November/December 1979 Vol.11 No.6 $1.25 FOR THE • Special Issue on Science and Education

Education and Capitalism

The Competency Controversy

Scientific Management and Education

Jonathan Kozol's Tactics for Teachers A Course on Women in Science Tale of a Substitute Teacher

Resources for Teachers Course Descriptions CHAPTERS AND C()NTACTS

..,, rem t' tor the Pen piP "an org,HlllJtron ot pt•oplt• involved or interested in science and technology-related issues, whose activities Jrt' drre< ted at 11 expo,rng tht' < Ia'' , ontrol of ;cwnce and tt'chnology, 2) organizing campaigns which criticize, challenge and proP,ose altt•r nat I\"' to the prt•,ent liSt'' ot 'crerH e and If'< hnology, and 3) dt'veloping a political strategy by which people in the technical strata can alh wrth otht>r progrt'"'"' torn•, rn ;ocrt't;. SftP opposes the ideologies of sexism, racism,-elitism and their practice, and holds an anti­ rmperral"t world-v1ew. MPmber;hrp 111 ~ftp" def11wd a' subscribing to the magazine and/or actively participating in local SftP activities.

ARIZONA: Sedley Arleen Josserdnd MAS SAC HU S ETTS: Amherst WASHINGTON: Phil Bereano. 316 3730 East Bellevue No 9 TliCSOil AZ Chapter: Marvrn Kalkstern. Unrversity Guggenheim. FS-15. Univ of Washington. B5 716 W1thout Walls. Wysockr House. Un1vers1ty Seattle, WA 98195. (206) 543-9037 of Massachusetts. Amherst. MA 01002 ARKANSAS: Joe NeJI P 0 Box 1 7 72 WISCONSIN Rrck Cote. 1525 Linden Fayetteville AR 7 2 701 Dotty Olrver P 0 Boston Chapter: Scrence for the People. Drive, Madison, WI 53706 (608) 262- Box 2641 Lrttle Rock AR 72201 897 Ma1n St. Cambrrdge. MA 02139 4581 (608)257-2747 (6171 547 0370 CALIFORNIA: Berkeley Chapter MICHIGAN: Ann Arbor Chapter: 4104 Science for the People. P 0 Box 4161, Mrchrgan Unron Ann Arbor Mt 48109 Berkeley. CA 94 7 04 Kevin Cadogan, 1 033 Chapters and Contacts 13131 971 1165 Lansing Chapter: Rose Ave. Oakland, CA 94611 (415) 658- Outside U.S. Erleen Van Tassell 2901 Lovetoy Rd 7263 San Francisco Chapter Lou Gold, AUSTRALIA: Tony Dolk. 17 Trade St. PerryM148872 (51716257656 54 Cordova, San Francisco, CA 94112. Newtown New South Wales. 2042 (415) 584-0992 Palo Alto MINNESOTA: Mrcky Laurra 1418 E Austral1a Chapter c/o Palo Alto Tenants Unron. 424 22nd St Mrnneapolrs MN 55404 (6121 BE LG IU M: Gerard Valenduc. Place Lytton Ave.. Palo Alto. CA 94306 AI 871 8874 (6121 323 4581 Galilee. BP Galilee 160, B-1348, Louvain­ Heubner. P 0 Box 368. Canoga Park. CA MISSOURI: St. Louis Chapter. Science la-Neuve. Belgium 91306 (213) 347-9992 M1chael J for the People. Box 1126. Washington Wrllrams. 328 51st St, No.2. Sacramento. Univers1ty. St. Louis. MO 63130. (314) CANADA: Roy Johnstone, c/o Argyle CA 95819 (916) 456-3647 David 533-1936 H1gh, 30 Argyle St .. Winnipeg. Manitoba. Schn1tzer. 808 Roberto Ave.. Santa Canada. Toronto Chapter: Scrence for the NEW HAMPSHIRE: Val Dusek. Box Barbara. CA 93109 (805) 966-2057 People. P 0 Box 25. Station "A". 133. Durham. N H 03824 Allan Stewart-Oaten. Brology Dept .. UCSB. Scarborough, Ontario. Canada M 1 K 5B9 Santa Barbara. CA 93106. Pam Hardt. NEW YORK Marvin Resn1koff. 84 DeW1tt Allan C Vais1us. Erindale Campus. 1407 Mrllrch Lane. San Jose. CA 95117 St.. Buffalo. NY 14213 (716) 884-0497 University of Toronto, Mississauga L5L 1 C6 (408) 879-4287 Dave Offen. 262 Joann Jaffee, 602 The Parkway, Ithaca. NY Canada 416-828-5271 Montreal Doug O'Connor St.. Menlo Park, CA 94025 14850. (607) 257-6648. New York City Boucher. Dept of Biology, McGrll Univer­ (4151 323-5452 Helen Nunberg. 802 E Chapter c/o Red Sch1ller 233 E. 21st St, Sity, Montreal. Quebec 16th St San Bernadrno. CA 92404 Irvine Apt 18. New York. NY 10010. (212) 254- Chapter SftP. PO Box 4792. lrvrne. CA 1365. Stony Brook Chapter. P.O. Box DENMARK: Susse Georg & Jorgen 92716 435 E. Setauket. NY 11733. (516) 246- Bansler. Stigardsvej 2. OK 2900, Hellerup, COLORADO: Greeley Chapter: M1chael 5053 Denmark. H1ggrns. Dept. of Anthropology, U North­ NORTH CAROLINA: Marc Miller, 51 ENGLAND: Dave Hayes. 14 Goodwrn ern Colorado. Greeley. CO 80639 (303) Dav1e Crrcle. Chapel Hill. NC 27514. (919) Rd. Sheffretd 8. Yorkshrre. England Brrtrsh 351-2021 Ted Scheffler. 1217 26th Ave. 929-9332. 929-2141 Tony Thomas. 122 Soc1ety for Sacral Respons1b1l1ty 1n Scrence. Apt 103. Greeley. CO 80631 (3031 351- Windsor Pl. Chapel Hill, NC. (919) 967- 9 Poland St. London. W1V3DG. England 0835 8013. Lesley Real, De"pt of Zoology, North 01 437-2728 CONNECTICUT: N Sadanand. Dept. of Carolina State U , Raleigh, NC 27650. Physrcs. U nrversrty of Connectrcut. Storrs. INDIA: M P Parameswaran. Kerala. OHIO: Jenny Thre. 2147 Fulton Ave. Sastra Sahitya Parrshad. Parishad Bhavan. CT 06268. Dav1d Adams. Psych Lab, Crncrnattr. OH 45206 (513)281-6149 Wesleyan Univ, M1ddletown. CT 06457 Chrrakulam Road, Trivandrum 695001, OREGON: Portland Chapter c/o India Anand Kushwaha (Centre for German DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Walda Katz Jacquehne Germain, 6916 NE Mallory St .. Stud1es) and B.S. Narwal (Postbag-011. F1shman. 6617 Mrllwood Rd Bethesda Portland. OR 97211 Jawaharlal Nehru University. New Delhi Md 22034 13011 320 4034 11067, India. PENNYSLVANIA Ruth Weinstein. 2116 IRELAND: Hugh Dobbs, 28 Vrewmount FLORIDA: Garnesvrlle Researct1 Walnut St.. Apt 2R. Philadelphia, PA Park. Waterford. Erre Phone 051-75757 Collectrve 630 NW 34th Place Ga1nesvrlle 19103. (215) 561-4323. Pittsburgh ITALY Michelangelo de Marra: Via Torre FL 32601 Tallahassee Chapter: c'o Scott Schneider. 3436 Ward St Apt. 9, Progress1ve Technology P 0 Box 20049 Pittsburgh, PA 15213. (412) 683-1189. Argentina 47. Rome, Italy Tallahassee F L 32 304 D 1nesh C RHODE ISLAND Carolyn Accola. 245 QUEBEC: Bob Cedergren. Dept of Sharma 2 70 Delmar Ft Myers FL 33931 B1ochem1stry, Unrv of Montreal. Montreal 181 31 463 0395 Pres1dent Ave. Providence. Rl 02906 (40 1) 272-6959 101. Quebec. Canda

ILLINOIS: Chicago Chapter: c o Ivan TEXAS. Ed Cervenka. 911 Blanco St., No. WEST INDIES:_ C Raymond Mahadeo. Handler 2531 N Wa,.htenaw Chrcago IL 104, Austin. TX 78703. (512) 477-3203. Caron1 Research Stat1on. Carapicharma. 60647 13121 342 6975 Urbana­ Ann M. Baker. 738 Garden Acres. Bryan, Trrnidad. West lndres Champaign Chapter: 284 lllrnr Unron TX 77801 (713) 846-3824 Urbana IL 61801 1217!333 7076 W. GERMANY Paul Otto-Schmidt. Forum fur Medizin, Kaiserdamm 26, 1000 IOWA Henry Howe. Dept. of Zoology, VERMONT: Steve Cavrak, Academ1c Berlin 30, West Germany Unrversity of Iowa. Iowa City. Iowa 52242. Computing Center, University of Vermont. Paul C Nelson, 604 Hodge, Ames, lA Burlington. VT 05405 (802) 658-2387. A chapter cons1sts of three or more people 50010. (515)232-2527. 656-3190. meetrng regularly If you want to help start a chapter or be a contact person for your MARYLAND: Baltimore Chapter: c, VIRGINIA: Jean Lorra. Route A. Box area. please contact Scrence for the People. Altprrl.Jt+VP Press (enter 2958 Grpenrnount 496. Apt 7A. Charlottesvrlle. VA 897 Marn St Cambrrdge. MA 02139 Tel Avt' Bdltllllco,.• MD 2 1 2 18 (804) 97 3 1206 (617)547 0370

2 Science for the People Science for the People inside NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 1979 VOL.11 N0.6

