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Re: [xmca] Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling

Well Patrick, Engels wrote in 1875: "The whole Darwinian theory of the struggle for existence is simply the transference from society to animate nature of Hobbes’ theory of the war of every man against every man and the bourgeois economic theory of competition, along with the Malthusian theory of population." In short, all the elements of Darwin's theory originated in liberal social theory and were /then/ discovered to be "in Nature" which /then/ of course ever after provided "proof" of its validity in the social sphere. In our atheistic society, something which exists in Nature is equivalent to the doctrine of Original Sin. One could just as well have discovered in Nature the natural basis for Kropotkin's Cooperative Society with no change to the substance of Darwin's theory.
Nonetheless, I think it is pretty firmly established that with or without a good public education system, bourgeois society is a self-reproducing process and quite profound social struggle is required to make an impact on inequality. The early promoters of public education held out great hopes for pubic education as a measure which would mitigate inequality. (See Marx's speech to the First International on Education: http://www.marxists.org/history/international/iwma/documents/1869/education-speech.htm)
I think there has been in most countries a definite measure of success in public education mitigating inequality. But it is also obvious that the power and privilege held by sectors of bourgeois society is exercised for the purpose of maintaining that power and privilege, and public education cannot reshuffle the pack in the way we were once told it could. I think a new strategy is needed.
For example, the strategy - "your share of the social wealth is proportional to the value of your work" ; "the value of your work depends on your level of skill" ; "skills can be imparted equally if access to the public education system is equal" ; therefore "equal access to public education leads to social equality" - is flawed and can no longer promote *further* equality (I mean a good public education system does and will continue to promote equality, but it cannot do more in the absence of social transformation outside the school).
I was raising the possibility of instead of putting energy into giving kids who are going to be excluded from high paid and rewarding professional jobs skills, we could put some energy into promoting skills which are not meant for the purpose of getting into high paid professional jobs, but concentrating on skills such as appreciating the culture, learning how to fight politically, and how to lead a good life. Seriously. But I don't know. I'd like to hear people's critique of this. 

Andy

Patrick Jaki wrote:

Sounds like Darwins process of natural selection.
On 18 December 2010 07:45, Andy Blunden <ablunden@mira.net <mailto:ablunden@mira.net>> wrote: 

    I'd be interested in talking about this on xmca:
    Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public Schooling
    http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16229

    It is stating the obvious that social inequality is not within the
    power of the public school system to solve, or even mitigate, but
    it is worth thinking what strategy progressive teachers /can/
    follow. Let us agree that putting a safety net under the most
    disadvantaged is something everyone would agree with, what else? I
    would have thought de-coupling educational quaification and
    appreciation of culture is something worth looking at. What do
    others on the list think about this issue?

    Andy
    mike cole wrote:

        Several of the articles on show below appear of interest to
        various
        xmcaonaughts.
        mike

        ---------- Forwarded message ----------
        From: Teachers College Record <no-reply@tcrecord.org
        <mailto:no-reply@tcrecord.org>>
        Date: Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 12:01 PM
        Subject: Transitioning From an Innovative Elementary to a
        Conventional High
        School
        To: Recipient <mcole@ucsd.edu <mailto:mcole@ucsd.edu>>


        [image: Title]
        [image: Subscribe Today]
        <http://www.tcrecord.org/Subscriptions.asp>
        [image: transparent 13]
        Freely-Available This Week
        Articles
        Smuggling Authentic Learning Into the School Context:
        Transitioning From an
        Innovative Elementary to a Conventional High
        School<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15227>
        by Renée DePalma, Eugene Matusov & Mark Smith
        Analyzing the discourse of eighth-grade graduates from an
        innovative
        elementary school as they transition to conventional high
        schools revealed
        distinct response patterns characterizing concurrent projects of
        self-actualization and institutional achievement. Our analysis
        suggests that
        a certain critical ambivalence toward credentialism and
        competition can be
        part of a healthy strategy for school success, particularly
        for those from
        marginalized groups who do not wholly buy into the
        (predominantly White and
        middle-class) historically rooted traditions of conventional
        schooling.

        Designing Transparent Teacher Evaluation: The Role of
        Oversight Panels for
        Professional
        Accountability<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=15053>
        by Jennifer Goldstein
        This article explores a policy intended to improve the quality
        of teaching
        by improving the quality of teacher evaluation. It examines a Peer
        Assistance and Review (PAR) program, and specifically one
        aspect of the
        program-its oversight panel-asking how an oversight panel
        alters the
        practice of teacher evaluation. The core argument of the
        article is that
        oversight panels have the potential to fundamentally alter the
        transparency
        of the teacher evaluation process and, in turn, the nature of
        accountability.


        Book Reviews
        Multiliteracies in Motion: Current Theory and
        Practice<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16226>
        by David R. Cole and Darren Lee Pullen (eds.)
        reviewed by William Kist
        ------------------------------
        Citizenship Education and Social Development in
        Zambia<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16227>
        by Ali A. Abdi, Edward Shizha, and Lee Ellis (eds.)
        reviewed by Monisha Bajaj
        ------------------------------
        Persuading Fred: An essay review of recent books by Stanley
        Fish, Louis
        Menand, and Martha
        Nussbaum<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16228>
        by
        reviewed by James Donald
        ------------------------------
        Someone Has to Fail: The Zero-Sum Game of Public
        Schooling<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16229>
        by David F. Labaree
        reviewed by Floyd M. Hammack

        <http://www.tcrecord.org/voice.asp>
        Henry Braun discusses his paper, co-authored with Irwin Kirsch
        and Kentaro
        Yamamoto, "An Experimental Study of the Effects of Monetary
        Incentives on
        Performance on the 12th-Grade NAEP Reading
        Assessment."<http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=16008>
        Commentaries
        In Praise of Slow
        Reading<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16238>
        by Thomas Newkirk
        This commentary argues against the high valuation schools
        place on reading
        speed, particularly on high sakes tests like the SAT. In
        penalizing slower
        readers, these and other tests put at a disadvantage students
        who approach
        their reading in a deliberate and thorough way. The ideal
        should not be
        speed but the *tiempo guisto*, the pace at which we are most
        attentive and
        effective-and this pace will vary depending on the individual
        and the task.
        2010 NSSE Yearbooks and Call for Proposals for Future
        Yearbooks<http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=16120>
        by
        The editors of the Teachers College Record announce the
        yearbook topics for
        2010 and issue a call for new proposals.



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Patrick Jaki
Forced Migration Studies Programme
University of The Witwatersrand.
Work: 27 11 717 3166
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*Andy Blunden*
Joint Editor MCA: http://lchc.ucsd.edu/MCA/Journal/
Home Page: http://home.mira.net/~andy/
Videos: http://vimeo.com/user3478333/videos
Book: http://www.brill.nl/default.aspx?partid=227&pid=34857
MIA: http://www.marxists.org

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