Education and the American Dream: Historical Perspectives on Democracy and Education

HSED-UE 610 and LIBAR – UE 552

Fall, 2014 – Silver 408

Joan Malczewski

East Building, Room 608

Office Hours: Tuesday 12 - 1, and by appointment

This course will examine the role of education in American society. Specifically, the course will consider different conceptions of democracy, community, and the relationship between public schooling and the promotion of democratic ideals. Students will explore some of the central goals and purposes of American public education over the past two centuries, and the historiographical debates about those goals and purposes. In the second half of the course, the course will focus on the relationship between schooling and civic education, and between schooling and specific communities. Students will be asked to consider whether the goals of schooling might promote or contradict the goals of particular groups who seek to benefit from public education, and how education does or does not promote democratic ideals.

COURSE MATERIALS

Required reading for this course consists of a set of articles that can be found on NYUClasses or on the web, and the following texts, which are available at the NYU Bookstore:

Required

Robert Dahl, On Democracy (New Haven, Yale University Press: 1998).

William Reese, America’s Public Schools, (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2005)

Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick: The American Dream and the Public Schools (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Suggested

Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America, available on-line, but you may want to own a copy, which is available in limited numbers at the NYU Bookstore. Ed. Arthur Goldhammer, (New York: Library of America, 2004).

Course Requirements:

Written Responses and Informed Participation in Class Readings and Discussion: Students are expected to read thoroughly the assigned readings for the week and come to class prepared to discuss the ideas and the authors’ perspectives. Every member of the class is expected to play an active role in discussions and group exercises, both as an informed participant and an engaged listener. To facilitate this participation, students should submit a weekly response to the readings. This response will be due on Monday each week, and will cover all of the readings for that week. This response can be either a written essay that discussed a particular aspect of the readings, or a set of questions that would be used to critically review the readings. Your response should not focus on just one reading, but rather assimilate and critically consider the body of work for that week. This might include a comparison between authors’ perspectives assigned that week, or with authors from other weeks. In addition, as noted on the syllabus, there will be three comprehensive essays due during the semester. On the weeks that these are due, students do not also have to write a weekly response paper. The class participation grade will be negatively affected by late papers and unexcused absences. Students who are absent four or more times for any reason cannot pass the course. (30%)

Comprehensive Essays: Students will be expected to submit three essays during the semester, 3 – 5 pages each. Questions will be posted on NYU Classes throughout the semester. These questions will explore important themes presented in the readings and class discussions and will help students to respond critically to these ideas. The papers should cite the works assigned in class and use the Chicago Manual of Style format for citations. (Due October 6, November 3, and December 8 -- 30% of grade)

Final Project: Students will be expected to explore one issue in depth that considers the relationship between education and democracy in contemporary culture. According to Robert Dahl, a democratic political society is dependent upon citizens having access to alternative sources of information – and a free press is an important source.[1] Students should be regularly reading the news and should explore articles that relate to the course. One of these articles should be used as the basis for your final paper and should be submitted as part of the final project. In this paper, students will be asked to provide historical context for the issue, describe the goals of particular constituencies, and develop their own response to the issue. Students will be expected to utilize the readings from the course, both primary and secondary, and format citations using the Chicago Manual of Style. The essay should include a well-developed thesis statement, a set of arguments, and a clear conclusion. Each paper should explore the following questions: how the goals of public education might be the same or at odds with the goals of a particular community; how the readings illuminate what people believed about teaching and learning at a particular time in American history; an analysis of competing ideals; how different authors treated the same topic; and, your own analysis of the topic based on this information. I encourage you to e-mail me a paper proposal by November 20 so that we can discuss any questions or concerns. (Due December 16 - 40% of grade)

GRADING

You should note carefully the dates that written assignments are due – you will lose points off of the grade on your written assignment if it is submitted late. Please also note that papers will not be accepted via e-mail. All papers must be submitted either in class or in my mailbox on the 6th Floor of the East Building.

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:

Students with physical or learning disabilities are required to register with the Moses Center for Students with Disabilities, 726 Broadway, 2nd Floor, (212-998-4980) and are required to present a letter from the Center to the instructor at the start of the semester in order to be considered for appropriate accommodation.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

Academic integrity is the guiding principle for all that you do; from taking exams, making oral presentations to writing term papers. It requires that you recognize and acknowledge information derived from others, and take credit only for ideas and work that are yours. You violate the principle of academic integrity when you:

  • Cheat on an exam;
  • Submit the same work for two different courses without prior permission from your professors;
  • Receive help on a take-home examination that calls for independent work;
  • Plagiarize.

Plagiarism, one of the gravest forms of academic dishonesty in university life, whether intended or not, is academic fraud. In a community of scholars, whose members are teaching, learning and discovering knowledge, plagiarism cannot be tolerated. It is the failure to assign properly authorship to a paper, a document, an oral presentation, a musical score and/or other materials, which are not your original work. You plagiarize when, without proper attribution, you do any of the following:

  • Copy verbatim from a book, an article or other media;
  • Download documents from the Internet;
  • Purchase documents;
  • Report from other's oral work;
  • Paraphrase or restate someone else's facts, analysis and/or conclusions;
  • Copy directly from a classmate or allow a classmate to copy from you.

Consult your professors for help with problems related to fulfilling course assignments, including questions related to attribution of sources.

Please note that when a professor suspects cheating, plagiarism, and/or other forms of academic dishonesty, appropriate disciplinary action may be taken following the department procedure or through referral to the Committee on Student Discipline.

COURSE SCHEDULE

  1. Education in a Democracy

September 3: Introduction

September 8 - 10: The Relationship between Education and Democracy

Robert Dahl: On Democracy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), Chapters 3 – 8 and 12 required, remaining chapters suggested

Benjamin Barber, “The Compromised Republic,” in American Social and Political Thought, A Reader, ed. Andreas Hess (New York: New York University Press, 2003), 141-148.

Sheldon Wolin, “Democracy without the Citizen,” in American Social and Political Thought, A Reader, ed. Andreas Hess (New York: New York University Press, 2003), 149-152.

John Rawls, “Political Liberalism,” in American Social and Political Thought, A Reader, ed. Andreas Hess (New York: New York University Press, 2003), 171-178.

  1. Education as a “Fourth Branch of Government”

September 15 - 17:

Alexis de Toqueville (ed. Arthur Goldhammer): Democracy in America: Volume I, Part II, Chapters 4, 6, 7; Volume 2, Part II, Chapters 1 – 6; Volume 2, Part IV, Chapter 1 – 4.

What are Schools For? The Development of a Public System of Schooling

William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), Chapter 1

Massachusetts Old Deluder Satan Law of 1647 in The School in the United States: A Documentary History ed. James W. Fraser (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001), 8.

Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia, 1743” in The School in the United States: A Documentary History ed. James W. Fraser (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001), 24 – 27.

Benjamin Rush, “Thought Upon the Mode of Education Proper in a Republic” in The School in the United States: A Documentary History ed. James W. Fraser (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2001), 27 – 31.

Horace Mann, “Twelfth Annual Report” in The Republic and the School: Horace Mann on the Education of Free Men, ed. Lawrence A. Cremin (New York: Teachers College Press, 1957)

  1. Relationships Between Community and Schooling

September 22: The Transformation of Community in the Gilded Age

Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman and Jon Gjerde, ed., “Industrialization, Workers and the New Immigration,” in Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 66 – 96.

Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives, Chapters 3, 15, 18

Suggested: You might also look at other chapters posted on NYUClasses

Jane Addams, “The Subjective Necessity of Social Settlements” in Twenty Years at Hull House(New York: 1912), Chapter 6.

September 24: Expansion and evolution in public education

Herbert Kliebard, The Struggle for the American Curriculum, 3rd ed., (New York: Routledge, 2004), Chapter 1.

William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), Chapter 2 and 3

“Report of the Committee on Secondary School Studies,” Commissioned by the National Education Association (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1893)

“The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education,” Report commissioned by the National Education Association, 1918.

September 29 – October 1: The role of the public

John Dewey, The Public and its Problems, (Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1954, original copyright 1924), Chapters 4 and 5

Walter Lippman, The Phantom Public, 9th ed. (New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2009, original copyright 1927), Chapters I - VII, Chapter XIII, XVI

  1. Diversity, Communities and Democracy in Education

October 6 - 8: African Americans and Education – Post-bellum Schooling and Beyond

Malczewski, Joan, The Struggle to Build a New Educational State: Foundations, Schools and the American South, Chapters 1 and 2

Du Bois, W.E.B., The Souls of Black Folk (Chicago: 1903)and “The Talented Tenth,”in The Negro Problem (New York: 1903)

Washington, Booker T., Up From Slavery: An Autobiography (New York: 1902).

The Niagara Movement Declaration of Principles

First Essay Due October 6: Question posted on NYU Classes

October 13: No Class – University Holiday

October 15: Women and Education

David Tyack and Elisabeth Hansot, Learning Together: A History of Coeducation in American Public Schools (New Haven: Yale University Press 1990)** Chapters 2, 4, 5, 8

Nancy Cott, “Equal Rights and Economic Roles: The Conflict over the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1920’s,” in Women’s America: Refocusing the Past ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, and Cornelia Hughes Dayton(New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 441-451.

