[lbo-talk] School Debate: Central Focus

Sean Andrews cultstud76 at gmail.com
Wed Feb 15 09:27:45 PST 2012


On Wed, Feb 15, 2012 at 11:12, Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote:


> For now though, the only thing worse than going to school is not going to
> school.

I don't know if you've followed the conversations on Twitter with Malcolm Harris, but there seems to be some debate about that. I agree, but he seems willing to take a more radical stance. I think it depends, in this case, on what the school institution is for. In some communities, they really may act like more of a prison or at least a high security day care. I agree that in principle they are key, but there are obviously other factors. The book "Class Dismissed" for instance, makes the argument that education is a poor lever for correcting social inequality. It's true that even this lever seems to be under attack, but perhaps its worth letting it go if we can strike closer at the goal of eliminating inequality. I say this as an educator who generally believes in the efficacy of it as a lever.

Sean



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