Education and the culture of consumption

"For nearly two hundred years the organisational form of the school has changed little. Bureaucracy has been its enduring form. The school has prepared the worker for the factory of mass production. It has created the 'mass consumer' to be content with accepting what is on offer, not what is wanted. However, a 'revised' educational code appears to be emerging. This practice centres upon the concept of 'personalisation', which operates at two levels: first, as a new mode of public service delivery, and second, as a new 'grammar' for the school, with new flexibilities of structure and pedagogical process. Personalisation has its intellectual roots in marketing theory, not in educational theory and is the facilitator of 'education for consumption'. It allows for the 'market' to suffuse even more the fabric of education, albeit under the democratic-sounding call of freedom of choice. Education and the Culture of Consumption raises many questions about personalisation which policy-makers seem prone to avoid:"--