The common good vs. individual interests

1. The common good vs. individual interests Cuban, Larry, Shipps, Dorothy. (2000). Reconstructing the common good in education: Coping with intractable American dilemmas eds. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, David B. Tyack Dawn Peterson

2. Historical foundations Horace Mann • Common schools were originally conceived for the purposes of nation building. This included teaching: • Patriotism • Cultural and social norms • Socialization • Social cooperation • Citizenship William Harris

3. Philosophical influences • Authority is the capacity to make and enforce public policies posed by individuals who occupy formal government roles • Aristotle’s moral premise was that government should serve the common interests of the people rather than the personal interests of the ruler or rulers • Aristotle feared democracy or authority by the people because he thought that self interest would end up ruling • http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/a/aristotl.htm

4. Horace Mann • A Whig who was a free market economist vehemently opposed socialism, but who supported the notion of a common school for the purpose of teaching social and moral values. • He was most concerned with the refusal of the rich to support public schools • “some of the children in the public school are so addicted to profanity or obscenity, so prone to tickishness or to vulgar and mischievous habits, as to render a removal of their own children from such contaminating influences an obligatory precaution” • http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/agexed/aee501/mann.html

5. William Harris • Harris felt that the way to societal reform was through the study of classical subjects. • A truly enlightened citizenry would tempore the vulgarity of people. • Education he thought was necessary for democracy and growth within the republic • http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm

6. The Corporate influence on education • Fredrick W. Taylor ideas about scientific management influenced education during the progressive era. • Both workers and owners should be concerned with output and income • http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/scientific/ • The teaching of Educational Administration in colleges and universities • The introduction of total quality management (TQM) or benchmarking in public schools

7. Progressive Education and the movement towards vocationaism • John Dewey and other supporters of child centered education saw the purpose of public schools as a way to serve the economic interests of society. • http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-dewey.htm • Students, they thought should learn pragmatic skills that would help them become productive adult citizens • The burgeoning of industrialization and the New Deal Program helped usher in this area

8. Cold War Politics and the return to basics Push towards greater achievement for American students in math and science The elimination of many of the vocational subjects that had been added to the curriculum during the progressive era Curricular changes included the addition of more college prep courses

9. Different views of liberal education • Historically liberals thought that: • Localism and the persistence of small scale, informal organizational structures was the source of in- egalitarianism in schools • They preferred • Hierarchical organizational structures • Centralization and standardization

10. Books describing different views of liberal education in the late 1950-60’s • James Bryant Conant’s The American high school today (1959) • http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/05/18/37proefriedt.h24.html?print=1 • Myron Lieberman's The future of education today (1960) • http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/1989/11/01/09120035.h09.html

11. Reconstructionism • The importance of citizenship for freed men and women as well as a greater emphases or push towards patriotism • The schools became instruments of state and public policy • Teachers whose students showed dissent with the U.S. government when writing in their journals were accused of teaching unsatisfactory material to their students, and in some cases even accused of treason.

12. The maverick educational reformers • Jonathan Kozol • http://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2002/sites/kozol/Seevak02/ineedtogoHOMEPAGE/homepage.htm • Herbert Kohl • http://kohl.senate.gov/ • Peter Schrag • http://www.pbs.org/merrow/tv/ftw/schrag.html • David Rogers • http://www.sonsofutahpioneers.info/bio/rogers-david.pdf

13. Bureaucracy, left and right thinking • Liberal point of view • School bureaucracy is inegalitarian and anti-democratic • Conservative view • The problems of poor schools stem from: • Localization • Persistence of small scale, informal organizational structures • Schools need centralization • Standardization • Large internally differentiated schools

14. The drive towards privatization • A Nation at Risk: • Charter Schools • Magnet Schools • Voucher System The problem of consumer choice: In theory, when a series of consumers choose to switch to a competitors product, the original producer either adapts by quickly improving quality or gets driven out of business by competitors who are already producing a quality product Exit/ voice of the public schools (David Labaree)

15. The Effects of Globalization on society • Great income disparities between the rich and the poor exist • Levels of economic prosperity affect property taxes, which intern impacts the quality of schools • Exodus of the wealthy and middle class from faltering public schools through educational vouchers, charter schools, and choice • Poorer schools often have greater diversity and need more funding rather than less • The value of corporate citizenship over political citizenship has excluded a large portion of the population from participation in the broader society

16. The impacts of education on Hispanics • Historically Hispanic students were excluded and marginalized from higher education • They were increasingly tracked into remedial courses • They were looked down upon by teachers in school • They were excluded from important decisions conceptualizing the common good

17. Is public education a promoter of social inequality Tracking Exclusion of citizens from the discussion of the conceptions of education The politics of market education and standardized testing and the revolving problems of exiting the competitive business enterprise

18. Conclusions What should be the purpose of education? Who should decide the purpose for education? Is the movement towards private education in the best interests of society How does one strike a balance between the need to serve the common good their own rational self interest?