2 Chapters and Contacts MAGAZINE COMMITTEES 4 About This Issue

Production 6 Letters Ellen Armstrong Jon Beckwith 7 Education and Capitalism: An In-Depth Review Computer Group of Bowles and Gintis' Schooling in Capitalist Dennis Del Donno by Marvin Kalkstein Eric Entemann America Ross Feldberg 12 Testing: The Competency Controversy by Pamela George Gert Freedman Mel Freedman Alan Frolich 17 Resources by the Boston Science & Education Editorial Group Jeanne Gallo David Gerratt 18 Dick and Jane Meet Scientific Management: Marian Glenn An Analysis of Reading Management Systems Terri Goldberg Dan Ocone by Doug Boucher Connie Phillips Martha Robb 22 Sharing Science in the Classroom: An Alternative George Salzman Teaching Method from China by Brenda Lansdown Rachel Skvirsky Miriam Struck 26 Jonathan Kozol's Tactics for Teachers: How to Sue Tafler Challenge the School System Scott Thacher Ray Valdes 27 Discovering History of Women in Science: Peter Ward A Course Outline by Margaret A tic Boston Science and Education Editorial 30 Teaching Science for Humane Survival: Basic Group Skills and More by George Salzman Dennis Del Donno Diane Lande 32 Feed, Need, Greed: The Politics of Food in Bite­ Connie Phillips Scott Schneider Size Morsels by the Boston SftP Food and Nutrition Group Distribution Bob Lange 34 Tale of a Substitute Teacher: Teaching or Social Jeanne Gallo Lisa Karlin Control? by Nancy Gigowski Brown Ray Valdes Glenn Wargo COVER: Adapted from a drawing by Claudius in Danger: School! Coordinating Staff Alan Frolich Science tor the People magazine is published bimonthly by the national organization Jeanne Gallo Science for the People (see facing page for chapters and contacts). Our address is 897 Terri Goldberg Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02139. Tel: (617) 547-0370. We welcome contributions of all kinds: articles, book reviews, artwork, cartoons, etc. Please see our editorial guidelines on the inside back cover. SftP is intended for all people interested in a progressive and radical view of science and technology. Our subscription rates are $7 per year (regular subscribers), $10 per year (foreign subscribersl and $16 a year or whatever you can afford (member subscribers). Member subscribers receive the magazine plus our internal newsletter and other internal communication. For legal purposes. Science for the People is incorporated. SftP is available in microfilm from Xerox University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Rd., Ann Arbor Ml48106. Unless otherw1se stated. all matenal 1n th1s magaz1ne IS copynght 1979 by Sc1ence for the People

November/ December 1979 about this issue

tion, amplify Kalkstein's review with two specific ex­ The Boston Science and Education Editorial amples. They both illustrate how schools are moving in Group selected the articles for this issue of SftP maga­ directions that further develop their factory-like qual­ zine based on our interests and experiences as teachers. ities and show how educators now use "scientific" tech­ We are concerned with the need for change in educa­ niques to legitimize and validate these qualities. tion, particularly science education, and are well aware of the difficulties confronting teachers who attempt these changes. For the most part we have been teaching The Business of Schools high school in systems which deny the possibility and/or need for reform. At the same time we have been working Boucher describes the use of a "Taylorized" ap­ within SftP to develop our sense of the important role proach to teaching reading, so called after the man who politics plays in schools. We recognize the difficulty of devised this efficiency method of running factories. Ac­ simultaneously meeting the demands of required cur­ cording to Boucher, major publishing houses have de­ riculum and attempting to integrate our growing polit­ veloped a comprehensive elementary reading course ical awareness into our teaching methods. We believe, which works uniformly, regardless of the teacher, stud­ nonetheless, that teachers can make small inroads of ent, or classroom atmosphere. It reduces the teacher's educational reform in their classes, that these inroads role to that of a monitor, demands that children learn in are important, and that, in the long run, greater num­ a singular, regimented fashion, and shifts the respon­ bers of people working together are needed for lasting sibility of educating away from the schools. If this cur­ change. riculum gains popularity, more children could more In this About This Issue, we take on a rather large easily be designated "slow learners" or "ineducable". task. In addition to summarizing the articles we have Boucher's article touches on many facets of the issue chosen, we discuss the problems in our educational sys­ surrounding scientific approaches to teaching reading tem, some solutions, and some of the frustration and but, due to time and space limitations, these intriguing obstacles involved in the process. dimensions could not be fully developed. The issue of competency testing, which raises some An Historical Perspective of the same concerns as that of scientific teaching tech­ niques, demands immediate attention due to its growing We believe that the source of the problems in presence throughout the nation. Competency testing is American education is that schools are designed to meet a complex issue. It could have value in bringing up the the needs of our economic system. Marvin Kalkstein, in standard of education throughout the country. The his review of Bowles and Gintis' Schooling in Capitalist manner in which it is presently used, however, serves to America, describes how schools were founded to as­ split student bodies, largely along socio-economic class similate a new group of immigrants into the growing in­ lines, make profits for publishing houses, and place the dustrial economy. Schools continue today to fulfill this burden of becoming educated onto the student. It is not function of forming able-bodied workers. The teacher, used as it might be to facilitate institution of remedial in Bowles and Gintis's view, is a facsimile of the fore­ classes or to determine weak spots in a school's per­ man, supervisor, or boss. Bowles and Gintis shed light formance. George elicits the many implications of the on the rationale for the controls and rules we see in most minimum testing controversy. schools: the lines, the handraising, the unquestioning of authority. Kalkstein 's review of their book provides a Attitudes Toward Science context within which to view and understand some of the underlying problems in American education. The use of science to justify the educational "inno­ Kalkstein touches on some of the ways in which vations" of competency testing and management meth­ schools continue today to be geared toward regimenta­ ods of teaching reading reveals the elevated position of tion and control. David Boucher in his article on the use science in our society. Too few people feel equipped to of management techniques in teaching reading, and evaluate the social implications of scientific endeavors, Paula George, in her article on the increased use of some of which do not contribute to the majority's well­ minimum competency testing for high school gradua- being. We must strengthen our skills and confidence so

4 Science for the People that more people can participate in everyday science Brenda Lansdowne describes an educational model and in policy decisions affecting the course and out­ which deals with the method of teaching rather than the come of scientific work. content. In what she calls "investigative colloquia". the We believe that many of the attitudes which place teacher assumes the role of facilitator while the students science on its isolated pedestal and which contribute to on their own share and discover scientific, philosoph­ people's sense of incompetency in matters of scientific ical, and historical concepts. In this manner. children policy-making are formed in our schools. The teacher, gain a sense of their own importance in their education for the most part, stands at the head of the class, asks and the power of their ideas. questions to which there is supposedly one answer, re­ Fighting Back is a recent, unpublished manuscript wards those who answer correctly, and punishes those by Jonathan Kozol, in which he proposes ways of inte­ who don't. This process contributes to the impotence grating social change into the classroom and commun­ students often feel. Science education is particularly ity. We have excerpted his "Tips for Teachers," some ot guilty of employing this approach. It does so by teach­ which can easily be used in the clasroom. He gives ideas ing objective facts without dealing with their implica­ on how teachers can in their attitude and approach ex­ tions on people's lives. Science becomes abstract and pose the political overtones of a subject matter. In addi­ distant for many. tion, Kozol introduces more radical tactics to begin soc­ Teaching Suggestions ial transformation at the community level. Although we firmly believe in the aims of these al­ For the teacher with some flexibility in course con­ ternatives, few teachers have the time to meet the de­ tent and political accountability, we include in this issue mands of required curricula and develop additional course outlines, a lesson plan, an alternative model of course material. A teacher faces many risks. in most teaching, and tips for teachers. cases, if she or he decides to integrate politics into the In Margaret Alic's course description on women in classroom: alienation of colleagues and students, and science, we see how, even more than the general popula­ the threat of losing his or her job are only a few. Nancy tion, women have been excluded from science. So great Brown's vignette of her experiences as a substitute in the has been the sense of the inappropriateness of science as Boston schools further impresses us with the near im­ a field for women, that many women's contributions posssibility of the teacher's task. Brown reminds us of have been ignored. If we are ever to attain more power the student's desperation and justified apathy. to monitor the uses of science, women must be included among those who feel competent to consider the issues. In summary, we see and support the need for small Margaret Alic's course description begins to work in steps toward changing schools. Ultimately. we believe this direction. that only broader sociopolitical change can alleviate the George Salzman and the Food and Nutrition deep-seated problems in our educational system. We Group of the Boston chapter, concerned with the neg­ feel that schools presently mold students to a troubled lect of the social and political implications of science, world. What we desire is schools that educate people for have created and utilized alternative curricula. Salz­ a different reality based on more humane values and a man's course "Science for Humane Survival" is geared more equitable economic system. Change. nonetheless. to college students, while the Food and Nutrition is a slow evolving process. and we. as teachers. struggle Group's "Feed, Need, Greed" lesson plan is directed daily to act upon some of the ideas. suggestions and tac­ toward high school students. These curricula speak to tics described in these pages. It is our hope that the complex issues of food production, hunger. popula­ these ideas will be valuable not only to teachers. but to tion. and ecological living, and bring these world prob­ everyone concerned with transforming present attitudes lems to the personal level in the hopes of affecting toward science and empowering the students \\ ho now change within a political framework. emerge from our public school systems.D

1 ~All ~AT IT'~ TIME WE AU TAKE A CL05ER LOOK AT SOME OF OcJR GIE~I~~ED IN~TITVTI~$!

