Acceptance Of African Americans In America
-
- Africa America History 1920-1928 - Africa America History 1920-1928 The years 1900 to 1928 marked a period during which...
-
- Continuous Struggle - comes from the hard-fought struggles of America's past minority groups. The rights and...
-
- Woman And Black Oppression In America - women to work at home, raising children, cleaning house, cooking, and to serve their husbands....
-
- African Americans And The Lack Of Cultural Identity - African Americans And The Lack Of Cultural Identity In order for one to develop a...
-
- The Relevance Of Religion In Contemporary African American Society - Schools were desegregated; blacks were voting, and becoming strong pillars in society. As...
Submitted by freefortermpapers on 06/24/2008 03:00 PM
- Category: Book Reports
- Words: 1030
- Pages: 5
- Views: 7
- Popularity Rank: 1015
Acceptance Of African Americans In America
At the core of the clamor about the failures of American education lies an assumption about the purpose of schooling that, although widely believed, is unlikely to be true. A recent expression of this assumption can be found in an essay by mathematician John Paulos(1):
"If education theorists as diverse as Plato, Rousseau, Dewey and the proverbial bartender are correct in thinking that schools shape the ambient society, [emphasis added] we're in trouble."
The idea that schools shape society puts the cart before the horse. Schools do not, in any autonomous way, shape society. Instead, society uses schools to shape people to its strictures.
In his essay, Professor Paulos cites several new books that he has read as he wrestles with his concerns about education. I would like to recommend some older--but still relevant--additional readings for those concerned about how education works.
The first of these is Jeannie Oakes' Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality (Yale University Press, 1986). This book shows that schools effectively track students--according to their social class--into higher and lower strata of the education system and the related workplace. Is this just a glitch in the system? An unfortunate side effect? Or, is this education's dirty little secret? Why not be guided by the principle of Occam's Razor and make the simplest interpretation of the data--that what we've got is what we want. That is, that schools are not supposed to provide quality education to all equally. When we get right down to it, we want schools to reproduce social stratification, albeit surreptitiously.
How else can we make sense of the gross inequities described in Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities (Crown, 1991)? What other explanation can we find for Benjamin Barber's view that Americans don't really care about education? See his essay "America Skips School: Why We Talk So Much About...
You must Login to view the entire paper.
If you are not a member yet, Sign Up for free!
