)
the lack of respect for the teaching fraternity and its consequences.
d)
the attitude of the students to teachers.

4

The 'crisis of disturbing proportions', according to the passage, is
a)
the absence of devoted people in the profession of teaching.
b)
the inability of teachers to impart real learning.
c)
the lack of respect for the teaching fraternity and its consequences.
d)
the attitude of the students to teachers.