After finishing chapter 1 in Michael Apple's book, Educating the "Right" Way: Markets, Standards, God and Inequality, it is impossible to say that one cannot see the point of view from which this book was written. Currently, whenever education is mentioned in the news, it is rarely a positive story. The focus is on bullying or low standardized tests scores, which always leads to an interview of a community member stating that public education is failing our children, and moving away from the core values that made this nation great. But as duly noted by Apple, Thomas Jefferson a founding father, was a proponent of "wall of separation" of church and state. Values are religious based and taught from the home; basic knowledge and increased exposure to intellectual findings are the responsibilities of schools.
I feel a very interesting point made by Apple in the first chapter was when he said, "economic independence became a defining element in political freedom." This is also true when it comes to public education. Take for example the state standardized tests (which to any teacher is like a swear word); it does not take a rocket scientist to know how economically disadvantaged schools will rank when compared to economically affluent districts. However, it is often related to the public that the poor schools are not doing their job and charter schools are the answers within these areas because they are also "value" based. Believe me when I say the teachers in these districts are doing their job, but the test alone is biased to their population of students purely based on the economic independence of those who raise them. They lack resources in the early formative years, although No Child Left Behind was supposed to be the magic pill to equalize everyone. Anyone within the teaching profession, who would most likely stand up and shout "No Duh!" when reading this book, so I question whether this text is taken seriously into consideration by anyone outside of the real world of education.
