1) Read the essays by Mann, Gatto and Emerson and answer the following questions:
A) What did the authors intend to do with these essays? What arguments are they making about American education? (hint: be sure to discuss Gatto 's idea of the hidden curriculum and Mann 's desire for MANDATORY public education).
- Horace Mann’s essay, “From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, 1848”, intends to show the importance of education and how education can affect a person’s social class. Mann argued that education “beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men”. He claims, with education you can basically prevent yourself from being poor considering there are various types of education and all have importance in our daily lives. Therefore, education should be an equal right to every person. There needs to be a “free school-system” so that all people have equal opportunity to pursue the path they choose.
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C) How do the Mann and Gatto essays reveal the ways that education can be used as a "tool" by the hegemony to reinforce its SCOR?
- Mann reveals that education can be used as a tool by displaying how education is important for success. Without a good education, most will be living with the minimum as they will lack the knowledge and resources to survive in this competitive society.
- Gatto reveals that education can be used as a tool to reinforce the social construction of society by demonstrating how there is a hidden curriculum in education where people are taught to conform to society. People are essentially becoming robots due to schooling. They learn in school to obey their teachers and then move on in life to essentially do the same thing; obey the employers. Instead of encouraging creativity and creating entrepreneurs, schooling creates tools for society.
2) In your opinion, what should a 21st century American education include in terms of knowledge, skills and attitude development (in K-12? at the university