At 05:24 PM 3/14/99 -0600, you wrote:
>I am curious of what a more even cultural line would be? For me its
>important to separate what you term as poverty related effects which sees
>the poverty totally in the negative and value-belief systems that differ
>from the middle-upper class. Often in teacher education class differences
>is seen totally in the negative. While I would be the last to disagree that
>there are certain elements of the capitalist system that cause poverty
>related effects, I fear a more even cultural line would become more or less
>assimilating one into the dominant class.
>
>
What is wrong with being able to participate more fully in the society
dominated so?
It does not require giving up the natal culture necessarily. Alternators,
border crossers are fine, just part of becoming more culturally developed
on both ends of the spectrum.
I don't see the dichotomy of dominant v.s. oppressed as the only option but
rather see gray zones here and there where more of those children from
locked out groups can become increasingly part of the power structure. I
just met a Dean from a low SES Appalachian background whose humility and
memory are powerful. He has not forgotten his roots and is in a more
dominant position now, relatively speaking. I know others from other such
groups, more are needed. I vaguely remember a reference (Vernon 19??) which
claimed may of the top executives out there came from humble origins. It is
not as dichotomous here as in Brazil and such contexts in relative terms,
though yes, the 3rd world is alive and well in the U.S. and other
multicult. dev. contexts. But,
What is the alternative anyway? To leave those generations locked by 3-4
literacy differentials and their future kids?
What if we place a moratorium on all leveling efforts? What would be the
ethical considerations then?
I think even those fixers you describe, who seem to be everywhere I agree,
fail to see that even when they think they are fixing them, they are
changing both parties in a historical sense.
I agree we have progressed very slowly since genocide and efforts to
assimilate others by destroying their tools for cultural continuity (Native
American Boarding schools, English only etc).
I agree that ineffective activities such as Head Start, Title I etc, well
intended as they might be, have failed in closing the gap. The small gap in
grade one increased to a 3-4 year gap when the War on Poverty began and
this has not changed even after a quarter century of programs that mainly
sustain the middle class personnel. (I think that War ended before it began
or shortly thereafter..)
And i agree that the multiculturalism cultural therapy is far from
sufficient and may do little more than forcing assimilation into the lower
ranks of the caste-like system. This ploy or strategy actually is
distracting attention from the fact that schools continue to produce gaps
in these groups' children by the very way they are organized.
Rather than the laissez-faire or dumbing down the standards with social
promotion etc, the challenge is to change the ways education is organized,
particularly in terms of the dev. of mediational skills and the absurd
chronological age segregation (and timetable). I think there are still many
other ways to organize it differently at the level of the Brown 1954
decision. But at the root of the problem is the larger problem of cultural
(under)development, of the us/them delusion-trap (which afflicts most).
So, the more even cultural line refers to implementing the necessary
socio-cognitive supports and means that serve against constraining
perfectly competent children early and later on in school.
Like Delpit, I think it may be more ethically problematic to desist from
insisting on the development of key tools for fear that value/belief
systems might be altered in the next generation. Those change and get
reconstructed anyway. Bicultural development, like bilingualism has its
cultural(tool-agency) advantages.
Change is the nature of the beast.
pedro
Pedro R. Portes,
Professor of Educational %
Counseling Psychology
310 School of Education
University of Louisville
Fax 502-852-0629
Office 502-852-0630
Web at louisville/~prport01 (under construction)