All valid except the premise that students devoid of cultural capital are destined to take vocational courses and enter the working class. Those courses are quickly disappearing from high schools as students are told they must go on to college. Students who choose instead to go into a trade or the military are not left behind or subordinated, they have chosen a different path -- a path which will likely be rewarding and substantial. These are the bedrocks of our society, and their perspective on life is as valid -- if not more -- than the overpaid, eloquent university professor who can't change a flat tire.
Yeah I agree. Kids who used to be tracked into machine shop are now mostly just allowed to drop out. I think there should be more vocational training, not less. And less college all around.
I started elementary school in 1960, and there was definitely tracking starting in first grade. How you did in Kindergarten determined which track you went into. There was the accelerated group, the regular group, the slow group (and they were called the slow group. Nobody cared about hurt feelings back then), and then there was Special Ed, but that is a different topic in itself.
Tracking went all the way through high school, and there were shop and home economics classes, work study programs, classes in typing and short hand, and at the other end of the spectrum, the honors classes. They were AP classes without the college credit.
When you put it all together, somehow it worked. The problem is that we are transitioning from an industrial based economy to an information based economy, and our public education system has not kept up with the demands of the new economy. Besides going into the trades, for which there will always be a need, the other students that are not going on to college, still need to be trained for a good career in the information age economy. Someone needs to be trained to fix the network when it stops functioning.
Interesting thesis. It will be very interesting to see if these anti-market sentiments continue to dominate Dem discourse. Most beliefs are decorative. We have them to blend in with our social groups. Trump was pro-market, thus, to be against Trump meant being anti-market, (just like it meant being "anti-racist"). Without Trump, will progressive Dems go back to being neo-liberal Dems? I think you are beginning to see it in elite discourse with classist statements regarding "Blue States paying for Red States," and "Blue State GDP dwarfs Red State GDP."
All valid except the premise that students devoid of cultural capital are destined to take vocational courses and enter the working class. Those courses are quickly disappearing from high schools as students are told they must go on to college. Students who choose instead to go into a trade or the military are not left behind or subordinated, they have chosen a different path -- a path which will likely be rewarding and substantial. These are the bedrocks of our society, and their perspective on life is as valid -- if not more -- than the overpaid, eloquent university professor who can't change a flat tire.
Yeah I agree. Kids who used to be tracked into machine shop are now mostly just allowed to drop out. I think there should be more vocational training, not less. And less college all around.
I started elementary school in 1960, and there was definitely tracking starting in first grade. How you did in Kindergarten determined which track you went into. There was the accelerated group, the regular group, the slow group (and they were called the slow group. Nobody cared about hurt feelings back then), and then there was Special Ed, but that is a different topic in itself.
Tracking went all the way through high school, and there were shop and home economics classes, work study programs, classes in typing and short hand, and at the other end of the spectrum, the honors classes. They were AP classes without the college credit.
When you put it all together, somehow it worked. The problem is that we are transitioning from an industrial based economy to an information based economy, and our public education system has not kept up with the demands of the new economy. Besides going into the trades, for which there will always be a need, the other students that are not going on to college, still need to be trained for a good career in the information age economy. Someone needs to be trained to fix the network when it stops functioning.
Exactly, you nailed it!
Interesting thesis. It will be very interesting to see if these anti-market sentiments continue to dominate Dem discourse. Most beliefs are decorative. We have them to blend in with our social groups. Trump was pro-market, thus, to be against Trump meant being anti-market, (just like it meant being "anti-racist"). Without Trump, will progressive Dems go back to being neo-liberal Dems? I think you are beginning to see it in elite discourse with classist statements regarding "Blue States paying for Red States," and "Blue State GDP dwarfs Red State GDP."
WOW! Great stuff.
Great work .. when I came across the term "culture capitalist" it was like I had been searching for these words for a long time.
This all rings true, especially about Silicon Valleyites. I found this story at a site that hammers them pretty hard. PressCalifornia.com