Levi B. Caener, a special education teacher in Idaho, happened to read a publication by the National Governors Association “A Governor’s Guide to Human Capital Development.” Really. People who work for the NGA think of children as “human capital.” Do they have children? When they come from the office, do they say, “hello, my little human capital?” On the weekends, do they play ball or go to the zoo with their human capital? Do they take their human capital for a new pair of shoes?
Levi writes:
“Yes teachers and parents; we are not instructing creative individuals to become well rounded global citizens. On the contrary, we are building “human capital” and thus the job of a teacher, and consequently the instruction, must be collectivized to the extent that every widget, ahem, student can contribute to whatever the central planning authority (or the National Governors Association – NGA) dictates is appropriate….Never mind that creativity stuff. Nobody cares. Teachers aren’t meant to create artists or independently thinking individuals. No, we are creating human capital! Thus, a one-size-fits all approach is not only recommended, it is required in order to fulfill the vision of utopian human capital!”
He concludes:
“So let me go on the record. According to this report I am bad human capital.
“You see, I want to inspire my students. I believe that every one of them can be successful in their individual pursuits. Sometimes, certainly, this is within the corporate structure of wages, salaries, etc.
“However, I am just as eager to motivate the artists: the painters, the poets, the musicians, the sculptors. I encourage my students to think critically of the country and world they live in, and to use credible evidence researched to support their claims.
“While I want students to be able to perform as well as they can in any assessment situation, including a standardized format, I am well aware that such a single snapshot is not reflective of a student as a whole. Yet, the National Governor’s Association wants to use this single snapshot to drive education policy.
“Using a single snapshot of information is synonymous to assuming since it is raining today, it must rain tomorrow. In the absence of other measures or input, there is no logic to suggest otherwise.
“The fallacy of using standardized data leads to poor planning of education policy; however, more importantly, it leads to treating students as “human capital” instead of incredible individuals ready to be challenged and immersed critical thinking and motivated by personal inquiry and personal fulfillment of understanding new topics.
“Sorry National Governors Association. I am content to be bad human capital. I will continue promoting an individualized approach to education that recognized I am not a robot and my students are not widgets.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
For several generations we (not just teachers) have taught our children to accept centralized control of resources in order to solve problems and “make life fair.”
Levi has peeled back another layer of the end result of this philosophy.
Our US History books glorify Locke and our educated Leaders justify Hobbes.
Robert Kaplan and Francis Fukuyama are absolutely right and respected, but that just means that the people with power can ignore them.
Paolo Feire warned about the “banking” concept of education in the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which is consistent with the Behavioral approach to education prescribed by education “reform” policies, especially in the military style charters for poor children of color which are flaunted by corporate “reformers.” http://www2.webster.edu/~corbetre/philosophy/education/freire/freire-2.html
Referring to children as “Human Capital” is rather revealing of how the oppressors see students as those who can be exploited in order to increase their own bank accounts.
I believe the term ‘human capital’ is now commonly used in company Human Resource departments (remember when it was called Personnel?) to refer to employees. And after all, the goal of education is to make you ‘career ready’, right?
Colleen, quite a few superintendents are called CEO, not superintendent, perhaps because they lack the credits or course work to be superintendent.
“CIO of Schools”
CIO I’m called,
Because, you see, I owe
A lot on student loans
On which I did default
I was shocked as well by “human capital” approach of study
“Who Rises to the Top? Early Indicators”
by Vanderbilt University (Kell, Lubinsky, and Benbow)
quoted at Gifted and Talented website:
(Follow the link to pdf file at the right bottom corner of the webpage:
http://giftedandtalented.com/expert-picks-who-rises-to-the-top
).
What do they suggest as a result of the study? Tracking and assessments are the must,
“assessment techniques are an efficient means of identifying large numbers of profoundly
talented young adolescents.”
Here are some quotes from this study worth reading:
” Exceptional human capital drives the global economy
(Friedman, 2007; Hunt, 2011; Hunt & Wittmann, 2008).
Consequently, being able to identify, attract, and develop
human capital is increasingly critical for business, scientific,
and technical organizations as they strive for a competitive
edge. The National Science Board (2010) recently
wrote a report on identifying and developing human
capital, noting: “The long-term prosperity of our Nation
will increasingly rely on talented and motivated individuals
who will comprise the vanguard of scientific and
technological innovation”
[..]In the context of emerging economies and international
markets, some societies are operating under the
assumption that those best equipped to leverage exceedingly
rare human-capital resources will be the ones most
likely to maintain and advance the economic, physical,
and social well-being of their citizens. For example,
Zakaria (2011) described the admissions exams of the
Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) as follows
Their [IITs’] greatest strength is that they administer
one of the world’s most ruthlessly competitive
entrance exams. Three hundred thousand people
take it, five thousand are admitted—an acceptance
rate of 1.7 percent. . . . The people who make the
mark are the best and brightest out of one billion.
Place them in any educational system, and they will
do well.
Bill Gates applied the same logic to select Ph.D.-level
scientists for Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing (Friedman,
2007); by administering successively more difficult IQ,
mathematics, and computer-science tests, he eventually
selected 20 people out of an initial pool of 2,000!
