Labaree response.
Greetings,
After reading the Labaree article, my overriding questions is, “Why can’t we have all three goals?” For those of you who do not know, Labaree states that we do not really need another study on what works best in the classroom or a discussion on if we need to have a national curriculum until we decide, politically, what we want from our schools. Labaree continues to state the three different goals that are usually being fought over: Democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility.
The democratic equality approach to schooling is the idea that students are in school to take on the full responsibilities of citizenship in a competent manner.
The social efficiency approach argues that schooling is so that students will be able to carry out their useful economic roles with competence.
The social mobility approach argues that education is a commodity and the purpose is to provide individual students with an edge when struggling over desirable social positions.
So, returning to my question, “Why can’t we have all three?” Although I do not have an answer, I do state that the there has to be some way to relate each of those that will satisfy each camp.
Work Sited:
Labaree, D. F. (1997). Public goods, private goods: The American struggle over educational goals. American Educational Research Journal, 34, 39-81.
