Re: Kids Can Now E-Mail Tips On Their Violent Peers

Phil Graham (pw.graham who-is-at student.qut.edu.au)
Fri, 07 May 1999 11:34:48 +1000

At 19:01 06-05-99 -0500, nate wrote:
>I recently read an article, "New Schools for New Times? Notes Toward of
>Sociology of Recent Educational Reform" by Geoff Whitty, Sharon Gewirtz,
>and Tony Edwards. What is so interesting about the article is it
>approaches the discussion of choice in U.K. and the U.S. as an hybridity of
>sorts. For example, the reforms in the U.K. are being legitimized by the
>Chubb and Moe team in the U.S. and Chubb and Moe and the school choice
>research in Milwaukee is given legitimization in the U.S. citing the
>overwelming success of privitation in the U.K. I believe Australia and
>Germany are also cited for their assistance in this hybridity of a
>discourse. Isn't it nice we are all working together so nicely :)

<irony> Yes ... the great rush to the middle is a huge comfort to me </irony>

One interesting thing is that Michael Milkin is the big(gest?) corporate
shaker and mover in propagating (and even moreso, appropriating) the "New
Schools" (meaning global corporate ownership of formerly public education
systems) for the "New Economy/Times" discourse. Since they let him out of
jail for perpetrating the biggest junk bonds fraud of the 80s, I must
assume he's reformed and now has the interests of children's education at
heart.

Can anybody explain to me what the terms "New Economy" or "New Times"
means, please? I've been looking into it for some time now and, other than
purely superficial changes (fashions, accessories, etc), I can't decipher
anything particularly 'New' about anything, other than the language used to
describe how things "work" (or don't); the means of communicating this; and
increasingly centralised ownership (which also isn't really new, just
advanced) of the means of fixing whatever problems the "New" stuff brings
with it.

Phil (distinctly "Old").