Challenge and Responsibility
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DOCUMENT RESUME ED 280 781 SO 018 049 AUTHOR Molnar, Alex, Ed. TITLE Social Issues and Education: Challenge and Responsibility. SPONS AGENCY Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, Va. REPORT NO ISBN-0-87120-141-0 PUB DATE 87 NOTE 143p. AVAILABLE FROMAssociation for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 125 North West Street, Alexandria, VA 22314 (Stock No. 611-86048; $9.75). PUB TYPE Collected Works - General (020) -- Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Culture Conflict; Democratic Values; Elementary Secondary Education; *Homosexuality; Leisure Time; Lesbianism; Literacy; Play; *Quality of Life; *Social Problems; Social Responsibility; Social Values; *Textbook Content; *Track System (Education) ABSTRACT Social responsibility is a difficult but essential aspect of being a professional educator. The contributors to this volume hope that the social policy debate within the education profession will be encouraged. The book provides practical assistance for educators in developing curriculum and instruction programs that foster creativity and critical thinking in relation to social issues. In this volume are: "Forward" (Gerald R. Firth); "The Emperor Has No Clothes" (Alex Molnar); "Tracking: Beliefs, Practices, and Consequences" (Jeannie Oakes); "Confronting Social Attitudes in Textbooks: The Response and Responsibility of Today's Educator" (Steven Selden); "Children's Play and Adult Leisure: The Social Responsibility of Educators" (Nancy R. King); "Ethnic Diversity, the Social Responsibility of Educators, and School Reform" (James A. Banks); "Peering into the Well of Loneliness: The Responsibility of Educators to Gay and Lesbian Youth" (James T. Sears); "Educating for Excellence on an Endangered Planet" (Tony Wagner); "Literacy in a Democracy: Our Responsibility as Educators and Citizens" (Harold Berlak); and "Promoting Equity: The Forgotten Responsibility" (Vito Perrone). (BZ) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** rxg SOCIAL ISSUES AND EDUCATION: CHALLENGE & USPONSIBILITY Edited by Alex Molnar Was Aszi moms ASSOCIATION FOR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT 125 NORTH WEST STREET ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA 22314 3 Copyright 1987 by the Association fcv.- Supervision and CurriculumDevelopment. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted inany form or by any means, electrmic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any informationstorage and retrieval sys..em, without permission in writing from the publisher. ASCD publication present a variety of viewpoints. The viewsexpressed or implied in this publication are not necessarily official pJsitions of the Association. Price: $9.75 ASCD Stock Number: 611-86048 ISBN:0-87120-141-0 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 86-072697 4 Sodal Tissues and Education: Challenge and Responsibility Foreword Gerald R. Rah Introduction Alex Molnar 1. The Emperor Has No Clothes 1 Alex Molnar 2. Tracking: Beliefs, Pfactices, and Consequences 15 Jeannie Oakes 3. Confronting Social Attitudes in Textbooks: The Response and Responsibility cf Today's Educator 31 Stewn Selden 4. Children's Play and Adult Leisure: The Social Resronsibility of Educators 47 Nancy R. King 5. Ethnic Diversitg the Social Responsibility of Educators, and School Reform 59 James A. Banks 6. Peering Into tht.. Well of Loneliness: The Responsibility of Educators to Gay and Lesbian Youth 79 James T Seats 7. Educating for ExcellenceOnan Endangered Planet 101 TOny Wagner 8. Literacy in a Democracy. Our Responsibility as Educators and Citizens 113 Harold Berlak 9. Promoting Equity: The Forgotten Responsibility 125 Vito Perrone The Authors 135 5 iii :Jere\lord THE AUTHORS OF TI IIS PUBLICATION HOLD UP A MIRROR TI IAT MANY EDUCATORS WILL find disturbing to gaze upon. Most assume responsibility for helping students understand and realize the necessity for improving the social condition. That the responsibility requires action within and beyond the schoolhouse to actually change society may be more than many of them are willing to accept. Molnar is direct in stating early in the opening chapter that the responsi- bility to our profession, our students, and to society itself is "to see through social myth, to keep our eyes firmly fixed on reality, and to say what we see." His case is shaped and supported from diverse perceptions and perspec- tives by the various contributors. Data from Goodlad are utilized by Oakes to suggest that school reorganization based upon a common curriculum and classroom heterogeneity is a key to reducing inequity in