The underlying assumption is that these procedures
isolate populations having exceptional promise not just
for making concrete creative advances, but also for
becoming important government and organizational
leaders—that is, individuals entrusted with occupational
roles in which sophisticated judgments are needed for
ensuring individual and organizational well-being. But is
this assumption correct? The psychological characteristics
of many of these special populations remain unclear, and
there is little systematic documentation of the accomplishments
of individuals selected by, and trained in
accordance with, these identification procedures.
Longitudinal study of the development of intellectually
gifted individuals is germane to this topic (e.g.,
Holahan, Sears, & Cronbach, 1995; Terman, 1925–1959),
but the literature in this area is limited and does not adequately
assess exceptionality of the type we are referring
to. Typically, intellectually gifted populations are selected
for study using cutoff scores that do not even approach
the top 1% of ability. Here, we are focusing on individuals
whose intellectual prowess is much rarer: To use
Forbes publisher Richard Karlgaard’s (2010, p. 26) characterization,
we are referring not just to the “super smart,”
but to the “Scary Smart.”
Because of many challenges, longitudinal inquiry on
such profoundly gifted populations is as rare as the populations
themselves. For scientific findings on the profoundly
gifted to be meaningful and generalizable,
participants must be identified early with psychologically
specific measures having exceptionally high ceilings,
tracked longitudinally over multiple decades, and evaluated
on rare or low-base-rate achievements to ascertain
the extent to which their accomplishments are truly
extraordinary. Moreover, relatively large samples are
needed for statistically stable findings, given that intellectually
talented populations develop creative products
in many socially valued domains; they also take on critical
leadership roles and positions of responsibility in a
wide range of settings.
[..]
“Young adolescents with profound talent in mathematical
and verbal reasoning hold extraordinary potential for
enriching society by contributing creative products and
competing in global economies. Many hold important
leadership roles and are entrusted with obligations and
responsibilities essential for individual and organizational
well-being. Above-level assessment techniques are an
efficient means of identifying large numbers of profoundly
talented young adolescents. The evidence
examined here suggests that they constitute the far edge
of a population whose continued success will be further
emphasized—globally—for the foreseeable future. [..]”
By Harrison J. Kell, David Lubinski, and Camilla P. Benbow
Vanderbilt University
Psychological Science
24(5) 648–659
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0956797612457784
pss.sagepub.com
I think there likely are a large number of profoundly talented adolescents who need to be found and nurtured. Students from my local high school are lucky to be living in a town with a university so they can, if their family can afford it, take classes as a non-degree seeking student while still in high school. Most high schools in my state, however, are too small to even offer any AP classes, so those students are out of luck.
“Human Capital” is an abomination of a concept. Could have come out of Nazi Germany or Stalin’s USSR.
Duane,
I am not sure why you object to the term. The idea is that knowledge is an important part of what makes people productive. The term distinguishes knowledge from physical capital (machinery) and pure labor power.
Because that “capital” is exploited just as all capital is used-for the benefit of the one that “owns” it. Slaves were human capital. The Nazi concentration camp “residents” were “human capital” to be used up and discarded, i.e., killed. The Stalin’s gulag archipelago utilized “human capital.
May I suggest reading about treating each human as an end and not as a means in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Or Comte-Sponvilles “A Small Treastise on the Great Virtues.
This is why I always quicken my step when I walk past Human Resources.
Duane,
I am not sure where to start here. Human capital is just the name for knowing what to do, as distinct from the ability to do something. It has nothing to do with exploitation, nothing to do with treating people as ends rather than means.
“..must be collectivized to the extent that every widget, ahem, student can contribute to whatever the central planning authority…dictates is appropriate.”
I have never heard anything so aggravating in my life. but it goes to show exactly how much corporate America cares about schools across the country. And let us not forget that some of these people are in charge of creating the standards that schools will be working towards. Its pitiful. Students are not some inanimate object that you can collect and show off on the edge of a hardwood desk.
Levi, Keep on keeping on. I’m glad some people still have their heads on straight about the world around them. If you don’t nurture those with natural talent, no matter what that talent is, they will spend their life being told they could do more, while never managing to achieve this “more” that they hear so much about. I hate to think what my life would be like if someone pulled me aside and said “its cool that you can sing very well, but in this nation singing doesn’t get you a job, so instead of chorus this year, take an extra math class.” First off it would’ve crushed me, but second i would be some boring “human capital” sitting in a college dorm with four plan walls sitting around doing nothing but work until i receive degree and move on with life.
“Human capital husbandry”
Human capital husbandry
What it’s all about
Selecting super-humans
Geniuses no doubt
Collecting human assets
Rejecting all the rest
Johnny’s good at drawing?
That isn’t on the test
“Human Capital” has to be one of the most despicable terms I have ever heard. I first heard it in the late 90’s when I sat as a labor representative on our local Workforce Investment Board when given by a consultant presenting his work for which he was hired. I nearly jumped out of my skin. I attempted to get the term scrubbed from the report or future use but was outnumbered by the business community reps who made up the majority. Just think about it for a moment. We, as humans, are made up of blood and sinew, hopes and dreams, emotions, consiousness and, as many believe, a soul (except for reformers). Are we not (wo)men? What is capital but an inanimate, cold, unfeeling devise to be used and abused until such time as it no longer has value and is then relegated to the scrap heap. That is what certain segments of our society have in store for us, just a thing to exploit. Labor Creates All Wealth!