Transcript CRITICAL ISSUES FOR THE UNITED STATES Educating A

CRITICAL ISSUES FOR THE
UNITED STATES
Educating A Democratic Citizenry
April 11, 2005
Michael P. Freedman
Department of Anthropology
What exactly is the Critical Issue?
A Nation At Risk, 1993
- U.S. Department of Education
*50% of all adults are functionally
illiterate to some degree
*60% of all American youth have
dropped out of school or scraped by
to graduate with barely a 7th-grade
education.
*Of the top 18 industrialized nations,
U.S. students rank dead last on
standardized tests.
*Standard Achievement Test scores
have fallen 80 points since 1960.
The Urban-Suburban Gap:
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Black-White Achievement Gap
Persists in All Grades and
Reappears Quickly
National Center for Education Statistics
(2001).Educational achievement and
black-white inequality.U.S. Department
of Education. Retrieved August 28,
2002
fromhttp://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubs
info.asp?pubid=2001061. Pp. 31-43
The Racial Gap in Mathematics
Achievement
The Racial Gap in Reading
Achievement
The Critical Issue is
 Overall
national
“underperformance”
 Huge
differential between
suburb and city
Minority
achievement below
the general pop.
The Critical Issue is linked to
Globalization
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Prof Richardson:
“Bad news for the poorly educated”
Robert Reich:
“America’s long-term problem isn’t
too few jobs. It’s the widening
income cap between personalservice workers and symbolic
analysts”
How many Americans are schooled
to be symbolic analysts?

Proportion of Americans >25 yrs old
who graduated HS:
84%

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In 1940
25%
Proportion of Americans >25 yrs old
who graduated college
26.7%

In 1940
20%
-New York Times Almanac, 2004
How did we get into this “crisis?”
An anthropologist’s approach
2-Minute Course in Anthropology
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2.
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5.
Culture is learned informally, the
way you learn your language
Natives speak grammatically but
don’t know the grammar
Natives know the overt rules
A gap separates overt vs. latent
function of our customs
Mystifications shroud the “gap”
(Anthropological) Anomalies in the way
we educate our young
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Much learning institutionalized in
schools
School artificially extends childhood
The Overt Mission of Schools:
1.
2.
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To teach academic skills needed for
proper functioning in adulthood
To promote national solidarity and
patriotism
To transmit the culture
To make it ‘natural’ for children
and young adults to be at school
- institutional self-justification
The ‘Naturalness’ of Schooling
Obscures and Mystifies:
1. The anomaly of delayed adulthood
* “teenager” = an adult too young for fulltime work and childbearing; belongs in
school
* School is the work for children
2. The informal learning of values and
socialization
* How to be on time; follow directions;
take turns; not hurt others; say you’re
sorry
The ‘Naturalness’ of Schooling
Obscures and Mystifies:
3. The musical-chairs character of capitalist
labor markets
* labor regularly displaced thru
technology, outsourcing, low-wage
immigrant workers
4. The reproduction of the class hierarachy
* academic vs. vocational tracks
* critical thinking vs. rote learning
* encouraged creativity and initiative vs
obedience
Overt & Latent Missions of School
Formal, Expertise
ED IDEOLOGY
Informal, values
ED SOCIOLOGY
Learn 3 R’s
Everything you need
to know you learn
informally in
Kndrgtn
Learn to Socialize
with peer network
Youth removed from
labor market
Reproduction of
class differences
Learn to learn
Childhood extended
for techno society
National unity and
Horatio Alger myth
Why institutionalize children’s
education?
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Specialization & professionalization of
high-tech society
Enfeeblement of the family and elevation
of the individual
Expansive intrusion of the State
 In support of the individual (the child)
 In support of the “public good”
State Mandated Education
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In Colonial Massachusetts
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State supported education
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Due to parental neglect
Teach Scripture
Elementary and Secondary: 90%
Bachelor, Master, Doctor:
62%
Professional degrees:
35%
Local 45% State 45% Fed 10%
Government Involvement in Schooling
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Grade schooling is state funded
AND state produced!
Local funding of grade schools is
significant  local control!

Its about transmission of local culture
Transmission of Local Culture and
Reproduction of Class
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Most heated grade-school issues:
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Ebonics and bilingual education
Sex ed
Evolution (Darwin)/Creationism
Prayer in school
Rich communities outspend poor
communities in schooling their
children
Educational Outcomes
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An elite aristocracy of capital
A middle class who produce and
consume most of the country’s
goods and services
A set of lower classes providing the
low-waged workers and the
unemployable
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Unjust (inequitable) condition
Socially and politically dangerous
MAX 123 Question on American equity
in a globalized economy?
What obligations do we have to our
fellow citizens who are singled out
to bear the pain associated with our
collective economic benefit?
Long-Term Answer:
Quality Education!