What do you think?
Rate this book
Choosing Equality: The Case for Democratic Schooling
The product of a two-year project developed by the New World Foundation, these essays present a comprehensive critique of education and the current reforms covering instruction and the institution as well as policy and politics.
222 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1985
7 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 10, 2013
This is a time machine, as it many of the issues it addressed in 1986 are almost the same as what we have today, short of one major distinction, politics. A significant amount of analysis in the last half of the book concerns the effect policy changes have on education. Whats really makes this text cool, is that the authors are not subject to anywhere near the ideological blindness presented in the vast majority of policy texts today. They present a concept and show both the potential good as well as the dangers. Granted, the book does lean quite a bit to the left, so in general its more critical of the right, but it doesn't pull punches on lame ideas from the left either.
Such is where things get interesting, and time predictive. The authors were no fan of Reagan, and while they alluded to potential positive outcomes, the emphasis was on the dangers... and yep, they did predict the future in a few cases. Even more so, its interesting to note that the vast majority of Reagan's policies were significantly further to the left than the policies of the Obama administration. I figured society had shifted to the right over time, but I had no idea how much... its a lot.
One reason I ordered this text via interlibrary loan was to get a better understanding of The Future of Our Schools. Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner, as she references quite a bit. In that regard, this book filled in a lot of blanks and assumed knowledge being I am not involved in K12. For that reason I'd like to give this book 5 stars. On the other hand, in a society which is much farther to the right than during Reagan's era, many of the proposed solutions are just too out there. In that regard, this text is quite dated.
The other reason I ordered it, was to try and understand equality, as I think term is thrown around far too loosely and it opens the door wide for misunderstandings.
There is equality of opportunity, ie, if a student is motivated, the system, tools, and resources are equally available to all. Alas, if a student is ready to learn and is highly motivated, they can do exceedingly well. On the other hand, if a student could care less, and doesn't want to be there, but is forced to, not they won't do well... and from a distressing point of view, they are likely to impair others pursuit of learning. Thus, we have the equality/excellence tradeoff.
The authors reject that, and state that equality of result needs to be the goal, and if such is the case, excellence for all will be the result. Alas, they define excellence quite a bit differently than I do.
A friend is a 20 year + band teacher and a true master of the trumpet. Students studying the trumpet under him will achieve a much higher level of competence than they would under a 1st year band teacher whose primary instrument was clarinet. Obviously there is no way to provide concert level mastery of an instrument at a high school level, or even providing a path for a student to reach their full potential as economic constraints and availability of resources make such impossible. Its not just musical excellence either, the same could be said for any number of fields. All students are not going to be able to study under true masters of the field... so excellence has to be left in the meritocracy realm, ie where socio-economics can drive private master teachers, or the idea of excellence in a given area must decrease.
I think the authors idea is that there will be excellence here, or excellence there, and that it will even itself out across a wide body of students and subject areas. Ie, a school will provide excellence as far as citizenship and a wide swath of skills to all students, it will likely not provide excellence for an individual student, nor subject area. To me, this is still the equality/excellence tradeoff, but I do see their point.
As a means of achieving said equality, they advocate a near unlimited set of means of learning, and pretty much unlimited second chances. They also state that effective ways of teaching are well known in order to reach both the privileged and disadvantaged, and that being a democracy, we can prioritize things to achieve it. Alas, unlike 1985, we've had 25+ more years of trying things, democracy in general has chosen to increase income inequality and poverty, and at the same time ignored, or chosen policies which severely limit means of learning; albeit some states have done well with the second chance thing. In 2013, some education experts have come to the conclusion we don't really know what to do in the education equality arena, as external factors, the primary being poverty, is a much greater factor than the school systems can address in isolation.
Bottom line, this is a good read for folks with a policy interest... but its also a bit on the depressing side, as in combination with current political trends, it appears as a whole, we are choosing to maximize inequality. Not wishing to leave this review on a downer, there are individual teachers out there, hero types who are making a difference. Perhaps society will choose inequality, but individual teachers can and do make a difference, often times in huge ways.
Such is where things get interesting, and time predictive. The authors were no fan of Reagan, and while they alluded to potential positive outcomes, the emphasis was on the dangers... and yep, they did predict the future in a few cases. Even more so, its interesting to note that the vast majority of Reagan's policies were significantly further to the left than the policies of the Obama administration. I figured society had shifted to the right over time, but I had no idea how much... its a lot.
One reason I ordered this text via interlibrary loan was to get a better understanding of The Future of Our Schools. Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner, as she references quite a bit. In that regard, this book filled in a lot of blanks and assumed knowledge being I am not involved in K12. For that reason I'd like to give this book 5 stars. On the other hand, in a society which is much farther to the right than during Reagan's era, many of the proposed solutions are just too out there. In that regard, this text is quite dated.
The other reason I ordered it, was to try and understand equality, as I think term is thrown around far too loosely and it opens the door wide for misunderstandings.
There is equality of opportunity, ie, if a student is motivated, the system, tools, and resources are equally available to all. Alas, if a student is ready to learn and is highly motivated, they can do exceedingly well. On the other hand, if a student could care less, and doesn't want to be there, but is forced to, not they won't do well... and from a distressing point of view, they are likely to impair others pursuit of learning. Thus, we have the equality/excellence tradeoff.
The authors reject that, and state that equality of result needs to be the goal, and if such is the case, excellence for all will be the result. Alas, they define excellence quite a bit differently than I do.
A friend is a 20 year + band teacher and a true master of the trumpet. Students studying the trumpet under him will achieve a much higher level of competence than they would under a 1st year band teacher whose primary instrument was clarinet. Obviously there is no way to provide concert level mastery of an instrument at a high school level, or even providing a path for a student to reach their full potential as economic constraints and availability of resources make such impossible. Its not just musical excellence either, the same could be said for any number of fields. All students are not going to be able to study under true masters of the field... so excellence has to be left in the meritocracy realm, ie where socio-economics can drive private master teachers, or the idea of excellence in a given area must decrease.
I think the authors idea is that there will be excellence here, or excellence there, and that it will even itself out across a wide body of students and subject areas. Ie, a school will provide excellence as far as citizenship and a wide swath of skills to all students, it will likely not provide excellence for an individual student, nor subject area. To me, this is still the equality/excellence tradeoff, but I do see their point.
As a means of achieving said equality, they advocate a near unlimited set of means of learning, and pretty much unlimited second chances. They also state that effective ways of teaching are well known in order to reach both the privileged and disadvantaged, and that being a democracy, we can prioritize things to achieve it. Alas, unlike 1985, we've had 25+ more years of trying things, democracy in general has chosen to increase income inequality and poverty, and at the same time ignored, or chosen policies which severely limit means of learning; albeit some states have done well with the second chance thing. In 2013, some education experts have come to the conclusion we don't really know what to do in the education equality arena, as external factors, the primary being poverty, is a much greater factor than the school systems can address in isolation.
Bottom line, this is a good read for folks with a policy interest... but its also a bit on the depressing side, as in combination with current political trends, it appears as a whole, we are choosing to maximize inequality. Not wishing to leave this review on a downer, there are individual teachers out there, hero types who are making a difference. Perhaps society will choose inequality, but individual teachers can and do make a difference, often times in huge ways.
August 3, 2020
Provides a good historical overview of some of the pertinent issues in higher education.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews