Re: Many problems with Rothstein's piece

[Peter Farruggio <pfarr@UCLINK4.BERKELEY.EDU>]

My point in posting Rothstein's piece was not the effectiveness of college
teaching, but rather how the Establishment uses the standards and
accountability rhetoric as a means of social control to preserve the
unequal, anti-democratic social class system.  The economic data exposes
the hypocrisy of the corporate/government standardistas when they claim
that "raising standards" and high stakes, etc will elevate learning for the
masses and "leave no child behind"  Since the popularity  of the G.I. Bill,
"college" has become the marker for upward mobility in the post-WWII
economy in the US.  Let's face it, in our greed-based, instrumentalist
economic system college graduation is primarily a gatekeeper and a huge
tool for hegemony, for brainwashing the lower classes into believing that
they are "not worthy" of a better fate (higher wages, medical insurance,
better neighborhoods and schools for their kids, etc) because they didn';t
go to college.  And the current "high stakes" embellishment adds guilt and
self-doubt to the mix.  "Now that we have raised standards, it's only your
own fault that you did not graduate high school and go to college!"

That was the big  democratic promise of the creation of community colleges
in the 1960s, to raise hope and to "rehab" unsuccessful  K-12
students.  Through the experience of the community colleges, I've seen
thousands of cases of lives being turned around over the years.  Regardless
of the actual quality of the learning inside classrooms, we see hard work,
self-discipline, and sacrifice eventually rewarded through the years-long
task of working one's way through community college and then
university.  And this sacrifice RAISES EXPECTATIONS of the system; but the
system doesn't really work that way over the long term (across
generations).  It requires a division between rich and poor, not economic
equalization.  So to help hide this dirty truth, the lie of "economic
democracy," the rulers of the political economy created high stakes to
crush any potential aspirations sooner rather than later.  Better to create
failure and demoralization during the K-12 years than to face another
generation of college-educated people with no suitable prospects.  And, of
course, SOME people learn things in college (I did!!!) and they begin to
question.  That's dangerous!

Pete Farruggio




At 10:02 PM 3/13/02, you wrote:

> There are many problems with Rothstein's piece.
> First is that Minnesota, which he claims gets no benefits from the many
> people who leave - actually gets great benefits because over the last decade
> there has been a major influx of people coming to Minnesota, many to attend
> college and then stay here.
>
> another problem is that an important purpose for college isn't just to get a
> certain kind of job.
>
> Economic projections have been wrong many, many times - there are plenty of
> reasons to question the projections Rothstein cites.
>
> The final question is how well colleges are preparing people for the world.
> I think there is a fair amount of not especially effective teaching going on
> - so I think we need changes in for example, the lecture method that is so
> widely used in college.
>
> A fascinating study of about 20 years ago compared high grades in high
> school, high grades in college, high scores on the Am. College Testing
> Program, and participation in high school debate, drama, speech, music and
> journalism.  The goal was to see which was the best predictor of adult
> success - measured in many ways, not just income.  3 of the 4 factors did not
> predict adult success - only participation in high school extracurriculars
> did.
>
> So let's not be so sanguine about college.
>
> Joe
>
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