education

Why do we go to school?

Class: think for a minute or two. We will make a list on the board.

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Why do we go to school?

• Because our parents say we have to• To get a good job• To make more money• To get a bigger world view• To wizen ourselves• To better participate in a democracy

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What are we taught?

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How to line up

How to be respectful of authority

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The process of “passive consumption”

Acceptance of thecurrent social order

The Hidden Curriculum*

This is the process in which we learn the norms and values of the status quo. We learn nationalism (flag salute), passive learning (raise hand and be quiet), and other items mentioned already.

*Pierre Bourdieau

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Cultural Capital

Cultural capital is a concept that was conceived by Pierre Bourdieu in the 1960s. It refers to the cultural exposure that a student receives from his/her family in the way of art, music, and literature as well as a world view that is beyond the typical.

How much one has as a child (according to Borurdieu) has a direct effect upon future socio-economic status (SES).

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Cultural Capital

How much cultural capital do you have? Is it the same amount as the wealthy have?

You are accumulating it now. As you pass it on to your offspring they begin with an edge that they might not have had otherwise.

Cultural capital can be acquired through education.

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Social Promotion

• How are we promoted through school?Should we be “socially” promoted or promoted only on merit?

• Consider the following link: (note: you must be logged in to EBSCOhost prior to connection)

"What if we ended social promotion?”See research synopsis in Thomas Homes’ study on page

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Tracking (within school effects)

• The process of categorizing students into groups by IQ and achievement scores.

• The intent is to better facilitate them into higher achievement.

• The result is labeling and self-fulfilled prophesy.

• Consider the Jennie Oakes study. (note: if link fails place cursor in address bar to right of address and hit

return again.)

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The Bell Curve controversy

Researchers Herrnstein and Murray (1994) did a study that claimed that minority groups and those in lower SES had lower IQs, and that this was about 40 percent genetically based.

Do you recall the concept of “social Darwinism?”

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The Bell Curve controversy

The eight major claims of the study are:1 General intelligence exists.2 At least half of the variation in intelligence is genetically transmitted.3 Intelligence has become more necessary in the work world than before.4 Colleges have shifted their entrance priorities away from inherited wealth to those

based upon merit.5 Society is now dominated by a “cognitive elite.”6 As the elite forms a social group it reproduces itself through marriage.7 As well, poor people tend to marry those alike passing on their “modest” abilities

to their children.8 Because of this genetically passed on intelligence we should see the poor as

having higher crime rates and drug abuse.

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Response to The Bell Curve Study

Assertion (1) Intelligence is a single, unitary phenomenon consisting of a "core human mental ability." This "general intelligence" underlies all forms of "complex mental work."

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Response to The Bell Curve StudyResponse: People may be smart in some respects, in some contexts, and at some tasks, but not in others. Some may have a facility for numbers, others for words…The kind of intelligence facilitating high performance in one arena does not necessarily have the same payoff in another. …[R]anking on a single intelligence continuum cannot explain much about their social and economic outcomes.

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Assertion (2) Standardized intelligence tests provide a precise measure of general intelligence, making it possible to rank individuals on a linear scale according to their intelligence quotient.

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Response: There are many kinds of cognitive abilities and many kinds of social endeavors as well, each favoring a somewhat different set of skills and talents. IQ scores, therefore, tell us little about people's overall practical competence, nor do they dictate social and economic destinies.

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Assertion (3) Intelligence is "substantially inherited," with genes accounting for at least 40 percent and as much as 80 percent of the variation among individuals in cognitive ability.

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Response: The Bell Curve, according to many critics, overestimates the genetic basis and heritability of IQ and underestimates the influence of the social environment. [..] While they claim the heritability of IQ may be as much as 80 percent, other research, drawing on a wider range of studies, suggests a much lower figure, somewhere between 30 and 50 percent.

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Response to The Bell Curve StudyAssertion (4) People at birth are either blessed or doomed with a level of intelligence that is largely unalterable. Social and educational interventions cannot appreciably raise the cognitive ability of persons born with low IQs….Though it is not impossible to boost IQ, they admit, it is impractical because of insufficient knowledge and limitations in "the available repertoire of social interventions."

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Response: The problem is not that nothing can be done, but that an "inexpensive, reliable method of raising IQ is not available." This is a political, not a scientific, judgment, however

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Icing on the CakeThe ordinary routine of neutral reviewers [peer review] having a month or two to go over the book with care did not occur. Another handpicked group was flown to Washington at the expense of the American Enterprise Institute and given a weekend-long personal briefing on the book's contents by Murray himself … just before publication. The result was what you'd expect: The first wave of publicity was either credulous or angry, but short on evidence, because nobody had had time to digest and evaluate the book carefully.

