Dollars and Dreams: Classrooms as Fictitious Message Systems, 1790-1930

Abstract

Contemporary Americans are experiencing an orgy of anxiety over ma terial matters. There are books announcing the imminent demise of Amer ican economic supremacy in the world. There are prophets of doom announcing that material resources are dwindling and/or being appro priated by foreign nationals seeking to dominate our land. There is a national lament over the quality of work being done in the nation's manufactories, and there is a sense of moral outrage over the work habits of American laborers. There is high distress over the intellectual qualities of the nation's youth, and there is an outpouring of reports calling Amer ica's teachers to task. The calls for educational reform are not calls for justice or equality, but for technological productivity, military superi ority, economic dominance, and cultural supremacy. Ironically, the re ports call on schools to enhance the economic position of the United States, while urging a retreat from vocational emphases in the schools. Many calls for reform advocate new alliances among industry, govern ment, and public schools, but champion a return to a traditional core curriculum or the imposition of national examinations as a solution. 1

Education Historians as Mythmakers

“…They are now in the process of retrieving history as lived and constructed in small social circles and among women, ethnic minorities, learners, and an array of the previously invisible (Anderson, 1988;Bender, 1978;Clifford, 1989;Finkelstein, 1974Finkelstein, , 1989aFinkelstein, , 1991Katznelson & Weir, 1985;Sennett, 1980;Silver, 1983;Trennert, 1990;Wallace, 1970).…”

“…His histories revealed the incapacities of public schools as legatee institutions absorbing a full array of reform agendas. By expanding the definition of education to go beyond public schooling, Cremin called attention to the overinflated agendas that he believed his historical predecessors had promoted (Cremin, 1988;Finkelstein, 1991;Tyack & Hansot, 1982).…”

“…Both public and private schools have, from the time of their founding, served as ideological templates onto which generations of elite reformers, urban immigrant groups, women, and minorities have grafted aspirations, standards, and hopes for a better society (Anderson, 1988;Cremin, 1961Cremin, , 1988Finkelstein, 1985Finkelstein, , 1988Finkelstein, , 1991. Schools have served symbolically as emblems of political and economic reform and politically as objects of local, state, and national regulation (Cuban, 1989;Finkelstein, 1983).…”

Chapter 6: Education Historians as Mythmakers

“…Both public and private schools have, from the time of their founding, served as ideological templates onto which generations of elite reformers, urban immigrant groups, women, and minorities have grafted aspirations, standards, and hopes for a better society (Anderson, l988;Cremin, 1961Cremin, , 1988Finkelstein, 1985Finkelstein, , 1988Finkelstein, , 1991. Both public and private schools have, from the time of their founding, served as ideological templates onto which generations of elite reformers, urban immigrant groups, women, and minorities have grafted aspirations, standards, and hopes for a better society (Anderson, l988;Cremin, 1961Cremin, , 1988Finkelstein, 1985Finkelstein, , 1988Finkelstein, , 1991.…”

“…They are now in the process of retrieving history as lived and constructed in small social circles and among women, ethnic minorities, learners, and an array of the previously invisible (Anderson, 1988;Bender, 1978;Clifford, 1989;Finkelstein, 1974Finkelstein, , 1989aFinkelstein, , 1991Katznelson & Weir, 1985;Sennett, 1980;Silver, 1983;Trennert, 1990;Wallace, 1970). They are now in the process of retrieving history as lived and constructed in small social circles and among women, ethnic minorities, learners, and an array of the previously invisible (Anderson, 1988;Bender, 1978;Clifford, 1989;Finkelstein, 1974Finkelstein, , 1989aFinkelstein, , 1991Katznelson & Weir, 1985;Sennett, 1980;Silver, 1983;Trennert, 1990;Wallace, 1970).…”