Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Schools Counteracting Families

We've been reading The One Best System, by David Tyack, for class. Here's on interesting tidbit I came across (about nineteenth century schools):

"Schools, like other institutions, were supposed to counteract or compensate for indulgent or neglectful families." (p. 72)

I can't say with any authority to what extent this was true throughout the twentieth century, but the current movement toward "paternalistic" or "no excuses" schools seems to echo that same philosophy. Indeed, I presented that as one logical policy option given that we know that non-school factors influence achievement more than in-school factors.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

It takes a village : Teaching a student twice a week is unlikely to have a lasting impact on a student w/ two parents in jail.
One was in jail for capital murder; the other for prostitution.

Student X was always mad .... perhaps with good cause. Student X needs more than one 84 minute a week teacher that cares. Student X needs more than a system that still believes in social promotion.

Unknown said...

All I know is the other students in student X's class will suffer because of student X, and there is not a damn thing we can do in the classroom to get student X out of his predicament.

Unknown said...

And, his teachers will be blamed!