(The Bell Curve Flattened - Slate Magazine 1997) 21


For a more complete critique of the work of Murray and Herrnstein, see the following link:Critique of the Bell Curve study(NOTE: You must already be logged in to Hartnell’s EBSCOhost for link to work.)

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Between school effects:

• According to the Coleman study (1966) material resources in schools made little difference to educational performance.

• The decisive influence was the children’s background.

(Giddens et al, 2008)

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Social Economic Status and Education

There IS a relationship between social class and wealth to education—this is not the same as intelligence.

Most of a student’s success is based upon the parent’s education.

So what is causing what?

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Social Economic Status and Education

Look at the following graphs and see how race and ethnicity and class overlap. See the numbers and consider the causes for them.

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We can safely assume that the more education the more income:

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Who gets the best education?

If primary and secondary education is financed by property taxes, which districts flourish and which don’t?

Consider Jonathan Kozol and his comparison of impoverished schools to affluent ones?

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Contrast

Such extreme contrasts do exist. South Central Los Angeles, East Saint Louis,

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And do we all have access to those resources?

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How is education paid for?

Do you know? Is it OK with you?

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Who pays for education

• State taxes (from personal property taxes—your home)—mostly for primary and secondary education).

• Federal funds ( although this is minimal)—mostly for primary and secondary education).

• Tuition for college (your direct cost of education)

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Who pays for education

• Should education be free and tax paid?• If so, should this apply to college?• Medical school?

Consider Northern Europe: in Denmark a college education is completely free to participating and qualified students.

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Privatization

• School vouchers: Government money granted to parents who want their children to attend an alternative to a public school.

• Home schooling: Teaching your children at home via a qualified curriculum.

• Charter schools: Private schools that nonetheless receive public money.

• Religious schools: Private schools that receive public and private money but emphasize a particular religion.

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The College Education

John Merrow (in the film Declining by Degrees, 1995) discusses the following issues:

• Grade inflation• Debt for an education• Having to work while going to college• Government cuts in education overall• Lack or lessening of grant opportunities• Different educations for different income brackets

more ->

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The College Education

• Lack of counseling• Special privileges to special groups (athletes,

high school honor students)• An eroding social contract (gone is the easy

access to a college education as is available in other developed countries)

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Who pays for a college education?

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You do! Note the ratio of decreases in Pell Grants:

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Want to know why?

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Who is this guy anyway?

The Governor Ronald Reagan• Once elected, [1966]Mr. Reagan set the educational tone for

his administration by: • a. calling for an end to free tuition for state college and

university students, • b. annually demanding 20% across-the-board cuts in higher

education funding,[2] • c. repeatedly slashing construction funds for state campuses • d. engineering the firing of Clark Kerr, the popular President

of the University of California, and • e. declaring that the state "should not subsidize intellectual

curiosity,[3]” http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/

Reagan.html 52

Further• Mr. Reagan's denunciations of student protesters were both

frequent and particularly venomous. He called protesting students "brats," "freaks," and "cowardly fascists." And when it came to "restoring order" on unruly campuses he observed, "If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with. No more appeasement!"

• Several days later four Kent State students were shot to death. In the aftermath of this tragedy Mr. Reagan declared his remark was only a "figure of speech." He added that anyone who was upset by it was "neurotic."[4] One wonders if this reveals him as a demagogue or merely unfeeling.

http://www.newfoundations.com/Clabaugh/CuttingEdge/Reagan.html 53

Finally the Nail in the Coffin• Proposition 13 in 1978 limited property taxes.• Section 1. (a) The maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real

property shall not exceed one percent (1%) of the full cash value of such property. The one percent (1%) tax to be collected by the counties and apportioned according to law to the districts within the counties.

• The proposition decreased property taxes by assessing property values at their 1975 value and restricted annual increases of assessed value of real property to an inflation factor, not to exceed 2% per year. It also prohibited reassessment of a new base year value except for in cases of (a) change in ownership, or (b) completion of new construction. (Wiki – I know! I know! I was in a hurry.)

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Who goes to college?

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Social problem

All of these issues and more compound to make education in the United States a severe social problem.

How does this affect you and your educational experiences?

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education

Education

bell curve

social economic

real property

cultural capital

private schools

cognitive

school effects

secondary