~~ 1--...... -'r""'t~~, ~ ~ ... 1-._,.--L-1~ - -~- Looking Lejijcpf

November/ December 1979 5 Dear SftP: I just finished browsing the May/ June issue of Science for the People. I am sorry my wife spent the buck twenty five for it. Would rather have a beer even if it contains some remote carcinogens. It seems that soft handed intellectuals Dear SftP, misplaced emphasis. Some members of have nothing better to do than look for Carol Cina's and Ted Goldfarb's note the Union for Radical Political Econo­ some new group of oppressees. It beats of explanation published in the Septem­ mics (URPE) described the alternative working or giving your movie money to ber /October issue of SftP, and intended to this position more eloquently than I feed someone. It might be exciting to to accompany their article about Three can. They said: you guys but it is boring to us. Mile Island in the previous issue, illus­ It does seem a shame that capitalist trates a dangerous trend in the Left to­ I We I can begin to make "social­ systems have structural oppression built day. The elevation of the anti-nuke ism" and "communism" house­ into them. Yet most of the oppressed struggle to a position of importance hold words, rather than dirty people in this country live far better than greater than that of the class struggle words, by calmly and sensibly ex­ their peers in "workers paradises". only serves to divert attention from the plaining what we mean by those Although socialism does not structurally economic causes of all capitalist misad­ words in our own domestic con­ demand oppression, the physical, ventures. This trend is analogous to a text. Fear cripples our struggles. If political and intellectual oppression in problem which Lenin termed Econo­ we seem afraid of the labels, they China, Cuba, Russia, not to mention the mism, that is, concentrating on narrow I corporations and the govern­ prisons of Vietnam and Cambodia, "bread and butter" issues. The danger of ment I will pin them on us. If we outdo the limpwristed local varieties by starvation faced by the Russian people insist, instead, that political dis­ a country mile. I think socialists over­ was of no less consequence than the dan­ cussion focus on the necessity of look or minimize some of the basic ger of radioactive cremation we face an anti-capitalist movement, and human traits. They will never get their today. But the Bolsheviks knew that we incorporate those labels into act together until they r.:cognize these only by changing the fundamental struc­ our discussion, we can wear them very natural drives and design their ture of society can capitalism be pre­ proudly. We will have taken one systems around them. vented from sowing its destruction in giant step toward resisting future Regards, another form or place. Similarly, we repression. Jim Conley must remember that any gains we make I Economics Education Project of The Editorial Committee replies: in the anti-nuke struggle will be paid for URPE, U.S. Capitalism in Crisis; Dear Jim: through black lung disease, air pollu­ URPE, New York; 1978; p. 335.1 Either your wife is an impulse shop­ tion, and unemployment- unless we go per. or your marriage is on the rocks. on to smash the system which produced To refrain from using terms that only We debated whether or not to answer nukes in the first place. suggest these labels is even more your letter, but your ability to mouth so Our role, as politically conscious crippling. many capitalist cliches in such a short members of the anti-nuke movement, "Dirty words" were used during my space was just too good to pass up. should not be to minimize the impor­ own induction into radical politics. At a Where can we begin? Giving your tance of the class basis of the struggle. sociobiology forum sponsored by the "movie money to feed someone" might Rather we should try to unite this Stony Brook chapter of SftP two years make you feel noble, but it won't do struggle with other people's movements ago, Carol gave an address which some much to alter the social relationships in this country and abroad to form a co­ members of the audience denounced as that ensure that some people will grow hesive Anti-Capitalist Movement, con­ "dogmatic." I became interested in SftP, rich off of the misery of others. Of scious of its historical mission. This however, because she incorporated the course if you really want to a void getting strategy will not be advanced by poo­ "dirty words" into a sensible analysis of in valved, you can just invoke "basic pooing socialist nations for their nuclear a problem with which I was personally human traits" as a justification for programs, regardless of how idiotic concerned. Subsequently, evolutionists capitalism. After all, it will put you right those programs may be. (I do not mean who attended the forum, while vocifer­ in line with great thinkers through the to imply that we should not learn from ously deploring Carol's rhetoric, incor­ ages who have invoked the basic mistakes made in socialist countries, nor porated the SftP analysis into their own inferiority of Irish, Italians, Jews, Blacks that we should not support efforts by the critiques of sociobiology. The terminol­ and Women as a justification for what­ majority of people in those countries to ogy of scientific socialism, used correct­ ever oppressive notion they were trying bring their societies under more demo­ ly, can have an even greater progressive to enforce. If we can't invoke an innate cratic control.) impact on the anti-nuke movement, a genetic tendency as an explanation for Carol's and Ted's "conscious decision mass movement which is already begin­ exploitation, well then I'm sure some to refrain from using terms like capital­ ning to challenge the capitalists' right to enterprising oil company will manage to ism, ruling class, or imperialism" - control our lives. discover a new set of stone tablets in the terms which merely imply the political With love and solidarity, mountains of the Sinai with that as the analysis we should bring to the move­ Steve Push eleventh commandment. ment - results from this problem of Washington D.C. (continued on page II)

6 Science for the People Education and Capitalism

A Review of Bowles and Gintis' Schooling in Capitalist America

by Marvin Kalkstein

A primary objective of those in control within a The genetic arguments of Jensen and Herrnstein regard­ society is to stay in control. Most institutions and ing IQ and its relationship to class are thoroughly ex­ organized activities within society function to serve the ploded in Chapter 4- "Education, Inequality, and the purposes of the ruling class. One of the primary institu­ Meritocracy." tions for maintaining, consolidating, and increasing Major characteristics of the American workforce, control over people is the educational system. An excel­ necessary for the social relations of capitalist produc­ lent book that studies how education has been organ­ tion, are that it is hierarchical, fragmented, and alien­ ized and used within the American capitalist economy is ated. The educational process, and the relations experi­ Schooling in Capitalist America: Educational Reform enced within it, "foster types of personal development and the Contradiction of Economic Life by Samuel compatible with the relationships of dominance and Bowles and Herbert Gintis (New York: Basic Books subordinancy in the economic sphere" (p. 11). 1976. 340 pp. $4.95). The book traces and explains the The personal traits and attributes that are particu­ evolution of mass education in the United States to larly encouraged include unquestioning acceptance of meet the changing labor demands of the developing authority, conformity, acceptance of routine, lack of capitalist industrial economy. imagination, discipline, and good work habits (e.g. dili­ gence, perseverance, punctuality). Other characteristics Education and Socialization indicated by Bowles and Gin tis as rewarded in a New York high school were dependability, consistency, iden­ Capitalist production is not simply a technical tification with school, empathizing orders, deferred process, but also is a social process (Bowles and Gintis, gratification, externally motivated predictability, tact­ p. 10). In serving the needs of capitalist production, edu­ fulness; penalized were creativity, aggressiveness, cation must not only prepare workers to carry out tech­ independence (p. 137). Most of these rewarded traits are nical tasks, but also to fit into an appropriate set of soc­ ones which will assure a placid work force that can be ial relations. Probably the most important purpose and readily controlled by management. effect of education is socialization. Education prepares people for their place in society. Contrary to popular be­ Form and Content of Education lief, education is generally not the means to change one's place in society. Bowles and Gintis conclude that Since the major concern of schools is for personal­ U.S. education is highly unequal; the chances of obtain­ ity and behavioral traits, it is in the form and process, ing much or little schooling being substantially depend­ rather than the content, of the educational encounter ent on one's race and parents' economic level (p. 35). that our development is conditioned. It begins with the They present data showing that: Marvin Kalkstein is a nuclear physicist who teaches at the intellectual ability developed or certified in school University Without Walls, University of Massachusetts at makes little causal contribution to getting ahead Amherst. He has been involved in alternative education and in economically.(p.110). Science for the People for ten years.

November/ December 1979 7 first day we're sent off to school with out parents' ad­ trinsic social benefits of the process of education monition "to be good little girls/boys and listen care­ (learning) or its tangible outcome (knowledge), fully to the teacher and don't ask any questions" and mirrors closely the role of wages and the specter of continues in different degrees for as long as we remain unemployment in the motivation of workers. The in the educational system. Bowles and Gintis point out fragmented nature of jobs is reflected in the insti­ that: tutionalized and rarely constructive competition among students and in the specialization and com­ the educational system operates in this manner not partmentalization of academic knowledge. Fin­ so much through the conscious intentions of ally, the relationships of dominance and subordi­ teachers and administrators in their day-to-day ac­ nancy in education differ by level. The rule ori­ tivities, but through a close correspondence be­ entation of the high school reflects the close super­ tween the social relationships which govern per­ vision of low-level workers: the internalization of sonal interaction in the work place and the social norms and freedom from continual supervision in relationships of the educational system. Specif­ elite colleges reflect the social relationships of ically, the relationships of authority and control upper-level white-collar work. Most state univer­ bet ween administrators and teachers, teachers and sities and community colleges, which fall in be­ students, students and students, and students and tween, conform to the behavioral requisites of their work replicate the hierarchical division of low-level technical, service, and supervisory per­ labor which dominates the work place. Power is sonnel (pp. 11-12). organized along vertical lines of authority from administration to faculty to student body: stud­ The students' alienation from schools which are ents have a degree of control over their curriculum dull, routine, and repetitive conditions them for alien­ comparable to that of the worker over the content ated work which is dull, routine, and repetitive and over of his job. The motivational system of the school, which they will have no control. To a large extent the involving as it does grades and other external re­ work force internalizes the attitudes and behavioral wards and the threat of failure rather than the in- traits appropriate to its place in capitalist production.

