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POLITICAL ECONOMY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION: Democratic Citizenship in the Heart of Empire Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University Thomas Michael Falk B.A., M.A. Graduate Program in Education The Ohio State University Summer, 2012 Committee Members: Bryan Warnick (Chair), Phil Smith, Ann Allen Copyright by Thomas Michael Falk 2012 ABSTRACT Chief among the goals of American education is the cultivation of democratic citizens. Contrary to State catechism delivered through our schools, America was not born a democracy; rather it emerged as a republic with a distinct bias against democracy. Nonetheless we inherit a great demotic heritage. Abolition, the labor struggle, women’s suffrage, and Civil Rights, for example, struck mighty blows against the established political and economic power of the State. State political economies, whether capitalist, socialist, or communist, each express characteristics of a slave society. All feature oppression, exploitation, starvation, and destitution as constitutive elements. In order to survive in our capitalist society, the average person must sell the contents of her life in exchange for a wage. Fundamentally, I challenge the equation of State schooling with public and/or democratic education. Our schools have not historically belonged to a democratic public. Rather, they have been created, funded, and managed by an elite class wielding local, state, and federal government as its executive arms. Schools are economic institutions, serving a division of labor in the reproduction of the larger economy. Rather than the school, our workplaces are the chief educational institutions of our lives. Here we spend the bulk of our time and efforts. Our jobs constitute our deepest point of political impact upon society. As Adam Smith and Karl Marx both recognized, people are formed by their ordinary employments; our daily habits and modes of association determine who we are. Thus the character of our workplaces, whether democratic, autocratic, or theocratic, serves as the best barometer for the character of our culture. Since the late-19th century, capitalist industry has sought to transform the worker into the beast of burden whose primary life function is to labor for the enlargement of capital. Hence the education of daily working life, subservience to those who control our access to food, shelter, and healthcare, reproduces docility and political apathy. The rat race to “succeed” in our culture by becoming wealthy enough to escape this servility, amounts to a Spencerian contest of survival of the fittest, with capital prefigured to increase its power over the herd-like working class regardless of the contest’s winner. Emancipation begins in the habits and relations of daily life. Capacity for democratic citizenship issues from participation in horizontal and egalitarian social structures at the local level. ii Therefore the educational task of our time is to create such forms, build democratic lifeways into our schools and workplaces, and prepare to challenge the autocracy of capitalist industry. In the democratic future, freed from mechanical toil and the tyranny of imminent destitution, we will experience a new renaissance and discover the genius of our species. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to acknowledge the faculty in Philosophy of Education, Bryan Warnick and Phil Smith, for tending the flame of intellectual freedom at Ohio State University. Their courage and curiosity have allowed me a unique opportunity to join in the ancient pursuit wisdom, no matter how bizarre and heavy such an endeavor can get. Ann Allen also deserves credit for working through this dissertation and helping me navigate the challenge of meeting minds shaped by different life experiences. I am fortunate to have worked with Doug Macbeth, whose honesty and brilliance has sharpened the lens and language through which I see and speak of the world. Additionally, I must thank my late undergraduate faculty advisor, Steve Rubenstein, for his sobering teachings and sage advice to seek education in a foreign culture. A debt of gratitude is owed to my fellow workers in whom I find faith in humankind, whose indomitable strength and solidarity lift my spirit. Most importantly, I am grateful for my parents and loving wife whose support has enabled me to thrive during this strange and wonderful period of life. iv VITA 2004.....................................................................................................B.A. Spanish, Anthropology Ohio University 2009-2010............................................................................................Graduate Research Associate Ohio State University 2010-2011............................................................................................Graduate Teaching Associate Ohio State University 2011.....................................................................................................M.A. Philosophy of Education Ohio State University 2008-2012............................................................................................University Fellow Ohio State University PUBLICATIONS Tom M. Falk, “Progressivism and Consumer Democracy,” Journal of Philosophical Studies in Education (in press). Tom M. Falk, “Middle-Class Curriculum and the Failure of Achievement,” Bajo Palabra: Revista de Filosofia, II, 6 (2011), 97-106. Tom M. Falk, “Literacy as Dialogue,” Philosophical Studies in Education, 41 (August, 2010), http://www.ovpes.org/2010Final.htm. Tom M. Falk, Sam Rocha & Bryan R. Warnick, “Social Science and Its Discontents: An essay review of Bent Flyvbjerg's Making Social Science Matter,” Education Review, 4 (March, 2009), http://edrev.asu.edu/essays/v12n4index.html. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Education v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT............................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... iv VITA ........................................................................................................................................................ v FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION: DEMOCRACY, EDUCATION, AND THE STATE............................................................ 4 CHAPTER ONE: WAGE SLAVERY AND ITS DISCONTENTS.................................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................... 9 HEGEL’S MASTER-SLAVE DIALECTIC............................................................................................... 10 ZOMBIES AND DEVILS: THE FOLKLORE OF CAPITALISM .................................................................. 12 CAPITALIST POLITICAL ECONOMY.................................................................................................... 14 RESISTANCE AND SURRENDER.......................................................................................................... 19 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER TWO: THE BONDS OF SERFDOM......................................................................................... 28 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 28 “THE CONQUEST OF BREAD” ............................................................................................................ 28 THE STATE ........................................................................................................................................ 34 WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE................................................................................................................ 40 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 45 CHAPTER THREE: THE EDUCATION OF WORK.................................................................................. 53 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 53 PRODUCING PERSONS........................................................................................................................ 54 BEASTS OF BURDEN .......................................................................................................................... 57 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................... 64 CHAPTER FOUR: THE SCHOOLS OF CAPITAL ..................................................................................... 69 INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................. 69 vi SCHOOLS FOR SLAVES....................................................................................................................... 70 “THE EDUCATIONAL FRONTIER” .....................................................................................................
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