Week 2 - Adriana Goracci A01

The Untold History of Modern U.S. Education: The Founding Fathers

This article addresses the flaws that characterize the educational system not only nowadays but since the foundations. The author analyzes the main characters involved in the development of the system, emphasizing the main weakness of each stage. I think that the author’s aim was to make the reader reflect on certain aspects of the modern educational system and raise questions that require some thinking such as: “Why is it that the fee for education rises over time whilst the percentage of students finishing college and returning back to their parents and/or not finding a job is still very high?”. Providing actual data, the author James Lee better illustrates his argument that there is an enormous defect regarding the modern public educational system, that was in fact built on the principles of failure and low expectancies, according to John D Rockefeller, in 1906. Together with other well-being men, he represented the hierarchy, capable of keeping the middle class from a rising power by controlling the educational system.

It is interesting how the system has been redefined over the years by many different intellectuals. Although it adapted some unfair policies such as the Prussian system over the years, some individuals such as Dewey established some good, such as the promotion of the group rather than the teachers as a source of social control in school, emphasizing the social values over the academic skills. In my opinion, is fascinating to learn how over the years the system was made better. The “UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination” for instance, is an example of how the discrimination and segregation in public and private schools were dealt with. However, defects in the system remain till this day. The laws proposed by Tucker and ultimately signed by President Clinton, define an educational system whose main objective is to train pupils into specific jobs in order to eventually serve the workforce and the global economy instead of educating them and let them make their own life choices. 

In my own personal experience, I had the privilege to experience different educational systems across various countries and I was able to notice differences between them. Some offered the opportunity to better explore the field of research that interests the student more, whilst others required the learner to withstand classes that did not incite any interest. Although the systems vary between them, there was a certain characteristic that brought them together, and that is the expectancy they had for the pupil to eventually fall in a certain position in the society, limiting the freedom of thinking and full self-expression.  

Question: Why is it and it has always been that the way people are educated and brought up depends on the decisions of a single individual or the ones of a small group of people that hold the power? We (the middle class) represent the majority and therefore should hold the right in the first place to have a say on how our education should be conducted since it affects us in the first place, not them. So why is it that we have little to no voice on the topic?

References:

- Lee,Jamie. "The untold History of Mondern U.S. Education: The Founding Fathers."Waking Times,17 June2016, www.wakingtimes.com/2014/01/28/untold-history-modern-u-s-education-founding-fathers/ .

-"." Pink floyd The Wall (Page 4 of 4), pyxurz.blogspot.com/2012/03/pink-flod-wall-page-4-of-4.html