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8 Science for the People Education for Capitalist Productio.n Mass education prepared the large numbers of workers needed for the mills and factories. Making it While it would appear that the major function of compulsory assured that all future workers would be ex­ the educational system is socialization-to one's place in posed to these values and accustomed to the social rela­ the society and the workforce, it also serves the needs of tionships of dominance and subordinancy in the eco­ the production system by attempting to provide future nomic system. The graded school, in which children workers with at least some of the basic skills needed to were grouped according to proficiency as well as age, re­ do their job. The content of education, some of which is flected the principle of the division oflabor and the per­ also oriented to socialization, includes work on skills ceived inequalities in positions. Later, tracking systems that may be useful in the workplace. That schools may would insure and legitimize the unequal divisions of not have done enough of this in the past to satisfy the labor and position. Finally, by making the system pub­ needs of the capitalist production system may explain lic, the bulk of its cost was borne by the working class the recent emphasis on career education at all levels of rather than by the owners. schooling, including higher education. Again, the content differs as well as the form, with vocational schools for the working class, community colleges and state colleges, focusing increasingly upon vocational subjects, for the working class and lower middle-class students, and the elite private colleges and universities and a few state universities for preparing mi-ddle- and upper-management. To a large extent the increased emphasis on career education probably repre­ sents another step in further public subsidization of the educational needs of capitalist production. The college graduate of the sixties was found to be in need of a con­ siderable amount of on-the-job-training before her /his labor could provide an adequate profit, or surplus value. With an increased need for service and produc­ The tion workers having low-to-middle-level technical skills, the capitalist economy has placed an added demand on IDEOLq;y -oF"- the educational system. Capitalisll\ Education and the Changing Needs of Capitalism The history of public subsidization of capitalist production through education is traced by Bowles and Gintis. They argue that the change from an entrepren­ eurial capitalism to its modern corporate form was re­ flected in educational policy and theory (p. 63). Looking at the growing mill town of Lowell and the rapidly industrializing state of Massachusetts, they con­ Progressive Education nect the birth of the factory system with the nineteenth­ century common-school movement which molded mass In looking at the period 1890-1930, Bowles and education (Chapter 6). The demands of the mills and Gintis make the point that progressive education was factories for large numbers of disciplined workers born in a decade of labor strife and was fueled through­ meant that a large percent of children would become the out its course by social unrest and the specter of polit­ laborers in the factories. "The structure of employment ical upheaval (p. 180). This was also the period of the ex­ was changing drastically: between 1820 and 1840, the pansion of corporate capital. Under the influence of a percentage of the work force engaged in agriculture fell corporate economy, the objective of the school reform­ from 58 to 40 percent; by 1850, the percentage would ers was to centralize control of urban education in the fall to 15 percent. Employment in manufacturing was hands of experts (p. 187) thus removing it further from growing correspondingly" (p. 165). Bowles and Gintis the direct expression of grass root impulses. observe that a stable body politic and a smoothly func­ tioning factory alike required citizens and workers who Their reforms ushered in an era of tight top-down had embraced and taken on as their own the values and control, paramilitary discipline, and substantial objectives of those in authority (p. 170). Schools were independence from popular control. Bureaucracy the means to inculcate those values. became the watchword of the schools. (p. 189).

November/ December 1979 9 It was under the Progressive movement that secondary has if anything increased the importance of the creden­ schools developed different educational (curricular) tials in making them a greater factor in the artificial di­ tracks. and that testing was pushed by the eugenicists vision of labor and as a criterion for employment. Many for the purposes of educational tracking. older workers, particularly in service jobs, are finding Another function of the educational system is cre­ that they suddenly need the piece of paper just to hold dentialling. Educational credentials play an important onto the job that they may have already been perform­ role in the maintenance of hierarchical authority. ing for years. This trend also serves the needs of the higher education system which can now compensate for Employers find it desirable to vest hierarchical the drop-off in the number of traditional college-aged authority in well-educated workers, not only be­ students by an increase in adult education. cause higher levels of schooling may enable an em­ Finally education is supposed to contribute to per­ ployee to better do the work at hand or because sonal development and societal betterment. The con­ the more-educated seem more fit by their de­ cern is not for realizing the individual's potential and meanor to hold authority, but also simply because creating a more equal and just society, but for the main­ educational achievement - as symbolized by one tenance of an economic system with its mandated in­ sort of sheepskin or another- legitimates author­ equalities and personal limitations. To the extent that ity according to prevailing social values. (p. 82) the educational system is responsible for the instilling and nourishing of values, it is those values- conform­ ity, competitiveness, self-centeredness- which are sup­ portive ofa profit-oriented system based on inequality, rather than the values - autonomy, cooperation, and common interest - which would underlie a more just and equitable economic and social system.

Need for Structural Economic Change For change to occur, Bowles and Gintis recognize that the necessary changes cannot be limited to the schools or the work place, but must entail a radical transformation of the very class structure of U.S. soci­ ety. They suggest that movements for educational reform have fal­ tered through refusing to call into question the basic structure of property and power in economic life .... the key to reform is the democratization of economic relationships: social ownership, demo­ cratic and participatory con~rol of the production process by workers, equal sharing of socially nec­ essary labor by all, and progressive equalization of incomes and destruction of hierarchical economic relationships. This is, of course, socialism, con­ ceived of as an extension of democracy from the narrowly political to the economic realm. (p. 14) The obtaining of the credential, or even one's con­ tinued involvement in education in terms of continued Bowles and Gintis stress the need for a revolutionary personal subjugation to or acceptance of the process, class consciousness: also represents a form of cooptation. In a sense, it may The overriding strategic goal of a socialist move­ be viewed as paying one's dues to a system leading to ment is the creation of working-class conscious­ feeling that one must plug into the system to reap the ness. (Bowles and Gintis, p. 285) benefits for which the dues were paid. The period of the Sixties, with the droppping out of some middle class The last part of Schooling in Capitalist A merica is youth, represented a degree of rejection of the system. devoted to examining the question of change for "an This was relatively short-lived because of the tightening equal and liberating education system which can only of the economy. Today's youth is no less alienated or emerge from a broad-based movement dedicated to the frustrated, but economic necessity has demanded a re­ transformation of economic life (a socialist movement)" accommodation to the system. The tighter job market (p. 266). Most of this part of the book is an analysis of

/0 Science fort he Peo pie t~e conditions for a socialist movement, but it also pro­ ~ur schools or to a particular age group in our popula­ vtdes some guidelines for organizing and struggle. For tiOn. We are all learners and learning continues the educator, Bowles and Gintis do have some sugges­ throughout our lifetimes. Because of the repressive nat­ tions: ure of the capitalist educational system, learning and ac­ Even within the classroom, the dissident teacher tiOns outside it may be more important for the struggle ~an become an effective subversive through teach­ for revolutionary educational change as well as for ;oc­ mg the truth about society; through inspiring a ial change in general. As participants in such a move­ sense of collective power and mutual respect; ment.' we must engage ourselves with others in their pro­ throu~h ~emon~trating that alternatives superior gresstve struggles as weiJ as our own.D to capttahsm extst; through fighting racist, sexist, ~nd other ideologies of privilege through criticiz­ SOURCES mg and providing alternatives to a capitalist cul­ ture (p. 274). Samuel Bowles. Herbert Gintis, and Peter Meyer, "'The Long Sha.dow of Work: Education, the Family·, and th;Repr~du.~tion-~r'th-e However, the movement is not going to succeed on Social DIVIsiOn of ~abor", Insurgent Sociologist, Summer 1975 the basis of individual actions or the actions of a par­ A.A. Potter. Personnel Work as Appl!eo to a Lollege i:n t:n­ gineering", Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Annual Convention of ticular stratum of the working class. One of the lessons the Association of Land-Grant Colleges, November 1923, pp. 398- of this book, and a major part of their analysis of strat­ 412. egies for social change, is that the struggle proceeds on Bishop, "The Cooperative System", p. 141. See also "'The principles of unity, equality, and cooperation of a Cooperative Plan of Engineering Education in the Pittsburgh Indus­ broad-based movement comprising students, parents, tries", School and Engineering Brochure 1924-5, University of Pitts­ burgh Archives. workers, and community members. The Big Business Executive/ 1964: A Study of His Social and Edu­ cational Background (New York: Scientific American, 1965). Need for a Broadly Based Movement The Harvard Business School Bulletin, November 1972, p. 20. Economic Power and Political Pressure, Temporary National While the classroom may be a good setting for fos­ Economic Committee Monograph No. 26, pp. 22-3, quoted by Lynd, "'You Can't Skin a Live Tiger," p. 109. tering a critical consciousness and cooperative behav­ David F. Noble, America by Design: Science, Technology and ior, we must remember that learning is not confined to the Rise of Corporate Capitalism (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1977).

LETTERS News Note uterine lining, which are powerful stimulators of smooth muscle contrac­ (continued from page 6) INVESTIGATING tion. Smooth or involuntary muscles line We were also thrilled to hear that MENSTRUAL CRAMPS such organs as the uterine wall, the intes­ everyone here is "better off' than their Many who suffer menstrual cramps tines, stomach and blood vessels. Their peers in socialist countries. We under­ and the accompanying nausea and head­ ache have grown used to hearing advice contraction leads to the cramps, head­ stood that California was pleasant, but aches and feelings of nausea which af­ we were unaware that you had elim­ such as take two aspirin and try to relax. Since the cause of the painful symptoms, flict many of us one or two days a inated unemployment, racism, poverty month. It is the prostaglandins which and catastrophic health costs out there. called dysmenorrhea, is gen­ erally considered mysterious, therapy is initiate uterine contractions and so Congratulations! Oh, by the way, what cause the lining ot the uterus to stougn exactly do you know about those neither rational nor specific. Birth control pills are presently the most effec­ off during menstruation. As the lining "workers paradises"? Probably about as goes, so does the source of prostagland­ much as they know about the U.S. You tive treatment, but this presents several disadvantages - it requires taking pills ins. The symptoms of dysmenorrhea would like to discuss oppression, Jim? appear when levels of prostaglandins are Why leave out those bastions of the 21 days for a problem that appears only one or two days; the pills also carry the higher than average. "free world", South Africa, Argentina, Treating menstrual cramps by giving South Korea, Brazil, Taiwan and Chile? s~me risks as when used for contracep­ tion. As long as dysmenorreha has a birth control pills works because the The point is not to construct a catalog of pills reduce the amount of uterine lining, capitalist versus socialist horrors and mysterious cause, its treatment can never be rational. hence cut down on the production of then to use that as an excuse for doing prostaglandins. Specific inhibitors of But clues needed to solve the mystery nothing. The point is to exercise our prostaglandin synthesis are now mar­ brains as well as our backs in the surrounding its causes began to appear 15 years ago. Even though an estimated keted as treatment for arthritis under construction of a society whose goal is the names of ibuprofen (Upjohn), the fulfillment of human needs. Part of 30-50% of women- that's up to a quar­ ter of the total population- suffer from indomethacin (Merck Sharp and achieving that end is understanding how Dohme), mefenamic acid (Warner­ and why this society functions as it does. ~enstrual cramps, it's been a 15-year JOurney from the first hints that the Lambert), and naproxen-sodium Ifthat is boring to you Jim, it may be (Syntex). These products seem to be free simply because you really don't care symptoms have a biochemical origin to the pinpointing of the agent responsible. of side effects except in people with about anyone else. Too bad Jim, too asthma or gastro-intestinal ulcers. bad. The chemical culprits are prostaglandins, hormones made in the -info from Science

