Re: school, work, and education

LOUISE GRACE YARNALL (lyarnall who-is-at ucla.edu)
Fri, 4 Dec 1998 12:12:14 -0800 (PST)

The scenario described here is indeed a sad reality of schooling. There
are people in schools who take it upon themselves to limit the horizons
of students. But again, these school people have only so much
influence. Members of this listserv who think that corporations and
school people have so much power over students should read yesterday's
NYTimes profile of the Portuguese Nobel literature laureate. He was born
a peasant. He was tracked into menial labor. But he loved to read and
he loved to write. He overcame the limitations of systems, corporations,
schools and the like. Also, I'm reminded of Kris Gutierrez' work on the
third space. People find a way to resist.

My point is that: Sure, there are abuses of any sound idea, but that
doesn't mean that the ideas to inject realism into schools and to hold
educators accountable for the performance of students on general measures
of competency in basic skills are completely evil and regressive. For every
example of a failure in these reform areas (and there are many), you can
find a success. For example, it's
good to get a general indication of how one's child is doing compared to
others. It's good to know
that if someone wants to learn a trade or get a better understanding of
corporate ethics (and this DOES exist, Prof. Goodman), there's a place
he/she can learn.

Louise

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On Fri, 4 Dec 1998, George K. Cunningham wrote:

> I think everyone realizes that there are many students in the typical high
> school who are not going to go to college. It seems to make sense that
> they would be better off if they were educated differently from college
> bound students. They should instead be prepared for careers, which will
> begin upon graduation. What wrong with that?
>
> It is has been tried and it didnt work. It is the way schools were
> day in local businesses. No one noticed, or if they did, was much
> concerned that those in the latter group seemed to come mainly from the
> lower socio-economic classes.

>