Education: concludeEinstein 12/5

Our society; our world“Human beings have the ability to dream better futures than we

have yet succeeded in dreaming. We have the ability to create much better societies than we have yet succeeded in creating.”

Is it possible for a school system to expect all students to succeed

The tables at the end of ch. 17 (*pp. 582-3) show that US students, on average, learn less, particularly less math and science, than many countries that spend less than ¼ or 1/10 as much on education,

Such as Taiwan, South Korea, and Swizerland.

The Learning Gap

By Stevenson and Stigler

Analyzes the structure and assumptions of Asian education

It is possible to assume that every child can learn algebra or calculus,

just as anyone can learn French or Latin,

and for the class to not go forward until every student has done so.

Einstein: “Why Socialism?”

What was Einstein’s main concern?

He had lived through the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, Hungary, Finland, Bulgaria, Argentina, etc.

World War II and hundreds of millions of deaths,

and he was the founder of atomic weapons, giving humans the ability to wipe out the human race.

What is the effect of raising the floor on the mean and

the ceiling?

In the United States, the procedures of Asian education would be viewed as holding back the “quick” students for the “slow” ones.

But it is an empirical question what would be the effect of a less tracked and sorted system.

And the evidence is that it increases the score of the best students by raising the “floor”

What can social science tell us?

He begins by saying that he is not a social scientist, and so he asks whether he has anything to contribute to social debates.

He respects social science, and he certainly does not speak as a “great man,” but

He suggests that technical social science runs into two main limitations in speaking about the future:

1. Society and humans change

The future may be different from the past.

Aristotle’s Politics said that you could not have civilization or democracy except on the basis of slavery, Which had been true up until then.

Einstein says that we have not yet emerged from the “predatory stage of society,” And so our theories have difficulty conceiving what

a non-predatory society could look like.

Do we live in a predatory society?

187, Al Quaeda, Code of the Streets.

Billionaires / tens of millions below poverty

Racism: today’s Inquirer on Hispanics.

Sexism: SATs, sciences, pay, today’s Inquirer on serial rapist.

Political economy: today’s Inquirer on Le Pen

Nationalism and war: today’s Inquirer on Israel’s rejection of a UN investigation

Is it a stage?

However, some people would argue that that is not a remediable product of social structure, but of human nature.

They would say that some people are always like that.

How would you decide whether such conditions demonstrate social pathology?

How evaluate Einstein’s arguments?

2nd limitation of science: values

The question what kind of society and what kind of world we want to live in is partly a question of values.

Science cannot dictate values.

Einstein believes that there is a deeply pathological set of values rooted in present social structure: “Look out for number one.” “Me first; my family first; my ethnic or racial group first; my country first.”

Interpretations of the value: freedom

WLTH POV -- In a free society it is all right if a few people accumulatea lot of wealth and property while many others live in poverty

Freq. % agree1) 5 17.2neither2) 7 24.1disagree3) 17 58.6

TOTAL (N) 29 100.0

His first example:

Einsteain was discussing with a colleague the need for a world organization with real power.He argued that if different nations pursue their own self-interest in the atomic age this will ultimately destroy the human race.The reply was “So what?” “Why are you so opposed to the disappearance of the human race?”Which is a symptom of a more pervasive attitude ofnot caring about the other guy.

Man’s double nature:As a solitary being, one protects oneself, those closest, and satisfies personal desires.As a social being, one shares the pleasures and sorrows of one’s fellow human beings and strives to improve their conditions of lifeWhat classical social theory does this resemble?How does and how can the balance between these vary?

The balance of egoism and altruism

There is a biological component of both of these, but Einstein argues,the personality that finally emerges is largely formed by the environment in which a man happens to find himself during his development, by the structure of the society in which he grows up, by the traditions of that society and by its appraisal of particular types of behavior.

That is, this social/cultural constitution is subject to change.

The crisis of our time

For Einstein, “humans can find meaning in life, short and perilous as it is, only in their relations and mutual aid with others.”

But at the present time, most people perceive their ties to others and to world-society not as an organic, supportive connection, but as an imposition on their rights.

Einstein argues that capitalism is the source of this exaggeratedly individualist attitude.

Capitalism

The entire productive apparatus is privately owned (by a tiny fraction of the population).Those with no means of production are increasingly disciplined by the “reserve army of the unemployed,” (including immigrant and foreign workers).Owners of the means of production increasingly dominate the political process.The educational system inculcates competitive attitudes and acquisitive success.

Capitalism as “Monopoly”

property

Income

+ +

Political influence

Social and academic prestige

+

+

+

+

Comparisons with other theories

1. Murray: believes that individualist capitalism is socially efficient and morally good.

2. Feagin: believes that individualist capitalism often generates socially and ecologically unsustainable (suicidal) structures.

3. Pettigrew: believes that unregulated capitalism often creates social dilemmas; one must find out whether external effects are positive or native and take appropriate remedial action.

Capitalism and “The Dispossessed”

Leguin, comparing a free-enterprise and a socialist-anarchist state suggests that unfettered capitalism creates a mall-society:

1. Capitalism generates materialism2. Lack of knowledge or concern for labor3. Huge inequalities4. And therefore need for police powers.

“Socialism”

“I am convinced that there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils; namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educaitonal system oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by the society and utilized in a planned fashion. The work is distributed among those able to work, and the society guarantees a livelihood to every man woman and child.”

Varieties of socialism

All public provision of health, education and welfare is “socialistic” in some sense.All industrial societies have a mixed economy.Einstein argues that such a society should be democratic, and must be guarded against becoming bureaucratic.

The Sociological Imagination, again

Society does shape individuals: the consequences of various kinds of social arrangements may be complex and figuring out what they are may involve disagreement.

Individuals create society: individual, organizational and social policy creates society.

Is it the kind of society and the kind of world we want to live in?

21st century Issues

The main political and social issues of the 20th century involved the appropriate mixture in economy, health, education, housing and other social areas.

The end of the 20th century 1989-2000, saw a large increase in unfettered capitalist arrangements.

The balance between social and private provision is one of the key issues of the 21st c.