- Paperback: 330 pages
- Publisher: Yale University Press; New edition edition (5 May 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0300078676
- ISBN-13: 978-0300078671
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,449,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Getting ahead and getting an education are inseparable in the minds of most Americans. David Labaree argues, however, that the connection between schooling and social mobility may be doing more harm than good, for the pursuit of educational credentials has come to take precedence over the acquisition of knowledge.
Labaree examines the competing intellectual and ideological traditions that have fought for dominance in our public schools from the nineteenth century to the present. He claims that by thinking of education primarily as the route to individual advancement, we are defining it as a private good -- a means of gaining a competitive advantage over other people. He endorses an alternative vision, one that sees education as a public good, providing society with benefits that can be collectively shared -- for example, by producing citizens who are politically responsible and workers who are economically productive. He points out that when education is seen primarily as a private consumer good, a number of consequences follow. Formal characteristics of schooling -- grades, credits, and degrees -- come to assume greater weight than substantive characteristics, such as actually learning something. Grading becomes more important for its social consequences than for its pedagogical uses. For these and other reasons, the pursuit of certification and degrees takes precedence over the goals of learning, and the private benefits of schooling take precedence over its democratic and civic functions.
"A wonderful book that draws on the history and sociology of education to show why schools have been increasingly oriented around the awarding of credentials rather than the pursuit oflearning". -- William Reese, author of The Origins of the American High School
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Getting ahead and getting an education are inseparable in the minds of most Americans. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
This is a collection of numerous articles in recent years by Labaree, on topics ranging from schools of education to the history of public schools. Since most come from scholarly journals, the language is dry to those of us who are non-academics. Many of his points though are good and his discussion on the purpose of education is an interesting thread that runs throughout the book. Best of all, the book is an objective look, from someone more concerned with educational programs that work than with any particular agenda.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A tad dry, but insightful
24 Jan 1999
Format:Hardcover
This is a collection of numerous articles in recent years by Labaree, on topics ranging from schools of education to the history of public schools. Since most come from scholarly journals, the language is dry to those of us who are non-academics. Many of his points though are good and his discussion on the purpose of education is an interesting thread that runs throughout the book. Best of all, the book is an objective look, from someone more concerned with educational programs that work than with any particular agenda.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
We got the schools we demanded
1 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback
This is a book written by an academic for academics. In another of his books Labaree, himself, confesses that he isn't trying to write in a popular style: "One problem," he wrote, " is that I tend to write history without actors." You won't find John Holt-style polemics or engaging stories about struggling teenagers. This is Labaree working out his own ideas on how American education got the way that it is.
Hidden in here are some brilliantly insightful notions about American education, ideas that I've not seen anywhere else. Dr. Labaree believes that our education system evolved into what we have now because the people shaping it were/are the people who pay the freight: the consumers of that education. Unlike European and Asian systems, where the State funds the system, in the U.S. we allowed students to use their dollars to demand diplomas and degrees that exist as currency to buy the owner a better life--or at least a life with increased status. The result is that we have schools where students care little about the specifics of what they learn. He does a brilliant job of tracing the history of this evolution, then he shows how high schools, normal schools, junior colleges and land grant universities all fit themselves into this scheme.
This book paved the way for Labaree's later work (Someone Has to Fail) and truthfully that book--also very academic--goes further and talks more about the problems with contemporary reform movements. So this work is probably only for those who want to trace the evolution of Labaree's ideas.
Hidden in here are some brilliantly insightful notions about American education, ideas that I've not seen anywhere else. Dr. Labaree believes that our education system evolved into what we have now because the people shaping it were/are the people who pay the freight: the consumers of that education. Unlike European and Asian systems, where the State funds the system, in the U.S. we allowed students to use their dollars to demand diplomas and degrees that exist as currency to buy the owner a better life--or at least a life with increased status. The result is that we have schools where students care little about the specifics of what they learn. He does a brilliant job of tracing the history of this evolution, then he shows how high schools, normal schools, junior colleges and land grant universities all fit themselves into this scheme.
This book paved the way for Labaree's later work (Someone Has to Fail) and truthfully that book--also very academic--goes further and talks more about the problems with contemporary reform movements. So this work is probably only for those who want to trace the evolution of Labaree's ideas.
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