[Peace-discuss] More on school as propaganda

[Ken Urban]

Actually, the suggestions given in the article are laughable.  What
school would allow a parent to barge in and pick and choose what her/his
child does minute to minute?  

Will the parent be permitted to correct common school falsehoods such as
"Columbus discovered America" in the middle of a lesson?  

And even if she/he wanted to does the author really think the teacher
has the authority to allow such individualization? 

Furthermore, it completely begs the question.  If you are not satisfied
with what the schools are doing and plan to oversee every aspect of your
child's education, why use them?

The ugly truth is that children are inconvenient.  They get in the way.
Our society has evolved in such a way that children and old folks (and
young black men, while we're at it) are effectively "put away" while the
rest of us are engaged in our service to the almightly economy.  

Our society has schools to keep kids off the streets and train - not
educate - them to be docile, Americanized workers.  The immigrant
problem was very big in Dewey's time.  The transformation of our society
from an agricultural village base (each with its own local internal
mores and ways of dealing with problems) to an urban industrial one with
its accompanying mass emigration was considered a boondoggle of enormous
proportion.  How on earth were we to control those nasty immigrant
children?  

Here are some representative quotes from our illustrious Mr. Dewey's
seminal work, "Democracy and Education:  An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Education" first published in 1916 (this edition from
1960):

"...the only way in which adults consciously control the kind of
education which the immature get is by controlling the environment in
which they act, and hence think and feel.  We never educate directly,
but indirectly by means of the environment." (20)

Hence Ken's and Gatto's (and McCluhan's) claim that "the medium is the
message."

"The pressure that comes from the fact that one is let into the group
action by acting in one way and shut out by acting in another way is
unremitting." (42)

You cannot expect your children to resist or defy the environment in
which they live - and if they go to school, that's where they live. 
Humans are intensely social creatures.


"Intentional education signifies, as we have already seen, a specially
selected environment, the selection being made on the basis of materials
and method specifically promoting growth in the desired direction." (45)

Dewey was big into social control and "selecting" desireable traits and
"weeding out" undesireable ones.


"The natural or native impulses of the young do not agree with the life
customs of the group into which they are born.  Consequently they have
to be directed or guided." (47)

Here's a man who clearly loves children.

Education shouldn't be looked at as preparation for the future, but
training in the now. (paraphrase, 63-64)

If you think it all pays off in the end, this should make you think
again.

"Conformity, not transformation, is the essence of education." (69)

There you have it. Democracy indeed.

Another suggested book by a former U of I professor, Paul Violas is the
brilliant 1978 work called "The Training of the Urban Working Class: A
History of Twentieth Century American Education."

The homeschooling support groups in this area are overwhelmingly
conservative.  Most are downright hostile to progressive ideas.  Come
on, people, it's lonely on the left!

Gina



>>> "Ken Urban" <kurban at parkland.edu> 07/17/03 04:05 AM >>>
I think the article below from commondreams.org misses the point, Dewey
wasn't concerned with democracy, he was interested in a stable society
that generated good docile, standardized workers.  Our democracy
survived quite well before compulsary schooling, we even defeated
Britian in a war.  If you're interested in someone who has no time for
school, read Ben Franklin's autoboigraphy.

There's no answer to why we need to keep public schools, just that we
do.  John Taylor Gatto has no qualms with the cirruculum, it's mostly
filler anyway, he has issues with the way schools operate.  

BTW, Illinois has quite liberal home schooling laws,  "the law is not
made to punish those who provide their children with instruction equal
or superior to that obtainable in the public schools. It is made for the
parent who fails or refuses to properly educate his child (Levison, at
215)."  For more info on Illinois Home Schooling Laws See:
http://www.illinoishouse.org/a15.htm

Ken

Published on Tuesday, July 15, 2003 by CommonDreams.org  
Got Democracy?...A Modest Proposal For Parents  
by Alan Morse  
  
Let's take a break from yapping at George Bush's heels and contemplate
the long view. 

John Dewey, one of the 20th Century's foremost philosophers of
education, argued that a democracy cannot survive without a strong
system of education. His statements echoed Thomas Jefferson's from
another era. 

Recent reformers, such as John Taylor Gatto, warn that public schools
become the premiere propaganda tools of the state, creating a citizenry
which enthusiastically participates in subverting its own interests. 

Repair public schools, we must, but not at the expense of eliminating
them. Those who would destroy public schools to save them might as well
join hands with Bush's privatizers. 

Here's another idea. It works off-the-shelf in some states, but may
require jiggering in others. Its simplicity and versatility make it a
tool for parents of any class or political stripe...thus democracy. 

Frustration with "standards based" education and "accountability," most
visible in the tip-of-the-iceberg standardized tests pushed by industry,
drive many parents to homeschool. Too many others grit their teeth in
the name of supporting public schools. 

Consider a third alternative: file papers stating your intent to
homeschool, then, under "education plan," state your intent to enroll
your child in public school. In one stroke, you have removed the baggage
of accountability and agenda-setting from the schools and put it back
where it belongs: with parents and children. 

Now, do with freedom what you will. Perhaps you dislike testing but are
fine with all else. Now it is your choice to find other activities for
your child, either within the school or at home, while the rest of the
class fills in bubbles on answer sheets. Perhaps you have a problem with
the separation of church and state. Ok, your child can study religion
quietly in the corner while others pursue their own assignments. Perhaps
you feel history lessons favor lions over lambs. Make Zinn's People's
History your child's text. 

You get the idea. Choose your agenda, and create your strategy. One
size fits one. 

As a former teacher with two children in their thirties and one just
starting first grade, I can't resist pushing my own goals. You may
borrow from them or burn them in creating your own. That's democracy. 

I want to offer my daughter's teachers license to be professional and
creative: to foster an environment where my child can learn, and to
treat my daughter with respect as her own agent. In turn, they will have
our support and respect as partners in my daughter's education. I want
to protect my daughter's teachers from having to read the scripts of
others or waste time on mounds of paperwork proving my 6-year-old knows
the Maine State Bird. I want to make it possible for them to relax and
be human, to step back from the pressure to be grading machines. 

I want to eliminate boredom-induced discipline problems from the
complex classroom soup, while returning responsibility for learning to
children. Let my daughter bring books or projects interesting to her to
school, and let her switch quietly to them when other exercises don't
strike her fancy. As a homeschooling parent, I will certify she is not
wasting her time and will work with her and her teachers to ensure
minimal disruption to others. As she gets older, her freedom and
responsibility will mean more to her with each passing year. Her
presence within the school will make her both object and agent of
change...a true, full citizen. 

Together, we will re-create democracy. 

Alan Morse lives in Phillips, Maine and can be contacted at
amorse at somtel.com 

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