November/ December 19l9 II Testing: The Competency Controversy

by Pamela George

Educational testing in America has become a senior year. Some states have current or pending legisla­ cradle-to-grave arbiter of social and economic mobility. tion which provides for remedial instruction services for Tests determine who succeeds and who fails, who the students who fail.(2) receives remedial or enrichment services, who goes to Taken at face value, the idea that competency test­ college or graduate school, who has his or her way paid, ing can assess basic skills and improve educational and who practices medicine, law or the other prestigious achievement is immensely appealing. Children should occupations. learn basic reading and calculation skills in 12 years of In perhaps the ultimate expression of their power, publicly financed education. Indeed, as early as the tests are now being used to reduce 12 years of public 1840s one state - Massachusetts - began requiring education into a set of specific questions which, if students to pass a test in order to graduate from high answered correctly, entitle a student to a high school school. (3) In the 1870s, the New York legislature diploma, the traditional ticket to upward mobility in ordered schools to "furnish a suitable standard of America. Students who fail these competency tests may graduation."(4) By the turn of the century, educational receive certificates that they attended school but no offi­ psychologists like E.L. Thorndike were advocating tests cial statement that they mastered the basic skills of as a means to improve the quality of education: "We reading and mathematics. Officially, they are labeled may not hope to achieve progress," said Thorndike, "incompetent." "except as ... measuring sticks are available or may be The movement to test students' competency as a derived." minimum basis for awarding high school diplomas is In addition to this long-standing dependence on growing steadily across the nation. Forty states have testing, a number of factors have fueled the current begun or are planning testing programs, partly from the drive to install competency exams in American schools: belief that testing of essential skills will raise academic • A desire for more scientific management. Despite standards and increase educational achievement.( I) more than a decade of unsuccessful attempts to apply Strategies for administering competency tests vary, but controls from the business world to the educational in most cases high school students take the test in the fall arena, enthusiasm for competency tests stems partly or spring of their junior year. If they fail on the first try, from the belief that scientific management can improve they can take the test in the fall andjor spring of their the schools. The desire is to make schools more "accountable" and "businesslike," more subject to Pamela George is an educational psychologist who teaches "system analysis, planning models, budgeting-systems, at North Carolina Central University. and cost-benefit analysis. "(5) Most of these proposals, This article appeared in a special issue of Southern Exposure modeled on industrial traditions of problem solving, (Vol. V/1, No.2, Summer 1979), "Just Schools," which ignore the complexities of the U.S. educational system. explores the progress made and problems remaining in the 25 • A shift of attention from equality in educational years since the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. Southern Exposure is a quarterly, available at $10/year indivi­ opportunity to excellence of academic achievement. duals, $12/year institutions, from P.O. Box 230, Chapel Hill, Schools still discriminate on the basis of race, economic NC 27514. status, handicaps and sex; but policymakers have turned

12 Science for the People from the issues of equality raised in the 1950s and '60s to system. Ironically, while the demand for competency a greater concern for making educational instruction testing grows, new federal legislation for handicapped efficient and effective. Many observers, like Arthur children puts the burden of responsibility for a child's Wise, call this conservative goal "a reaction to efforts to learning on the educational institution, not the child. equalize the distribution of educational opportunities The concept of "zero reject" contained in the new law and resources." for special education for handicapped children -i.e., a • A rise in public concern over burgeoning costs. teacher cannot opt out of teaching a child to read be­ More than one-third of the annual expenditures of state cause the child may have some learning idiosyncracy - and local government goes for education.(6) does not apply, according to the philosophy behind Increasingly, taxpayers are demanding proof of the competency testing, if the child is "just" poor or black. return on this investment; consequently, policymakers The system assumes responsibility for some children, call for more testing to verify the system's performance. but not others. • An increase in the role of private business in educa­ Some teachers' unions also oppose the shift in tion. A plethora of test development companies, consul­ accountability which competency tests symbolize. They ting firms, curriculum suppliers, technical advisors and fear the tests may be used to measure the teacher's testing experts have enjoyed a monetary windfall from performance, blaming the instructor rather than the servicing the growing educational establishment. They school system for the high failure rates. The tests may encourage the notion that competency tests are needed then become the basis for making employment, promo­ - and they profit accordingly. For example, a hefty tion and merit pay raise decisions.(?) Unions and indi­ proportion of the one million dollars spent to develop vidual teachers voice a justifiable concern that they may and. test North Carolina's first exam went to McGraw­ become scapegoats for the low scores in a given school Hill Publishing Company. The test companies profit or school district. further by marketing "remediation kits" to failing stu­ The central accountability question remains: who dents, harassed teachers and anxious parents. should be held responsible for the failure of large num­ • Parents' fears about their children's employment bers of students to demonstrate basic reading and math future. Figures for the unemployment rate among youth skills? The competency test may do more to obscure this 17 to 20 range as high as 22 percent for whites and 52 valid question than to clarify its answer. percent for blacks. Parents hear these numbers as well as • Racial and cultural problems: the new segrega­ predictions of more inflation and/or recession, and they tion? Though policymakers and educators supporting turn to competency testing as a means of certifying that competency testing emphatically deny any cultural bias their child can read and calculate, and thus compete in the tests, opponents note that competency testing did more successfully on the job market. Of course, the not become a concern until schools were desegregated. premise behind this logic is that large numbers of other Some black parents suspect that one goal behind this children will be certified as "incompetent." new movement to "protect standards" is resegrcgation within supposedly integrated schools. Whether The prospect of officially labeling young people as resegrcgation is an intended or unintended consequence, incompetent raises serious concern among many educa­ regrouping of students based on test scores is likely. tors and parents. They fear that the tests will dispro­ Such "tracking" will particularly affect black and poor portionately affect the poor, cultural and racial minor­ children, since their scores arc lower than their white ities, and the disabled. In calling for a moratorium on competency testing, they have identified a number of critical problem areas with the tests: COMPETENCY TEST FAILURE RATES BY RACE • Accountability problems: who's responsible for the failure? In North Carolina 51 percent of the high school tfJ 100 'Z. u"" 100 1. juniors failed the first minimum competency tests given 1977 - 1978 <{ 1978- 1979 _J in 1978. In Florida, the failure rate was 36 percent on CD the 1977 test. Recent tests still produced failure rates ( 17 and 15 percent respectively) that indicate hundreds of thousands of students nationwide will fail to meet this prerequisite for high school graduation. These test scores suggest a gross failure of the schools to educate. But rather than view the scores as proof of the need for a greater public commitment to education, current use of the numbers places the full burden of unsatisfactory performance upon the student. Competency tests "blame the victim" by making stu­ dents pay for the failure of the entire educational Southern Exposure

November/ December 1979 13 and more affluent classmates. A 1976 Southern panies like Burlington to justify continued low wages. Regional Council report predicted that "tracking based Partly as a result of this link between per capita educa­ on competency test results may become the new segrega- tional levels and industrial wages, parents have seen the tion" in Southern schools.(8) . competency tests as a mechanism to ensure their child­ In North Carolina in the spring of 1978, 85 percent ren jobs. In fact, what may happen is that the "failures" of the black students taking the tests failed, while 37 per­ will be hired at lower wages, pushing out the more cent of the whites failed. Similarly, the Florida scores "competent" students. The competency testing move­ showed that 77 percent of the blacks failed compared to ment thus is aimed toward two contradictory goals: 24 percent of the whites. In the most recent tests, which industrial pressures for lower wage rates and placation were adjusted in difficulty, the ratio of black-to-white of middle-class fears about unemployment. failure has actually increased: 36 percent of the black • Technical problems: what competencies, what students taking the test in North Carolina failed, over minimum? For a minimum competency exam to be fair, five times the failure rate of whites; 60 percent failed in the school curriculum must be designed to teach the Florida, almost four times the white failure rate. Results skills being tested. But the test's proponents argue that a of the first testing in Virginia demonstrate the same dis­ child should be able, for example, to compute the most crepancy, with the proportion of blacks failing the test economical size of a grocery item, to use the yellow five times higher than that of whites. pages, or to understand a tax form - all skills which The high failure count also affects educational may not be directly taught in school. This is, of course, opportunities for those minority students not labeled in­ unfair; it may also be illegal. Merle McClung of the competent. In many state universities, admission quotas Center for Law and Education says that if a diploma is are based on the black-white ratio of graduating high denied on the basis of subject matter never taught, such school seniors in the state. The new high school gradua­ a denial is a violation of due process of law.(9) tion rosters, based on those who survive the competency Opponents of the exams also say students have not test, will significantly alter the black-white ratios, and as received sufficient prior notice that scores on compe­ a result, fewer - not more - minority students will be tency tests will determine whether or not they graduate. admitted to traditionally white universities. In North Carolina, Florida and Virginia, eleventh grad­ Another controversial issue related to the test's rac­ ers were told only last year that they had to pass the ex­ ial and cultural bias is the way the high failure rates ams in order to get a diploma. McClung argues that tra­ coincide with the increasing demand for a low-wage ditional notions of due process "require adequate notice pool to attract industry to the South. Last year, in a of any rule which could cause irreparable harm to a per­ symposium at the University of North Carolina, an son's educational or occupational prospects." The economist with Burlington Industries, the state's largest introduction of tests as graduation criteria does seem to employer, argued that the main reason North Carolina change the "ground rules" after students have com­ had the lowest average industrial wage in the nation was pleted 10 or II years of school. Already, two class action because it has a low "per capita level of educational at­ suits (see box) claim that inadequate prior notice vio­ tainment." Though it probably does not take a high lates the Fourteenth Amendment, which safeguards school diploma to monitor shuttles on a Burlington individual rights and guarantees the due process tradi­ loom, the competency test criterion can be used by com- tion.

