Re: wanta get ahead (of what?) ?

From: Paul H.Dillon (illonph@pacbell.net)
Date: Mon Mar 26 2001 - 07:34:29 PST


Eric writes,

"Education is under fire and
the only way to solve it is for educators to take a good hard look at
themselves to discover what is working and what practices need to end. My
apologies in advance if I offend anyone with this post but I have two young
kids who will be adults some day and it scares me what education will be
like
in 15 years if educators don't start addressing some of the problems with
the
current system. Such as no accountability for tenured teachers, 10 month
salaries in a 12 month world, and above all splintered methodologies. "

I have two disagreements your proposal. The first is that you are assuming
that the primary function of schools (and I assume you mean public schools
primarily) is some kind of abstract "education" when in fact the
institutions have a quite complex role in the socialization of our children,
one that goes far beyond the development of multiple literacies or
intelligences. Schools are institutions embedded in the totality of
relations that make up the society. The idea that their problems can be
resolved without taking the totality into account strikes me as incorrect.
A number of studies extending back to the 70s at least show convincingly
that high schools and middle schools shape and form class attitudes -- one
could say in a Bourdieuan voice that they are generatrices of class habitus.
Check of Bowles and Gintis "Schooling in Capitalist America", Willis'
"Learning to Labor", or Penelope Eckert's :"Jocks and Burnouts". When I
hear talk about "the failure of the schools", I have to ask "failure to do
what?". They appear to function very well in the reproduction of class
divisions in capitalist society!

My second disagreement falls within the first. I do agree with you that
it's wrong to blame the students but it's equally wrong to blame the
teachers. Teachers are the most underappreciated, overworked, underpayed
profession in the country. The idea that they are paid 12 months and only
work 10 is an illusion. In the first place the salary is prorated across the
12 months. I don't know of any other profession that has an equally low
annual income for the same amount of education and certification training.
During the 10 months they work 8 hours at the school and then often another
3 or 4 hours at home or on the weekends. The only sector of the educational
establishment that has social prestige are professors at 4 year
institutions. They have to endure in an social environment that does not
see them as important as medical doctors, dentists, and lawyers (despite the
rather universal scorn for the latter). Perhaps this is a corollary of the
first problem I raised; i.e., there is an implicit recognition that the
teachers have only a limited role in the educational outcomes of their
charges. You use the analogy of patient and doctor and it would be
appropriate to explore that further insofar as the patient generally accords
the dr a high degree of respect and confidence; the idea that a patient
would "dis" a dr is somewhat unthinkable but such is clearly not the case
between teachers and students. But this attitude seems an appropriate one
for sharp kids who perceive that they are being channeled in ways that don't
really make much sense, among other things.

So while empathizing with your concern about the fate of your children in
the school system, I would advise you to think the issue through a little
more thoroughly before proposing universal solutions--especially when
systems of teacher accountability are already in place. Though the symptoms
of the problem appear in the school, I believe the malady producing those
symptoms cannot be isolated in the context of the school itself.

Paul H. Dillon



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Apr 01 2001 - 01:01:16 PST