Who's Market? Whose knowledge?

Education in the U.S. it headed in the direction under the very broad “conservative umbrella”. This will be a challenging task for us to turn toward the right, however the political ideologies of Neoliberalism, Neoconservatism, and Authoritaria Populism are so intertwined, have potential for compromise in addition to conflicting values, that they create a whole new uphill battle in the area of education. The differences outlined in Chapter 2 concern: “current U.S. policy in comparison to global world, a closer connection between educating and the economy, the reinstallation of “Western Traditions”, religiously based ideals and the emergence of the New Right”. Understanding the contradictory tendencies of the three of these groups still fall under the conservative ideology or “conservative modernization” while also being cognizant of the known concept of the difficultness of sustaining any change. I am puzzled as to why the three groups do not come together to compromise. Nevertheless, I realize that in the midst of all the connections among groups each has a distinct set of values that they are weary and unwillingly to fully compromise. I do not believe I have ever seen such an overarching concept with countless similarities and differences. Each group has their own ideas for “reviving” education. Neo-liberals focus on the economic progress that can be made if schools concentrate on becoming “marketized”, creating a population of students who will eventually benefit and stimulate the economy. Neoconservatives on the other hand do stress economic benefits, however adding components of Western Traditions and are seemingly suspect of those currently in the educational world. Finally, the authoritarian populists are, as I refer to as dripping in religion, believe we should move backwards to the days of the development of education. In other words, the U.S. Constitution states that as citizens we have unalienable rights to freedom of religion. This group does not include all religions present in our multicultural country, but is populated by ONLY Christian Fundamentalists. If you would like religion to be a component of your child’s education, then by all means enroll in a religiously based school. My intensions are not meant to be offensive but this group makes no sense to me at all. Finally, we are introduced to the “New” Middle class. Middle class in general has been historically misunderstood & the preferences of the “New Right”, in my opinion should be left out of the outlines all together. Apple provided me with new knowledge and new viewpoints concerning educational practices and policies. I apologize for being long winded but I enjoyed this chapter! I am looking forward to discussing & evaluating this topic in class, should be exciting.

Establishing a Means of Questioning Apple...

In order to properly examine Apple's critical analysis of the growing power of conservative movements in educational policy and practice, as a class we should be mindful of both sides to every issue. For example, Apple has provided us with two distinct groups, the neoliberals, who are committed to markets and freedom of individuals, while neoconservatives are committed to discipline and traditional polices for education. This is the group that us as teachers debate constantly is the belief in standards and high stakes testing. In additon, the latter group centers around authoritarian policies which very often include religion. I believe it is difficult as a very reformed Jewish person to relate to an explanation of the world of education can be defined only using the Bible and the idea that "it is necessary to turn our lives over to God". In chapter one, Apple does an excellent job in presenting both sides of the argument. Another means of questioning concerns examining the former educational policies, the current educational policies and finally the future. Therefore, I believe that discussing the current educational system and the future of education. "Dwelling" on past educational systems, such as those during colonial times, proves to be "unimportant" since so many changes have been made since that time. The only reason to study past educational policies is to support the neoconservatives belief that religion has a place in education. In addition, I believe based on our individual belief systems concerning educational practices and policies may be vastly different, therefore as a class we must be mindful of views different from our own. Viewing education as a "business" may be a difficult task for some of us and whenever policies (educational and otherwise) are linked with politics, messy differing thoughts can arise, and eventually turning into a hot debate. My mom always told me there are three things you do not discuss with people and the first was always politics.

A Little About JB....

Hello! My name is Julie Butler, feel free to call me Julie or JB. I was born and raised in Lyndhurst, Ohio. My primary email address is jbutler143@yahoo.com. I am fortunate to teach in the district where I attended school from kindergarten to 12th grade! I teach 8th grade social studies, both regular education and advanced classes. I attended THE Ohio State University for my undergraduate in Integrated Social Studies. After OSU, I attended John Carroll University for my first masters in education and am currently work toward my second masters in educational administration. I am into music, especially Dave Matthews Band (I have attended upwards of 40 concerts all over the country) and playing with my dog Charli.

I always feel comfortable in classrooms! I am very outspoken and do not have any problems with taking intellectual and creative risks in the classroom. I consider myself a good student simply because I am an overachiever. I am always involved in active oral class participation and in addition to being a responsible, prepared and very timely. I am aware that my learning style is a acombination of both auditory and visual styles. If I could not understand a concept I would speak to my classmates as well as the professor. In my life situation, my mom died in November after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in September. This is a difficult time however I will strive to for success in the class.
My best experience as a student was with Mrs. Joan Kelly. I learned so much from her including many lessons to live a successful life. She is the reason I entered the profession, only to hope to be half the teacher she was.
I believe in order to make this the greatest class ever, we should concentrate on activities, study content topics and compelling questions, interact with each other. I believe that research papers will take away from the books we are reading and I do not learn well that way. In addition, during the educational administrative masters pursuit we have written countless papers on various things in education. I believe it is important to stay in the here and now, rather than researching something. I believe the authors of our two books do exactely that, and I believe will teach me more than dated research.