By Richelle
While reading a recent copy of the Economist, I stumbled onto an article that caught my attention – “A Swedish Model: A Swedish firm has worked out how to make money running free schools.” Hmm–making money running “publicly funded” schools? I had to read more as I wondered about the quality and support for such a model.
I read a book recently that dealt with Lean Production, a Toyota Production System, where one of the goals is to take useless or wasted items out of the manufacturing system. The Japanese have a term for that cluttered refrigerator and the teaching for which the metaphor stands. Muda (無駄) is the Japanese term for any activity that is wasteful and does not add any value to what you are doing. I encourage you to use this summer and take out the muda in your teaching.