“The bourgeoisie
cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production,
and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of
society.”
~ Karl Marx
The “back to the basics” movement is here, again. Doesn’t
this remind you of the 1980s? In response to the overall dissatisfaction with
the programs popularized in the 60s, declining test scores and disruptive
classrooms[1],
Ronald Reagan called us to action. A Nation at Risk warned, “The
educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising
tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.”[2]
Not surprisingly, immigration policies and the civil rights
movement of the 60’s had dramatically changed the face of America’s schools so
the conversation of mediocrity pivoted around how we should respond to racial
and ethnic diversity.[3]
Kenneth Clark’s study on youth in Harlem pointed to the fact that blacks were
systematically deprived of a good education and he cautioned that “unless firm
steps were taken immediately, the public school system in the urban North would
become predominantly a segregated system…a school system of low academic
standards, providing a second-class education for under classed children.”[4]
Although Reagan’s education platform promised that “all
children, regardless of race or class or economic status [would get] a fair
chance,”[5]
corporate America and the military would benefit the most from the Reagan administration. Reagan’s budget cuts resulted in mass unemployment and millions of
children entered the ranks of the officially declared “poor.” Within a short
period of time, a quarter of the nation’s children—twelve million—were living
in poverty.[6]
Following A Nation at Risk, there was a rush to design reform
programs that could “fix” low performing public schools. The report asserted
that lax academic standards were correlated with lax behavioral standards and that
neither should be ignored. The general consensus was to get ‘back to the
basics,’ which meant to focus on math and reading instruction, teach children
to follow directions[7]
and establish a common core curriculum that would ‘level’ the playing field. It
was in the 1980’s, when E.D. Hirsch, Jr. first coined the term “core knowledge.”
After the release of his bestselling book, Cultural Literacy, he established The
Core Knowledge Foundation that teaches how disadvantaged children can succeed
if they have access to the same knowledge as children from privileged settings.
Throughout the following decade, academics debated the question: How much power
does a school really have when educating children living in poverty?
None of this sounds very different than today, does it?
Yet, this time we’ve upped the ante. Fueled by a push-back political
landscape and a highly publicized 1% ‘takes all’ economy, politicians on both
sides of the aisle are anxious to mitigate the swell of the angry poor concentrated
in big cities. They know it will take some time to move from reforming schools
to reforming the entire system. How else can they completely appropriate public
school funding?
Keep the proletariat dizzy.
Have you ever run on a treadmill?
It’s exhausting but you don’t get very far do you? You stay because your mind is focused on
the calories you’re burning. Parents are
running hard on lots of individual treadmills called, ‘Choice.’ Much of their
experience can be exemplified by ‘the lottery’ and other deceptive admissions devices
that lead most parents nowhere fast. Teachers
meanwhile are running too, working that front line dodging the bullets, jumping
through Danielson hoops. In the background, an epic recording plays over and
over assuring folks that capitalism is what makes this country great. The
broadcast is muffled and staticy but tireless. “Choice grows competition, competition
improves quality, quality makes consumers happy and business is the backbone of
the American dream.” In between each pause, we auto-insert a plea for patience.
Teachers who remember our history are considered difficult because
they see patterns. Like little connect the dots puzzles, they share in the
cafeteria or in the halls. Consequently, veterans and their union meetings are
neatly disposed of. Some teachers are
blatantly ignored like the elderly. Others are picked on incessantly or kicked out
onto the streets like unwanted guests at a party. They’re replaced by the new teacher, churned
out and distributed, heroic jugglers of the new regime. They can handle disgruntled
parents with one hand and pander to those with the money with the other—
blindfolded! Add the new Common Core to the mix, vast complex units of study doled
out like blocks of welfare cheese and we’ve successfully spun half the country’s
schools & school districts into a tizzy.
This is the dizziness around us.
This is what distracts people. And it fuels fear.
Is our greatness not so great after all? Like getting caught in the flush of some
great big white toilet bowl, we’re flailing our arms and kicking but it’s swirling
too fast. The current is strong and all I can think about is what are we going
to do with all this shit?
*This post was reprinted at Truthout.
[1]
Thomas, JW (1980). Agency and achievement: self-management & self-regard.
Review of Educational Research
[2]
Ravitch,D (2000) Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform. Touchstone
[3]
Ibid
[4]
Clark, K.B (1965) Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power. Harper & Row
[5]
Ravitch, D (2000) Left Back: A Century of Battles Over School Reform.
Touchstone
[6]
Zinn, H (2005) A People’s History of the United States, Harper Perennial Modern
Classics
[7]
Thomas, JW (1980). Agency and achievement: self-management & self-regard.
Review of Educational Research