COMPETENCY TEST PROGRAMS IN II programs in operation THE SOUTH ~ programs legislated [] programs planned

Southern Exposure

14 Science for the People Yet another technical problem with minimum com­ to acquire these skills in one session of summer school petency testing is the obvious subjective, and perhaps or in a weekly, optional reading lab. The critical ques­ arbitrary, basis for assigning cut-off scores to divide tion remains whether short-term remediation can com­ those who pass from those who fail. The average cut-off pensate for the failure of schools to teach basic skills in score for passing the tests is 70 percent. However, by ad­ the previous 11 years. justing the difficulty level of the tests' items, adminis­ trators can pass or fail as many students as they want. So the value judgments underlying the setting of cut-off Judicial Action in Opposition scores are not clearly recognized, or at least are not to Testing made clear to parents. One critic warns that no amount of elaborate statistical data can do away with the subjec­ In October, 1978, ten Tampa-area students filed a tivity involved in setting what "minimum competency" class-action suit challenging the legality of Florida's competency testing program. The suit alleged that the should be.(10) The decision is clearly as much political test violates their rights under the Fo'urteenth Amend­ as scientific. ment to equal protection under the law. The students • DrofH)ut problems: a flight from the tests? Wher­ claim that the tests perpetuate practices of racial dis­ ever the cut-off point is set, failure and the threat of fail­ crimination which have historically been present in ure will affect the school drop-out rate. In North Caro­ Florida. They charge that they were subjected to segre­ lina in 1978, over 15 percent of the high school sopho­ gated schools which continue to persist despite the 19 54 mores dropped out in the summer before their junior Brown v. Board ofEducation decision. year, shortly before the administration of the first com­ The students further contend that much of their petency test. Educational policymakers chose to give schooling has been inferior and wrought with discrimi­ the exam in the first semester, directly after large num­ natory practices. They argue that the testing perpetuates bers of discouraged students, who might boost the fail­ these biases. ure rates, left school. Time reported the flight of Florida U.S. District Court Judge Terrell Hodges has dis­ qualified himself from hearing the lawsuit. No action high school juniors who failed the test to nearby has been taken on the case since the fall. Georgia schools where no competency test criterion is Meanwhile, the Florida NAACP and North Carolina used for graduation. NAACP have filed suits alleging racially discriminatory • Problems of remediation: compensatory education intent in their respective state's testing programs. No ac­ revisited? In the haste to implement competency testing tion has been taken on these cases to date. programs, the remediation efforts designed to help fail­ ing students have been poorly planned. To date only eight states have begun bonafide, planned remedial in­ • Administrative problems: bureaucrats as educat­ struction program. Funding for these remedial services ors? The logic of minimum competency testing includes is limited. The North Carolina legislature voted only the assumption that schools operate as a bureaucracy. $4.5 million for remedial efforts following the 1978 The testing program, designed by the educational bur­ spring exam. This allocation translates to less than two eaucracy, specifies the goals the schools must attain. extra teachers per district. Florida's Compensatory Bureaucratic structures plan, monitor and evaluate Based Education Act of 1977 provided $10 million for what goes on in the school, reinforcing the drift toward remedial programs. In both cases the sums are inade­ the centralization of educational decision-making away quate in view of the large number of students needing from the classroom into the higher levels of govern­ additional instruction. ment. In addition, remedial programs will have to be sig­ The expanding bureaucracy, coupled with the ac­ nificantly more effective than special education or tual expenses of testing, also makes the cost of educa­ compensatory programs have been in the past, if they tion soar. It has been conservatively estimated that the are actually to reeducate the large number of students minimum competency testing programs will cost about who fail the tests. The Tampa Tribune reported that at $50 million annually.(11) Hidden costs to school one Jacksonville high school only nine percent of the systems not fully accounted for in the figure include students passed the competency exam. Remedial ser­ possible legal challenges and the high price of remedial vices for so large a mass of students will very likely be instruction. Significantly, these millions will be spent on impossible. One North Carolina principal confided, testing and the testing bureaucracy rather than on im­ "Nobody's going to check on the remedial programs, so plementing more effective teaching methods, such as re­ you fake it and say, 'Sure, we're doing remediation.'" duced teacher-child ratios in the classroom. Even if remedial programs were adequately funded and were implemented by trained and skilled teachers, Alternatives to the present competency testing providing adequate remediation would be difficult. movement do exist. These vary in desirability and man­ Students who after 12 years have not mastered the ageability but serve as antidotes to the deleterious ef­ cumulative basic skills required by the test are unlikely fects of competency tests.

November/ December 1979 15 1.

• Reallocation of responsibilities. Federal and state trated by an education industry which profits from gim­ government should be primarily concerned with pro­ micks and faddism. Hordes of experts hawking technol­ moting equality of educational opportunity. When local ogies and tests make the rounds, promising panaceas schools discriminate on the basis of race, economic stat­ from public criticism. The fad of competency tests has US, sex or disability, higher levels of government inter­ now achieved the status of law in a majority of the 50 vention are needed to redress the imbalance. Local gov­ states and is in "full-steam-ahead" implementation in ernments, boards of education, consumer groups and the South. Those who question their awesome conse­ school staffs should determine educational goals for quences are brushed aside as obstructionists or worse. their communities and evaluate the attainment of those But on closer examination of the short- and long-range goals. effects on the lives and learning of our children, it seems • Retarget the tests. The present use of competency clear that the "costs" of using competency tests, as they tests as high school exit exams should be halted. Stan­ are presently being implemented, far outweigh their dardized tests could be used to audit the performance of "benefits. "0 systems, rather than the achievement of individual children. Test results, gathered as statistical evidence, NOTES should be reported in such a way that the stigma of poor l. W. Haney and G. Madaus, "Making Sense of the Competency performance is removed from the student, and the bur­ Testing Movement," Harvard Educational Review, XLVIII (1978), den of improving teaching methods and materials is pp. 462-484. placed on the educational professional and policy­ 2. 1. Gallagher and A. Ramsbotham, "The Competency Program in North Carolina," The High School Journal (May, 1978). maker. 3. G. Madaus and P. Airasian, "Issues in Evaluating Student Out­ • Rethink educational evaluation. We must begin to comes in Competency Based Graduation Requirements," Journal of act on the long professed belief that educational evalua­ Research and Development in Education, X, 3, pp. 79-91. tion is much broader than the concept of measurement. 4. F. Spaulding, High School and Life (N.Y.: McGraw-Hill, A systematic monitoring of what goes on in the class­ 1938). 5. A. Wise, "Minimum Competency Testing: Another Case of room would prove considerably more helpful than the Hyper-Rationalization," Phi Delta Kappan (May 1978), pp. 596-98. students' answers to a series of questions. Supervisors, 6. M. Golladay, The Condition ofEducation (Washington: HEW, researchers and evaluators dedicated to upgrading per­ U.S. Publication No. 017-080-01678-8, 1977). formance must identify poor learning and poor teaching 7. P. Tyler et al, The Florida Accountability Program (Washing­ in the classroom, and inform teachers of ways to im­ ton: National Education Association, 1978). prove their effectiveness. 8. R. Mills and M. Bryan, Testing, Grouping: The New Segrega­ tion in Southern Schools (Atlanta: Southern Regional Council, 1976). 9. M. McClung, "Competency Testing: Potential for Discrimina­ Education has always been vulnerable to the "trial tion," Clearinghouse Review, II (1977), pp. 439-448. and error" appetite of educational consultants. Educat­ 10. G. Glass, "Minimum Competency and Incompetency in Flor­ ors, as a professional group, seem to exhibit a desperate ida," Phi Delta Kappan LIX (1978), pp. 602-605. insecurity easily exploited in public discourse and media 11. P. Airasian, G. Madaus and J. Pedulla, Issues in Minimum Competency Testing and a Comparison of Implementation Models, brouhaha. Characteristic of this insecurity is their Report to the Massachusetts Department of Education (Boston: Bos­ peculiar responsiveness to movements and fads perpe- ton College, 1978).

