School Schedules

In "the Rivers North of the Future," David Cayley quotes Ivan Illych on school schedules. He writes, "And, so it goes on to take the unbelievable form of four years elementary, four years middle school, four years upper, and four years college attendance" (Cayeley 144). Illych connected the school schedule to the ritual behavioural demands of Mass attendance; it makes a good argument when one understands the Church was the first to demand attendance to define a good Roman Catholic and, in a similar vein, attendance at school is supposed to make a good pupil. However, Illych goes on to say Mass attendance and confession no more makes a good Catholic than going to school everyday makes a child educated.

Another aspect of this ritual behaviour can also be found in Matthew Stewart's "The Myth of the MBA." He discusses the impact of Fredrick Winslow Taylor and the stop watch on the development of Masters programs in Business Administration early in the book and briefly mentions Morris L. Cooke (Stewart 38). Cooke is connected to the development of the Carnegie measurement of the college hour and the requisite hours needed to achieve an undergraduate degree. Sort of the same philosophy as the Church: so much time is required to define a person's ability or quality or what have you. But, the actual level of education is not defined. Stewart's book is brilliant for its dissection of the validity of MBA programs. He makes one wonder about the merit's of some aspects of this society in much the same way Illych does.