students' experi- ences. The presence of political ideology masquerading as objective content in biology textbooks is analyzed by Selden as illustration of pressure to reconceptualize science as social policy or theology. The effects of conform- ing play to norms of bei,avior expected by a work force in a workplace are described by King as preparation of children for leisure activities that accom- modate dominmt modes of work in adult society Reform of the total school environment to reflect a multicultural ethos is proposed by Banks to meet the challenge of developing cultAral, national, and global identification of stu- dents. Inclusion of gays and lesbians is advocated by Sears in the obligation of educators to promote human dignity and to further social justice for all students in all areas, not only for those currently in vogue or most conve- niently served. Modeling active citizenship in schools and communities is offered by Wagner as the critical factor in preserving democracy and perhaps survival of the species. Shifting power for determining priorities and pro- grams to local school communities is advanced by Berlak to obtain literacy that ensures democratic social practices; risking implementation of new structures is argued by Perrone to assure a democratic, fully equitable, and accessible system of education. The magnitude and pervasiveness of the task of social responsibility are considerable. Banks emphasizes that to help students develop democratic values and clarified identifications the total school must be reformed, includ- ing institutional norms, power relationships, verbal interactions between 6 V SOCIAL ISSUES AND EbucAnoN: CHALLENGE AND RESPONSIBILITY 111111111MINEEMEM11111119131111=1111MINI teachers and students, culture of the school, manifest and latentcurriculums, extracurricular activities, attitudes toward minority languages, and thecoun- seling and testing programs. If the educaional profession does not exercise its opportunityto partici- pate in formulating government policies, contends Molnar, "it willnot only leave the destiny of American education in the hands of others,it will be abdicating a good part of its professional responsibilityto our society as well." Molnar captures the challenge succinctly: "We cannotescape our respon- sibility for the world we turn over toour students." GERALD R. FIRTH ASCD President 1986-87 7 vi SOCIAL ISSUES AND EDUCATION: CHALLENGE AND RESPONSIBILITY IS BASED ON THE premise that educators have responsibilities that go beyond the technical aspects of their work in schools. Many of these extracurricular responsibilities stem from the fact that social context influences the professional work of educators. Educators today are in a contradictory position. Through their work in schools they experience keenly what Henry described in Culture Against Man as society's need to remain stabh, while at the same time introducing and allowing enough change to keep from stagnating. The tension between stability and change in American society is reflected, for example, in the contradictory expectation that schools edLcate both for creativity and critical thinking and that they do so in a way that produces allegiance to a set of socially prescribed values and behavioral norms. If, on the one hand, creativity and critical thinking are to bean integral part of education, then the organization of our society and the relationsh:p of the U.S. to the rest of the world cannot be ruled off-limits as legitimate topics. On the other hand, the responsibility to socialize students to believe that the social relations in the U.S. (and between the U.S. and the rest of the world) are legitimate and just dictates that educators allow critical thinking and creativity only in certain acceptable and noncontroversial areas, for example, in areas that serve society's manpower development needs. In other words, students are to learn to be effective workers, and at the same time learn notto question a mainstream view of American society and the U.S. role in the world. Examples of mainstream views abound: The war in Vietnam wasa tragedy but not an American war of aggression; unemployment is sad, but most people are unemployed because they did not pursue the proper train- ing or do notant to work; at the United Nations the United States frequeuly finds itself voting in the minority because of the reflexive anti-Americanism of many Third W3rld countries, not because the policies of the United States often isolate it in the world community; the poverty and blight in city after city in the United States is regretable, but there has always been poverty and the government can do little or nothing to change things. And so on. vii SOCIAL BMWs AND EMIG/trios: