Re: beyond democratic class

=?iso-8859-1?Q?JO=C3O?= BATISTA MARTINS (jbmartin who-is-at sercomtel.com.br)
Mon, 1 Apr 1996 01:04:10 -0300

At 10:57 01/04/1996 Geoff Williams wrote:
>
>There are several similar schools here in Australia, too. One has continued
>from the 1930's, from what is often called locally the 'first wave of
>progressivism', and several were developed in the late 60's and early 70's.
>However, the problem in relation to democratic education is: who has access to
>these schools? In Australia, it is almost exclusively the upper middle class
>because of the high fees necessitated by the excellent resourcing and the size
>of the groups. The parents seem also mainly to come from social locations in
>what Basil Bernstein calls the field of symbolic control. Is this also the
>case in the US?

Geoff and XMCA-ers

When I think in democratic school I think in the democratization
process in the society. In Brasil there are several children who dont have
acess to the
school. Others have acess but dont get to remain there: they abandon the schools
because they go to work.
Thus, we struggle to the government offer goods schools, better
conditions of work to teachers (materials, salary, etc...): the chalenge is
the democratization of the society which will reflect in the schools.
I agree with Bernstein and Bourdieu about symbolic control, but, in the
Brasil, the control is economic: the pupil discrimination is based in the
social class...

Joao Martins
jbmartin who-is-at sercomtel.com.br