January 15th Class Summary

Our brief class discussion today centered on general answers to the question “What is the purpose of American Education?” That question will underlie most of our conversations this semester.

Students answered that question with versions of the following:

· Education prepares students to meaningfully participate in society. (Often by giving them some type of knowledge). This participation happens in a variety of ways, from getting a job to voting to just knowing how to get along with others.

· Education helps students discover who they are as a person.

We then broke those two general responses into four general purposes of schooling. These were the purposes isolated by John Goodlad in his seminal work A Place Called School.

1. Academic – the obvious and most prevalent purpose. The transmission of knowledge to people who lack that knowledge. You can see this purpose in most of the elements of school – classes, tests, etc.

2. Social/Civic – Helping students acquire habits and skills that will enable them to get along with others and function in a democratic society. Accomplished through a variety of school practices, from lessons about sharing to student council elections.

3. Vocational – Helping students determine what they want to do for a vocation and helping them acquire the specific skills to do it. Schools offer specialized classes and vocational tracks, as well has having guidance counselors to fulfill this purpose.

4. Personal – Helping students figure out who they are in the broad sense. Extracurriculars and arts programs are examples of how schools work to fill this purpose.

Goodlad found that all of these were rated as “very important” by U.S. citizens. That raises questions about resource allocation and priorities.

Often, the prioritization of these goals is done according to one’s view of the place of schools within our larger social system. We discussed three different orientations to this question of the proper role of school in society. These orientations very roughly correspond to political orientations.

1. Conservative – Sees schools as serving a conserving social function. Schools pass down the key elements of our culture so that that culture is conserved from generation to generation. One of the key elements of this socialization process is economic. Schools ought to socialize people into our economic system of capitalism. A key aspect of this is achievement according to merit (individual hard work, talent, and ability are what determines achievement). Thus, schools should teach and emphasize individual responsibility and sort students according to merit. This prepares them for life in a capitalist social and economic system.

2. Liberal -- Agrees with the conservative perspective on the merits of capitalism and the necessity of preparing students for success in such a system. Takes some emphasis off the individual, however, by pointing out the negative effects of capitalism (and our social history) on certain groups (African-Americans, women, the poor). Thus, compensatory mechanisms are necessary to truly produce a sorting system based on merit. Schools are a primary mechanism of providing compensation to those groups and compensation might be necessary to assure children of those groups have equal opportunity to succeed in school.

3. Radical – Questions the basic assumption that capitalism is good. Points out how schools are used to socialize children into accepting their disadvantaged status.