Hi Hacksaw,
Good points. One of the things that I have been dealing with, and I know Sam has as well, is the distinction between a skill that can be trained and a competency that must be educated (see his Question #2 thread). In a rational world, this would imply differences in institutionalization processes.
One of the ways I've been thinking about it is, I'll admit, pretty odd. It starts with the basic position that all training / education / learning should involve actual physiological changes in the student. For example, many skills relate to muscle memory - the construction and reinforcement of a pattern of action in the muscles and sense of the student.
Now, muscle memory can be repatterned fairly quickly, but it is a somewhat different case when we are dealing with competencies that must be educated. Competencies are based in neurological patterns in the brain, and the deconstruction and reconstruction of those patterns usually takes a minimum of three months (assuming that the neural connections were myelinated in the first place). So, in order to get the same level of effect, a) you have to spend a lot more time on it, and b) you frequently have to tailor the experience for the individual (b/c of differential learning styles).
These differences would, IMO, require different forms of institutionalization in order to be effective.
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