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  %DIFFERENCE TECHNICAL VALUE IDEAL QUESTIONS TEACH 890412

     Technical education in a liberal arts context  should
help  students  learn how to  distinguish  between  purely
technical questions and conflicts among values and ideals.
Such differences exist, but the differences are not at all
clear  to  technocrats who have not learned  to  recognize
ideals  and  values  as  being  different  from  technical
relationships.

     Technocrats  are trapped in collusive games of mutual
self  deception  about conflicts among values and  ideals.
They cannot perceive the conflicts clearly.  Thus they can
not perceive the difference between ideological conflicts,
and questions of a purely technical sort.

     In the context of technical education it is important
to  teach  students  how  to deal  with  purely  technical
questions;   to  gain technical competence with  which  to
solve  problems  which  require primarily  such  technical
competence.   The problem is that it is not always obvious
which competencies are most likely to be important to each
particular  student.  There are thus inevitable  conflicts
among  values and ideals pertaining to how to place  value
upon  the various technical competencies which  a  student
might acquire.

     Even if there are no significant conflicts within the
content  of the material which may be learned,  there  are
inevitably  implicit  conflicts regarding which  technical
skills  should  be  learned by  each  particular  student.
Technical  teachers  and professors  are  virtually  never
overtly  taught  how  to helpfully deal  with  such  value
conflicts  in  ways  which  show proper  respect  for  the
integrity of the students as well as for the integrity  of
the  profession  which  is  implicit  in  the  educational
venture.

     Especially  in liberal arts colleges students  should
be encouraged to examine the dilemmas which will face them
when  considering  the implicit value conflicts  within  a
technical  profession.   It is not easy to articulate  and
deal   with   the  implicit  value  conflicts  which   are
inevitably  present  when a technically  competent  person
approaches  a  situation  where  technical  services   are
needed.   A   liberating  education would  help  each  new
generation  deal  more  helpfully with  the  problems  and
dilemmas  inherent in resolving such conflicts,  than  did
the previous generation.
                                                                                                                               
                         (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in      
                    (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy)  
                                                                                                                               
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