About the Author

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Lee Rakes is currently a doctoral student in the educational psychology department at Virginia Tech, where he also received his MSEd in health promotion and a B.S. in psychology. His current research interests include mastery learning, the implications of flow in a classroom setting, and academic assessment. Since 2005 he has been involved in education of youth to some extent, working as a tutor for the Virginia Tech Literacy Corp, a substitute teacher for Martinsville City Public Schools, or as the park interpreter/outreach coordinator for Fairy Stone State Park. During this time he has received several merits and awards, including one for Outstanding Tutor while at the Literacy Corp and Focus for Excellence awards while at Fairy Stone. He is currently employed at Virginia Tech as a graduate teaching assistant and at Fairy Stone State Park as the community outreach coordinator.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Social and Economic Goals of Schooling

Social & Economic Goals of Schooling





The social goals of schooling can be thought of as behavior management, or even behavior suppressant in some circumstances, whereby students are taught values through schooling systems to become better citizens. Horace Mann was one of the first pioneers of the idea of social improvement via schooling, with the intention to stop or at least decrease the rate of crime by instilling moral values through a curriculum. The contention that moral values could be taught in a secular institution saw a backlash from religious groups, most notably from the Catholic Church, which set out to create its own school system. Their contention was that the teaching of moral values was not to be endeavored by secular institutions due to the shaping of behavior, which could not be achieved to the appeasement of all religious groups. The contrary, namely the elimination of moral and religious teaching, was deemed unacceptable due to education being viewed as irreligious, leading the Catholic Church to form its own educational institutions.


Still today schooling in American society is viewed as a viable means by which to alter and shape the behavior of its citizens, through what are often suppressant and controlling modalities, especially concerning sex education and sexual behavior. Not only is there an active agenda by government programs to push for programs that alter perceptions of acceptable sexual behavior, behavior involving food consumption has also been endeavored to produce this ideal of what American households ought to be. All three of the mentioned behaviors, crime stoppage, abstinence, and food consumption free from kitchen drudgery, have failed to some extent or another; creating instead a country that imprisons more individuals than any other civilized nation on Earth, a ballooning teen pregnancy rate among poor adolescents and minorities, and the spawning of the fast food industry that heavily contributes to a population 60% or more of which is considered to be obese or overweight. “Mission Accomplished.”


The economic goals of schooling are essentially the objectives set forth by eduwonks and policy makers to ensure the success of the United States in a global economy, one that requires workers who are lifelong learners, adaptive, and conforming to the needs of their respective organization at the time. While this sounds peachy, it does have some issues that need to be addressed, namely the determination of the purpose of schooling and by extension education. Is the purpose to get a paying job? To live a richer and fuller life? Or is the achievement of happiness the ultimate ends? To that I would contend that achievement of happiness is the ultimate goal, but probably could not be achieved without the paying job, which certainly affords a richer and fuller life.




Human Capital




Human capital, in terms of schools, is concerned with value of the students contained therein insomuch that those students can attain and maintain employment upon their graduation from their educational institution, thereby contributing to the economic growth of their community and nation respectively. The Human Capital Model is diamond shaped with investment in schools leading to an educated workforce, which will lead to increased productivity, which in turn will lead to economic growth that will fund more investment in education and ultimately schools again. For this model to work learners need to be adaptive, compliant, obedient, conforming, passive, and unwilling to join labor unions who work to improve worker’s rights. Though the aforementioned are not requisite to America’s ability to compete in a global economy necessarily, or the outcome of a lifelong learner, they are undoubtedly the objectives of many schools and certainly the desired outcome of many organizations. Why else would they find credibility and presence in schools if the end result were not so?



Of note here too, is the theme of societal control, or at least the shaping of behavior by educational institutions for ends not explicitly stated, such as the rituals of conformity demonstrated by the hours of operation, walking in a straight line, a bell which denotes when to begin and end, obedience, the need to be able to follow directions, etc. All of these rituals are preparing Americans to become sorted through the human capital model of progress set forth by the wealthiest and elite, whom control not only most of the wealth among this nation’s citizens, but also control the direction and applicability of educational attainment. The problem is that this issue is an implicit one, with the vast majority of schooling participants not knowing about the agenda set forth for them and the remaining others not caring, as their end-goal is the attainment of employment that affords the American dream.



I would contend that many individuals, those with formal educations at institutions of higher learning and those with high school diplomas and every happenstance in between would agree that the ascertainment of a paying job is a worthy endeavor and that using education as a means to attain it is worthwhile. However, I would also contend that while this end is worthwhile to endeavor, it is not the sole purpose for which an education should be attained, nor is it the sole means by which happiness can be ascertained, though in America it seems that a simple life is one relegated to and for the poor or unworthy. I hope that in my teaching efforts that I can keep this issue in mind, being consciously aware that respect and behavior management or control are not necessarily the same thing, and that the classroom should be one that is conducive to learning, not structured to tailor to the needs of some corporation or organization whose primary concern is a productive, obedient, passive individual who performs a service and nothing more. Rather I would prefer to shape minds that are skeptical and inquisitive, in addition to adaptive and creative lifelong learners, which I do believe to be a valuable asset to both organizations and individuals alike.






References


Spring, J. (2009). American education (14th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.