Wednesday, September 7, 2011

School Under Capitalism? Respone IV

When I first heard this title I thought that this article was going to be how public education was badly structured. The article connects capitalism along with schooling, which will concern everyone. “Social relations of education” normally correspond to the social relations of production in capitalist society (Bowles and Gintis 13). I am not saying that it’s a bad thing to have, but it is odd. When the article talked about Taylorism, it talked about standardizing, setting rules and regulations. That’s probably where we had standardized like the ACT and SAT. I am pretty sure people have thought about how effective both tests are. That’s not the point though. The point is schooling under capitalism. Over the years since we adopted Taylorism the school system has been going downhill. The American Teacher magazine said, “Education must measure its efficiency not in terms…of so many student-hours per dollar of salary; it must measure its efficiency in terms of increased humanism, increased power to do, increased capacity to appreciate”(Callahan 121). I believe that to be so true. The teacher needs to have a passion to teach to the point where it motivates students to learn and succeed. It doesn’t matter how many students there are in a class. From a personal perspective, it’s better to for teachers to focus on people as individuals rather than just a group, that’s why I chose BCTC. “Although NCLB put new burdens and expectations on schools and teachers, total U.S. government spending on primary and secondary education as a percentage of GDP did not increase” (National Education Association 288). So basically it did not help as much as legislators thought it would. “The Dell Foundation claims that it is helping urban schools to use “technology to gather, analyze and report information” for better school management. It is a strong backer of school choice, for-profit education management organizations (EMOs) in charter schools, and charter school real estate development” (Scott 31). I see that their helping out, but another corporation helping is the Gates Foundation. “The Gates Foundation has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the support of educational advocacy groups meant to pressure public policy, all aimed at restructuring public education, promoting charter schools, encouraging privatization, and breaking teachers’ unions. Thus, it has given millions of dollars to Teachers Plus” (Teacher Education).

I always thought that businesses are only out there for the money, but I am glad that there are some businesses who like to make the United States a better place instead of personal benefit. One thing I think that is significant in the article is when Foster talks about child poverty. I know that child poverty plays a role in learning in school. We used to live in poverty in New York and in Eastern Kentucky. Luckily the charter schools that spewed up are helping children succeed. “As a result of the new standards, testing, and accountability measures of federal and state governments, plus the growth of charter schools, the K-12 education industry was expected to grow to $163 billion (20 percent of the K-12 education market) within ten years” (Think Equity Partners). Hopefully this growth will not only improve the education system, but also improve the quality of life children will live in.

Sources:
1.Bowles and Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 129.
2. See the analysis of Taylorism in Harry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1998), 59-95.
3. Callahan, Education and the Cult of Efficiency, 121.
4.National Education Association, K-12 Education in the U.S. Economy, 10; National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, The Condition of Education, 2010, 288.
5.Scott, “The Politics of Venture Philanthropy,” 120; ThinkEquity Partners LLC, New Rules, New Schools, New Market: K-12 Education, Industry Outlook 2005. May 26, 2005, http://educationindustry.org, 31.
6.“Teacher Education, STEM Washington and Bill Gates,” Seattle Education, March 22, 2011, http://seattleducaton2010.worpress.com.

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