16 Science for the People MN. Workbook written and designed Resources for Teachers for an introductory anthropology course. It presents material on racism, biological determinism, and sexism from a radical perspective. SCIENCE FOR THE PEOPLE sues dealt with the reinstatement of the Danger: School! IDAC Document MATERIALS draft, apartheid movement on cam­ 16/17 (from a series published quarterly, puses, science and sexism, and nuclear subscription $8jyear). IDAC, 27 chemin Science and Liberation, edited by R. weapons research. Arditti, P. Brennan and S. Cavrak. des Crets, 1218 Grand-Saconnez, Radical Teacher, published quarterly Boston: South End Press, 1979 ($5.40). Geneve, Switzerland. The Institute of by Education in These Times, P.O. Collection of essays on the role of Cultural Action's innovative examina­ Box 102, Kendall Sq. P.O., Cambridge, science and the scientist today. Sections tion of the school as the ever present MA 02142. ($2/issue.) View of educa­ cover: the myth of the neutrality of institution of modern industrial society. tion from social, political, and economic science, science and social control, Contains superb graphics where a pic­ perspective. Inc! udes recent educational working in science, and new approaches ture is worth a, thousand words. trends, politics of reform, personal ac­ to science teaching and working. The A Primer of Libertarian Education, by counts, etc. Short, informative articles. authors are from a variety of fields and Joel Spring. New York: Free Life Edi­ the editors are active members of Working Teacher, published quarterly tions, 1975. Simple, easy-to-read expose Science for the People. (Available from by the Working Teacher Education on the development of radical educa­ SftP office.) Society, Box 46534, Postal Station G, tional theories of the 19th and 20th cen­ 3760 W. lOth Ave., Vancouver, BC, turies; included are anarchism, Marx­ Sociobiology Packet, edited by the Canada. (Subscription $5.00/year.) ism, and the Freudian Left in confronta­ Boston Science for the People Socio­ tion and contradiction with present and biology Group. Cambridge, MA: * * * * * future societies. Science for the People, 1978 ($3.00). GENERAL Collection of articles critiqueing socio­ Food for the Health of It. Project * * * * * WOMEN biology and examining its political Outside/Inside (see above entry), 1978 implications. Useful for teachers be­ ($5). Senior high school unit on nutri­ Women Look at Biology Looking at cause it reviews theories and arguments tion and the politics of food. Women, edited by R. Hubbard, M.S. for and against sociobiology. (Available Henifin and B. Fried. Cambridge, MA: from SftP office.) Food First, Beyond the Myth of Scarcity, by F.M. Lappe, Joseph Collins Schenkman Publishing Co., 1979. Looks Science for the People- special issue and Cary Fowler. Ballantine Books, critically at myths and stories told about on Science Teaching. Vol. 4, no. 5, 1978 ($2.75). Question and answer sec­ women's evolution and biology. Sep­ Sept./Oct. 1972. ($.50). Contains course tions on topics such as modernizing arate chapters deal with history of descriptions, articles with political hunger, the inefficiency of inequality, women in medicine, child birth, meno­ punch. Is still timely and includes addi­ the trade trap, the myth of food power, pause, menstruation, etc. Also includes tional resources. (Available from SftP and self-reliance. detailed bibliography. office.) Sex Role Socialization: A Focus on The Problem Exists in the Oassroom * * * * * Women. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield Because it Exists in the World. Coopera­ PERIODICALS Publishing Co., 1979. Deals with sex role tive Schools Group on Development socialization from early childhood Edcentric: A Journal of Educational Education, 121 Avenue Rd., Toronto through school years and college. Dis­ Change, published quarterly. P.O. Box M5R 2G3, Canada, 1978. Issues and ap­ cusses how stereotypes begin before 10085, Eugene, OR 97440. $5.00 indi­ proaches centered on the causes and school and are perpetuated throughout viduals, $10 for institutions. experiences of underdevelopment which the educational system. Edcentric criticizes the formal educa­ force people to leave their home coun­ tion system and encourages changes in tries. * * * * * schools. It tries to bring together Design for Health. Project GOOD READING VIA teachers to -share experiences and Outside/Inside, 81 Highland Ave., MAIL-ORDER develop cooperative community action. Somerville MA 02143, 1978 ($5). A Until recently, not all science activists Recent articles published covered the junior high school 6-week unit on have had access to a comprehensive full­ Bakke case, gay rights in education, and fitness, self-image and weight control; spectrum progressive political book­ teaching about nuclear power. there's a section on women and sports store. Modern Times Bookstore (3800 Politics and Education is published and the effects of advertising on self­ 17th Street; San Francisco, California bimonthly at 285 Court St., Middle­ image. 94114) has produced an excellent catalog town, CT. $10 per year. It is a publica­ The Door Is Open, But The Ride Ain't ($1.00/copy) that includes sections on tion that reports on activist movements Free, Anthropology Workbook by the all of the basic progressive issues of the on college campuses across the country, Badlands Anthropology Collective, day. Of immediate interest to SftP and analyzes current issues, strategies University of Northern Colorado, readers will be sections on food, health, for change, and visions of alternative Greeley, CO. Also available from science and technology, and energy and forms of education. Articles in recent is- Burgess Publishing Co., Minneapolis, ecology.

November/ December 1979 17 Dick and Jane Meet Scientific Man An Analysis of Reading Manageme1

Most of us remember relatively little about learning responsibility to learn, and to learn in this one way, lies to read. It involved little books with a pretty picture and entirely on the student, and legitimizes itself through a a few short words on each page. For some of us, there scientific rationale. This article outlines these abuses of was a lot of rhyming of words, like "hat-cat-fat"; only scientific management and centers on its violation of the many years later did we learn that this was called teacher's role. "phonics." Some of us found it pretty traumatic, while others breezed through. But one way or another we Taylorized Teaching learned, and the details of how we learned have mostly faded from memory. I remember "Run, Spot, run" and But the influence of capitalist thought on Dick, Jane "See the ball"; but other than that - well, I was very and Spot goes beyond the question of what is taught. It young at the time. also has a great deal to do with how reading is taught. In recent years, some of us have begun to be con­ This becomes particularly clear when we look at the cerned again about that process, and not merely as recent introduction into the classroom of techniques elementary school teachers or parents. First of all, we first developed in industry around the turn of the cen­ have realized that more was being taught than just read­ tury. The little red schoolhouse does not have assembly ing. A feminist political analysis can point out the role lines and factory whistles, at least not yet: but more and of those pretty little books in giving us our ideas of more it is becoming another experiment in scientific gender roles - of how Mommy and Daddy, Dick and management. Jane are supposed to behave. And those innocuous little Scientific management, also called Taylorism after phrases included such concepts as "Some people can its most famous exponent, Frederick Taylor, is generally learn a lot. Some people can only learn a little."( I) We associated with time-and-motion studies. One breaks up were being taught, unknowingly and perhaps even un­ the productive process into the basic motions a worker intentionally, to accept the basic differences in social has to perform, calculates the minimum amount of time status that characterize modern capitalist society. needed for these motions, and then forces the worker to Traditional teaching materials portray sex-role and do the job in the most "efficient" way. However, scienti­ class stereotypes characteristic of capitalism. The new fic management's importance in capitalist development technique of scientific management to teach reading goes well beyond these charges. As analyzed by Harry offers a more blatant example of how teaching methods Braverman in the book Labor and Monopoly reinforce the status quo: the use of this prescribed and Capital(2), scientific management was the harnessing of inflexible method limits teachers' creativity in the class­ science by capitalism, for the purpose of taking all room, communicates to parents and students that the control of production away from workers. Jobs that in­ volved expertise and knowledge on the part of workers Doug Boucher is Associate Professor of Biology at McGill were subdivided into parts or mechanized, so that skill University in Quebec; one of his main interests is tropical was no longer necessary. Quantification and agricultural research. standardization ensured that all work would be done in

18 Science for the People 1gement 'Systems

by Doug Boucher

the same way and at predictable rates; thus raw material needs and output of products could be carefully con­ trolled. No longer would skilled workers have the power that comes from having knowledge and talents that the factory owners couldn't do without. Rather, the subdivision of the productive process would both make it possible to replace skilled labor with unskilled, and guarantee that only the top managers would have the knowledge necessary to understand the complete process of production. Braverman shows how the principles of scientific Steve Karian/Red Apple Art management, having completely transformed industry, are also being introduced into "white-collar" jobs such organizing the teaching process. As a computer as typing. The point is not that scientific management is programmer might put it, they are selling schools the simply a more "efficient" or "productive" way of software for learning to read. organizing work (although of course it generally is, if The reasons schools are buying, and the implica­ one accepts capitalism's way of defining efficiency and tions for teachers and students, are demonstrated in a productivity), but rather that it is a way of organizing recent set of articles on the Ann Arbor, Michigan work that is adapted to the needs of capitalist produc­ schools reading program, written by Kathy Hulik in the tion. Thus it can be employed in the control of workers Ann Arbor News(3). Ann Arbor, a fairly wealthy and the "manufacture" of essentially anything that is university town with a school system which is consi­ considered useful in our society - cars and corn flakes, dered forward-looking and innovative, recently bought laundered shirts and letters, blueprints and bombs. "management systems" from four major publishers. Or, children who can read. While the raw materials (Ginn, Holt, Houghton-Mifflin and Laidlaw), at a cost are somewhat variable, and the workers tend to interact of over $85,000. The systems will be implemented fully with them a bit personally, these give no reason to think in September 1979, and while teachers can choose which that science can't reorganize things in the same way that of the four to use, they must use essentially the whole it did in the steel mill. And in fact, the companies that system "package" for the one they choose. About 8,000 make reading materials have gone well beyond an im­ pupils in grades one through six will be learning reading proved "See Jane run." They have developed entire through the management systems. "management systems" for teaching reading, complete with textbooks for all elementary grades, pre-tests and Scientific Management and the "Art" of Teaching post-tests, fill-in-the-blank workbooks, teacher's guides, test manuals, and supplementary reading. But more Hulik's articles indicate that both teachers who than just printed matter, they are selling a way of favor the management systems and those who oppose

