> [WS:] As I understand it, for the liberal & progressive types it comes
> in the form of two tacit assumptions. First is the belief that
> education, especially college education, is THE way to abolish social
> inequality. If social inequality is round us, it implies that the
> educational system is not good enough. By the same logic, if you pray
> for rain and the rain does not fall, you obviously are not praying
> hard enough.
>
> The second assumption, linked to the first, is that all people are the
> same - at least as wanting to have education, especially college
> education. If they do not get, it implies that the educational system
> sucks, for otherwise they would want to get. And believing that some
> people may want, say, a vocational training instead of college
> education is tantamount to reproduction of social inequality, per
> first assumption
These two are joined by the fact that working class jobs - crafts and other sorts of labor - are not culturally prized in the US because they aren't seen as intellectual or worthy of middle class salaries or existence. Everyone is supposed to want to get out of these jobs because they are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. On the one hand, this is an excuse for not having a more equitable distribution system that rewards all kinds of labor - the system is only supposed to reward social climbers. And on the other hand, it is an implicit claim that manual labor does not involve mental labor. I came across this very nice documentary last weekend which looks at crafts and other kinds of manual labor.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/326776/the-tradesmen-making-an-art-of-work
One of the key sources is this book by Mike Rose called "The Mind at Work: Valuing the Intelligence of the American Worker" http://web.mac.com/mikerosebooks/Site/The_Mind_at_Work.html
I haven't read it, but it sounds like a pertinent source for this discussion. On several levels I am implicated in the liberal assumptions you mention. The underlying bias is towards a particular kind of intelligence that is supposed to map onto a particular kind of class position. It is not all that different from the assumption that the endgame of capitalism is that we could all become entrepreneurs, which is a numerical impossibility. This goes back to my earlier, possibly misguided claim that it is important to challenge these frameworks more directly.
Sean