tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post8669528423966135077..comments2024-01-03T02:31:48.560-08:00Comments on <center>Dewey to Delpit</center>: Moral Education, the London Riots, and the Entanglement of Economics and SchoolingMax Beanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09411037394257752336noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-49960161376110485162011-08-12T22:27:30.405-07:002011-08-12T22:27:30.405-07:00Now, in the wake of uncontrolled anti-social juve...Now, in the wake of uncontrolled anti-social juvenile behavior, the adult caretakers of young people are suddenly expected to be so much more than society has ever helped them become.<br /> Life in London for the disenfranchised, like life in Harlem, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oakland or any of the urban centers in the good ol’ USA that I have visited, only becomes a focal point when trouble erupts. <br /> The question of the poverty lifestyle that Cameron focuses on exists on a daily basis for families with single female heads of household, with children lacking access to quality education and people living in an environment spawning a culture that glorifies violence.<br /> Read full article at: http://talkaboutparenting.org/pages/blog.php?blog_id=256&frompage=latestblogshitlee smithhttp://www.talkaboutparenting.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-64522247173392883562011-08-12T21:25:29.848-07:002011-08-12T21:25:29.848-07:00Anonymous,
Thank you for that excellent comment. ...Anonymous,<br /><br />Thank you for that excellent comment. You're absolutely right, of course, and your reply to my critique of the Archbishop's position is the same reply I always want to give to those in the American education debate whose emphasis on poverty and cultural isolation as the roots of poor education outcomes is so forceful that it almost seems to relegate schools to irrelevance.<br /><br />Yes, whatever the wider conditions of society may be, we must improve schools. As an educator, that's where my efforts will always go; and the bleak economic landscape does not dampen my enthusiasm for that project. The Archbishop's proposal is a good one, and it's my mistake if I didn't emphasize that enough in my post. We must do a better job, both here in The States and apparently in England as well, of providing moral education.<br /><br />That project is significantly complicated by the broader socioeconomic problems of the society, in ways that I will try to delve into a bit in a separate post.Max Beanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09411037394257752336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-19376165285166031012011-08-12T15:19:16.182-07:002011-08-12T15:19:16.182-07:00Thanks for your comments, “hbean” (an ill-disguise...Thanks for your comments, “hbean” (an ill-disguised relative of mine).<br /><br />Of course, we're getting into politics here, not education, and I don't want to go too far down that road, but I do have some thoughts on this.<br /><br />Your points about respect and condescension relate back to questions of respect in the classroom, specifically it's reciprocal nature: you can’t respect someone who doesn’t respect you; you may admire him, but that’s a different kind of relationship and not as healthy a one for teacher and student. <a href="http://edcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/04/autonomy-respect-and-obedience.html#skip-intro" rel="nofollow">I wrote about this a few months ago</a>. Your reference, I think, was intentional<br /><br />Your second paragraph raises a more complicated question. I’ll address a brief post to it, probably later this evening.Max Beanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09411037394257752336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-32192071134777544642011-08-12T09:36:30.705-07:002011-08-12T09:36:30.705-07:00The main way in which the young rioters in Great B...The main way in which the young rioters in Great Britain are oppressed is that they do not have jobs. The private sector in England (and other societies) is driven by the bottom line so it outsources jobs; the government doesn't have the resources to employ everyone. That looks like a dilemma that isn't solvable by anyone, at least not a present. But while we work towards a system that does provide jobs for all, are we supposed to be OK with young people destroying their own neighborhoods, their own neighbors? We've had depressions and high unemployment before, and they led to demonstrations, political movements, populist candidates running for office -- but not self-destruction. The Archbishop has a point.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2747343572713674312.post-59585101528935201712011-08-11T16:51:54.230-07:002011-08-11T16:51:54.230-07:00Archbishop Williams wants to teach the poor to res...Archbishop Williams wants to teach the poor to respect a society that doesn’t respect them. This is not only illogical (respect doesn’t work that way), it’s insulting because he’s asking them to condescend to themselves. <br /><br />Yet he seems right in much of what he says, and, interestingly, he doesn’t blame the rioters, but British society as a whole. (This, too, is condescending and disrespectful in its way, but let that pass.) The ‘civic excellence’ he wants is a collective virtue, not just an individual one. To achieve it, the British would not only have to educate their poor in values, they would have to look seriously at the values of the society, including those that tolerate economic deprivation and isolation. I bet the Archbishop be all for that sort of self-criticism. Whether he’d be ready to restructure the society accordingly is another question.hbeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13170672093941828752noreply@blogger.com