Prior to reading David Labaree’s, “Public Goods, Private
Goods: The American Struggle Over
Educational Goals”, I had never really placed a lot of thought into the idea
that your interpretation of education would influence your understanding of its
goal. I guess naively I believed that
everyone had roughly the same vision for the purpose of education. Sure, I understood that people had different
methods to achieve that same goal which is the reason why we have charter,
private, all-black and online schools but I always believed that all of these
structures still held onto the same vision for their students.
Once I began reading this article, I began to realize that I
approach education from the democratic
equality perspective. According to
Labaree, individuals who look at education from this lens feel that, “a
democratic society cannot persist unless it prepares all of its young with
equal care to take on the full responsibilities of citizenship in a competent
manner” (Pg. 42). Perhaps this comes
from my background as a social studies teacher or my brief experience in the
military but I have always felt that it is the schools primary responsibility
to make model citizens. If a student
develops the characteristics of a model citizen, I feel that everything else
will fall into place. They will learn
the essential skills to become productive members of society and will avoid the
“free ride” not only because of the limited financial freedom it provides but
because it is the right thing to do.
Additionally, I whole-heartedly agree with Labaree’s goals
for education. He argues that education
has desired outcomes with those being, Democratic Equality, Social Efficiency
& Social Mobility. While the varying
perspectives of education surprised me, I was not shocked at all by the three
desired goals. It has been taught to us
for as long as I can remember that education (as well as a Colt 45) is the
great equalizers in American society.
Now it can be argued that American schools and society are coming up
short at achieving these goals since inequality runs rampant in our country but
it would be a very difficult point to prove that schools aren’t trying for
equality. It is also very obvious to me
that schools trying for social efficiency.
We want productive members of society with the basic skills needed to be
successful. Finally, we always showcase
students who have risen from lower social standing to great success. This belief that you can achieve anything you
work towards is as fundamentally American as apple pie or the Star Spangled
Banner. We even develop our schools into
a system, which progresses students based off their achievements and
successes. You can also argue that the system
is developed from the industrial revolution and our schools resemble a factor
but that is a whole other rant.
If you are interested in reading more on “The Real Goals for
Education”, I suggest following the link below and reading the first chapter of
“Big Picture” by Dennis Littky and Samantha Grabelle. It is written in less of an academic language
and focuses more on the goals of the teacher in the classroom than the school
system as a whole. After reading this
article, I felt that it closely aligned with my own personal goals towards
education. Check it out HERE.
