Gramsci on education

[Doug Henwood]

Today's New York TImes has a debate between Howard Gardner and E. Don 
Hirsch 
<http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/091199debate-intro-edu.html>, 
the "progressivist" vs. the "traditionalist," respectively Hirsch 
argues that there's no connection between progressive politics and 
progressive education - quite the contrary, in fact, and he summons 
Gramsci to prove his case. Hirsch writes:

<quote>
There have been recent signs that the politics of education is 
belatedly becoming more sophisticated. As long ago as the 1930s, 
Antonio Gramsci, a brilliant Communist opponent of Mussolini, 
denounced the new "progressive" ideas that were being introduced into 
Italy from the United States. He argued that social justice required 
educational conservatism because only if the poor worked hard in 
school to accumulate the "intellectual baggage" of the rich could 
they earn money and wield the levers of power. Gramsci, the 
Communist, serving on a modern American school board, might surprise 
fellow board members by voting with Republicans.
</quote>

Anyone who knows Gramsci better than I do - what do you make of this?

By the way, this is only the second time Gramsci's name has appeared 
in the NYT in the last year; the previous one was in an obit for 
Italian publisher Giulio Einaudi in April.

Doug