Oct. 15 - Women and Education Continued:

Primary Document Packet –

  • Catherine Beecher, “Peculiar Responsibilities of American Women,” Chapter 1 in Treatise on Domestic Economy (Boston: 1842)
  • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “Declaration of Sentiments, 1848,”in Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton (New York, Oxford University Press: 2011), 264 – 266.
  • Margaret Haley, “Why Teachers Should Organize,” in The Journal of the Proceeding of the Forty-Third Annual Meeting Held in St. Louis, Missouri in Connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition June 27-July 1 1904 (Winona, MN: Secretary's Office of the National Education Association, 1904), 145-52.
  • “The Civil Rights Act, Title VII, 1964 in Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton (New York: 2011), 441-451.
  • Equal Rights Amendment, 1972
  • Title IX, Education Amendments of 1972
  • “Meritor Savings Bank v. Mechelle Vinson et al., 1986,” and Violence against Women Act, 1994, 2000, 2005,” in Women’s America: Refocusing the Past, ed. Linda Kerber, Jane Sherron De Hart, Cornelia Hughes Dayton, 741 – 745.

October 20 -22: Americanizing” the Schools and the Quest for Inclusion

William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) Chapter 4-5

Jonathan Zimmerman, Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2002)** , Chapter 1 – 3

Leonard Covello, The Heart is the Teacher (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1958)**, Read through as much of the book as possible, and look specifically at Chapters 4-9, 12,14,17,19-27

October 27 - 29: What Are New Schools For?

William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), Chapter 6

Elizabeth Cobbs-Hoffman and Jon Gjerde, eds., “The Depression, the New Deal and Franklin D. Roosevelt,” in Major Problems in American History, Volume II: Since 1865 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002), 215 - 244.

George Counts, Dare the Schools Build a New Social Order? (Carbondale: 1978, original 1932), Chapter 1-3.

November 3 - 5: Local Communities versus Central Control

Jeffrey Moran, The Scopes Trial: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002), Part I

Jonathan Zimmerman, Whose America?: Culture Wars in the Public Schools (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002)** , Chapter 6– 8

Jerald Podair, The Strike that Changed New York: Blacks, Whites, and the Ocean Hill-Brownsville Crisis (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002)**– Introduction - Chapter 3

Eyes on the Prize, produced by Henry Hampton (1987-1990: PBS), documentary to be viewed in class

Second Essay Due November 3: Question posted on NYU Classes

November 10 – 12: Schooling and Desegregation

William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), Chapter 7.

Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick: The American Dream and the Public Schools (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), Introduction, Chapter 1, 2.

“Achievement Gap,” Education Week, published August 3, 2004 and updated July 7, 2011.

Erica Frankenberg and Gary Olfield, “Federal Education Policy Should Promote Diversity,” from the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, published February 5, 2010.

November 17- 19: The Individual v. the Community: How should money be spent?:

William Reese, America’s Public Schools: From the Common School to “No Child Left Behind” (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), Chapter 8 – Epilogue.

Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick: The American Dream and the Public Schools (New York: Oxford University Press), Introduction, Chapter 3 – 7.

  1. Democracy in the Schools

November 24: Democracy in the Schools: The Profession

Gerald Grant and Christine Murray: Teaching in America: The Slow Revolution (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002)**, chapter 6 - 8

November 26: No Class

December 1 -3: Democracy in the Schools: Student Rights and School Discipline

Gael Graham, “The High School Student Rights Movement,” in Young Activists: American High School Students in the Age of Protest (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2006).

Richard Arum, Judging School Discipline: The Crisis of Moral Authority (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), Chapters 1 – 3, 6.

Student Press Law Report

December 8 - 10: Education in Contemporary Civil Society

Jennifer Hochschild and Nathan Scovronick, The American Dream and the Public Schools (New York: Oxford University Press), Chapter 8.

David Labaree, How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), Chapters 1 – 4.

U.S. Department of Education, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Executive Summary, February 10, 2004.

Reforming NCLB – President Obama’s Call for Reform

Ronald Evans, “The Runaway Train of Standards Reform,” in The Social Studies Wars: What Should We Teach the Children (New York: 2004), 149 – 174.

Third Essay Due December 8: Question posted on NYU Classes

December 16: Final Papers Due – Deposit in mailbox, East Building, 6th Floor

Fall, 2014: 9/28/2018 1

[1] Robert Dahl, On Democracy, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997), 97.