Max Sawicky wrote:
> > Could someone explain to me just how,when and why Bowles and
> Gintis started writing this garbage?>
>
> I got a similar prescription from a prominent left academic
> living in a high-income jurisdiction who shall remain nameless
> here. My wife isn't too happy with our public school system
> either (in Montgomery County, MD, among the richest counties in
> the country).
>
> It's possible that upper-middle class folks expect too much from
> public schools -- they're just too damn fussy.
>
> Funny thing about Gintis is that he evidently does not understand
> that the way that marketization actually happens in public
> services does not conduce to competition (in the textbook
> economic sense), much less 'individuation.'
>
> What you really get is a perverse sort of tracking -- kids whose
> parents have money get into a college track, and the rest get
> crummy private operations. Marketization, via vouchers or
> charters, is resegregation dressed up as "choice." A possible
> counter-example is the Catholic school, which has a good
> reputation for reasons I don't claim to understand. That cost
> advantages of the Catholic schools relative to the public system
> have been exaggerated is plain enough. But even if they cost the
> same, and notwithstanding their capacity to get rid of the
> worst-behaved students, do people here agree that they do a
> better job (religious education aside)?
>
> mbs
>
> > > >Gintis (coauthor with Samuel Bowles of "Schooling
> > in Capitalist America")on school choice. He's "arguing
> > for competitive markets for the delivery of>schooling".
> > > >
> > > >http://olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa/v2n6.html
> > >
> > > I especially liked this:
> > >
> > > I would argue that the process of individuation,
> > which is central to dignity and self-esteem, requires
> > competition.
> > >
> > > What a load of garbage! From this to market economies, no
> > > less... ghastly.
> > Bill