Blog #3

Apple starts off with an interesting statement, "Education is both cause and effect, determining and determined." This alone reminds us that education is fluid. Although we in the education field feel there is a constant change, if you are in the profession long enough you will realize that it is cyclical. Within his outline Apple discusses neoliberalism, neoconservatives, authoritarian populists, and the professional and managerial new middle class.

The term neoliberals is interesting, because when the word liberal is mentioned most people think left wing politics, but the term neoliberalsim is discussed as a conservative movement which constantly is telling the public that we are a weak nation and our schools are the main reason why we are in this downward spiral. They offer up solutions such as voucher programs or school of choice options, which is going on within the state of Ohio; however do these choices really work. When you take an economically disadvantaged school and offer these choices, sure students can go to a charter school or take their voucher to a private school, but in the private sector they still have to come up with the rest of the tuition, which they cannot. Voucher schools within the state of Ohio have the worse scores on the OAA so how is this helping students achieve. So parents may feel they have this choice, but what kind of education are their children really receiving?

Neoconservatism is interesting because they tote the notion of the “good old days”. However when you look back at the education and opportunities back in the “good old days” we had segregation, women were seen as second class citizens and science and math were mainly offered to white males. How is regression in education going to help move our children forward in the ever changing technological world?

Authoritarian Populism helps to influence the neoconservative movement by also quoting past precedence; however, their slant is one of morality. This is a slipper slope to tread when speaking of public education. Morality goes hand and hand with religion and public education is non religious based. What should the role of public education be, to create morally sound citizens or once again educate the children who will shape our economic future?

Which brings me to Apple’s final piece of the puzzle, the managerial middle class. Personally I would get rid of the first three pieces of Apples outline and focus on this particular group. Within the past eleven years my district has moved from an autonomous atmosphere to dictated curriculum restricting true creativity solely based on this groups notion of accountability and state wide testing. This is the most influential group and is growing exponentially. They have already influenced the core standard movement, which will make states reorganize their curriculums and force them into new textbooks and materials. Since business is demanding a product of the schools, and that product can only be the students we see each day, apple should restructure his theory of educational influence and should start a new book entitled “Changing the school atmosphere: How to mass produce the workers of tomorrow.”