November/ December 1979 /9 them, agree in their analyses of why the school district is using them. Thomas Pietras, the district director of lan­ guage arts, explains that "The management system is basically record keeping." The textbooks are divided up into units, each teaching a certain "skill," and tests before and after each unit indicate when a student has learned a certain skill and can go on to the next unit. Beyond simply reading the books (in groups of students, all at the same skill "mastery" level), the students spend their time filling in blanks in workbooks which are similar to the tests. The workbooks and of course the tests are graded by the teacher, and provide a quanti­ tative measure of exactly how many "reading skills" the child has learned. One management system, for example, is advertised as containing 450 distinct skills. Some teachers question whether many of these taken. If Johnny still can't read, well, we've done the "skills" are in fact valuable in learning to read. For in­ teaching; he just wasn't able to do the learning. As Piet­ stance, one of Houghton-Mifflin's workbooks asks the ras argues in favor of the system, "We can show parents student to pick out the nonsense phrase that ryhmes a child's capabilities. And we are trying to guarantee a exactly with an underlined word in a sentence. Thus, certain amount of instruction to parents." This is stated given the sentence "We made the candy with instant more critically by a teacher who opposes the system: fudge mix," one should know that the proper rhyme for "The management system is a neat package for public "instant" is "win stunt" rather than "inch ant" or "fan relations. It is something to show parents, the superin­ stand." But irrespective of the value of each particular tendent and the community. It is designed to show that exercise, it is clear that the basic purpose of scientific the teachers are teaching, but that doesn't mean that management remains. Rather than allowing teachers to everyone is learning." teach in their own individual ways, the management Clearly, the basic purpose for such systems is to system divides the process up into its smaller component meet the growing demands for "accountability." School parts, and deals with them one at a time. Teaching is districts, increasingly under fire for the supposed declin­ standardized. As one proponent of the system puts it, ing quality of graduating students, can use the system as "Reading is no longer taught according to an individual evidence that they've been doing their job and aren't to teacher's preferences." Another teacher who favors the blame. Rather than either challenging the value of indi­ system says that "there is a systematic section of each cators of "product quality" such as SAT scores, or day a teacher can plug into." This is considered to be implementing proven but costly means of improving particularly useful to young teachers, as yet unskilled in education such as smaller class sizes, the schools opt for teaching reading. a way to demonstrate "objectively" (i.e., with numbers) that the students have been taught. If they're not all lit­ erate - well, we learned way back in second grade that The Significance of Standardization "Some people can only learn a little." Another effect of implementing scientific manage­ Even more important than standardizing teaching ment, however, is to make teachers less like "profes­ is making it quantifiable. The tests and workbooks both sionals" and more like other workers. As one teacher indicate skills an incoming student has mastered and objects, "this system is stopping teachers from thinking. provide something to show parents and administrators You can't give them a total package deal and expect cre­ to indicate progress. One advocate of the method says ativity." Another says, "All I studied and taught and that "When discussing a child's performance with his learned in 28 years of experience is not held in great re­ parents, the parents don't want the teacher's subjective pute. My input as a professional is not thought of as judgments, but objective facts." Another explains that important. It all has been replaced by the management "There is security in knowing the children have been ex­ system." While administrators such as Pietras deny the posed to all the skills, that the basic components of a systems stifle creativity, their attitudes do seem to share good reading program are being attended to." something of a manager's outlook: "The exercises could It is revealing that the claim for the management be considered drill-oriented and tedious, but the process system is not so much that it quantifies learning (which, is necessary. It serves to make the teachers accountable after all, has been measured by tests long before man­ for their teaching. Scoring tests and recording grades agement systems were thought of), as that it quantifies are part of the job. They have to be done, we want them teaching. Whether or not the child has learned the skills, done, and they are in the best interest of both child and one has the evidence of workbooks filled in and tests teacher."

20 Science for the People Scientific management seems to be bringing the adults to read, as described in his books Pedagogy of the same kind of organization of production to the class­ Oppressed, Education for Critical Consciousness, and room as it does to industry. Quantification, standardi­ Pedagogy in Process: Letters to Guinea-Bissau. For zation, and, in general, control of the productive proc­ Freire, learning to read is merely part of a process of ess (e.g. learning to read) reduces students to machines "conscientization," of coming to deal critically with being run by Taylorized methods instead of teachers. one's world in order to change it. Reading is taught not Students form habits and expectations encountered in through an authoritarian teacher-student relationship, the workplace, and Taylorized literacy can eventually but through dialogue that leads to a shared description help generate profits. Publishing companies can make and analysis of one's surroundings. The effect of the considerably more money than just selling textbooks by process is to overcome rather than to increase aliena­ pressuring administrators to buy complete management tion. systems. The capitalists win big while student and teach­ The challenge is to incorporate science into such er lose. experiments in education in a new way - one that The result for teachers is, to quote the subtitle of serves the needs of teachers and students rather than of Braverman's book, "The degradation of work." The managers and publishing companies. By discovering personal, creative aspects of teaching, which originally how the development of science has, in this as in so attracted us to it, are replaced by the grading of post­ many other fields, been conditioned by the structure of tests. Our warmth and love of children, our accumu­ capitalist society, we can perhaps find a way to both a lated experiences and talents become less important new science and a new education.D than the requirements of the management system. We become alienated from our jobs; as with industrial workers before us, we become "proletarianized." Thus it should be clear that the major objection to REFERENCES scientific management is not that it applies science to I. Senesh, Lawrence, Our Working World (1972). Quoted in Rich­ education, nor that it doesn't really teach people to ard Lewontin, "Biological determinism as a social weapon" in Ann read. The point is that the way it uses science to teach Arbor SftP, eds., Biology as a Social Weapon (Minneapolis, MN: reading is destructive to the creative aspects of this Burgess, 1977). work. Students become fillers-in of blanks, and teachers 2. Braverman, Harry, Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degra­ dation of Work in the Twentieth Century (New York: Monthly Re­ become grading machines. view Press, 1974). Is there an alternative? Perhaps an applicable one is 3. Hulik, Kathy, "The New Reading" in Ann Arbor News, 4 presented by the work of Paulo Freire on teaching February 1979, p. F-1.

November/ December 1979 21 Sharing Science in the Classroom An Alternative Teaching Method

by Brenda Lansdown

This article describes a teaching while the teacher did the experi­ were experimenting with circuits or method observed in China in 1977. menting? What kept students want­ repairing electric motors. So there I It is not known whether it reflects ing to answer questions the teacher had some answers. Theory, hands­ current practice, but we feel the raised instead of posing questions on practice and social needs all in­ teaching method is a valuable themselves and then trying to find tertwined, all meaningful and im­ model. answers? portant to the students' lives. I was told, too, that workers from indus­ In the High School - I looked around. Outside the win­ try come to the classrooms to tell Facts and Social Relevance dows in the commune farm there how what they learned in school has The science lesson I observed in were mosquito traps: long shaped been helpful to them in the factory Shanghai in 1977 was on physics­ light bulbs which attracted insects work, for, after all, it is the workers and then either electrocuted them or electric circuits. The teacher had a themselves who design the way pro­ demonstration board on the front fried them on landing. (I do not duction proceeds. desk and a diagram of the circuit on know which!) The student whose the blackboard. Most of the 54 stud­ desk I was sharing let me look at her textbook. There! There on the open The Method of Thinking ents seemed eager to answer the questions as to what would happen page was the connection which be­ Another question occurred to me. gan to tie things together for me. if ... Then the teacher performed Is the teaching method optimum for The mosquito trap was pictured and the operation and the result (the achieving the large. goals, goals on bulb did or did not light) was ex­ alongside it the blackboard dia­ the forefront of industry where gram. plained and re-explained by various workers have to face new problems, students. Those who did not under­ think up creative answers, and test stand said so and it was often the So - the science lesson was both their solutions in the field? other students who supplied the useful and meaningful to the lives of reasoning. All showed patience in the students; they were making con­ There are really two aspects in having everyone learn and under­ nections betwel!n theory and the every course of study: the content stand. practical needs of the commune. and the method of thinking. The However, what could these young whole of these students' society cer­ But I had a question or two to ask people do? Could they fix broken tainly supplied the rationale for the myself. Why should students be wires or analyze a mosquito trap content offered, but what about the interested in a basic electric circuit? which didn't work? method of thinking which the Why should they want to watch physics lesson conveyed? Facts came Later we visited the commune from the teacher, they were intro­ Brenda Lansdown is the originator of shops where students spent two duced and illustrated by his the Investigation and Colloquium meth­ months full time each year engaging manoeuvers. Students tried to find od of teaching. She has taught at the in actual production. In one shop the right explanations for what they City University of New York in Brook­ the students were producing electric observed. They helped each other lyn and at Harvard University. circuits. In another classroom they understand preconceived concepts.

22 Science for the People Is there anything wrong or limit­ The Lessons Compared chosen the area and concepts within ing with this approach? To answer which the lesson was focused. In the this, one has to select criteria. While In what ways is this lesson on physics lesson these were the dyna­ in most countries of the world, the politics similar to and different from mics of electricity, in the politics les­ method of thinking conveyed by the one on physics? son they were the dynamics of a so­ school teaching is not analyzed (in­ cialist society, but within the pro­ deed it is not often discussed al­ The content of both lessons was vided focus, the methods of thinking though it exists forcefully), in the rooted in the students' experiences, differed. In the physics lesson the People's Republic of China the the method of both lessons provided facts and relationships were given method of thinking is paramount. It for student-student interchange, but from authority: the role of the is known as Mao Zedong (Mao Tse­ the method of thinking conveyed by learners was to be able to repeat and tung) Thought, Mao's adaptation of each lesson was different. explain correctly. In the politics les­ Marxist-Leninist thinking to the son the learners learned from each The facts of the physics lessons history and needs of the Chinese other, putting their experiences into revolution. came from the teacher as did the their own words, fitting these to the questions. The students learned and shared experiences. There were no explained according to a pre-con­ There are many facets to Mao Ze­ right answers from authority but a ceived correct pattern. The facts of dong Thought. Some of these are: correctness of interpretation agreed the politics lesson came from the unity of theory and practice, rele­ upon by the group, a whole cluster students' own experiences as did the vance to the needs of workers and of possible answers. questions they asked each other. peasants, the belief that everyone There was a pooling of knowledge can learn and be helped to under­ from reading and shared experi­ I pointed out the differences to a stand. So far, no problem with the ences. The physics lesson aimed at friendly science teacher who acted as physics lesson. Let's look at another having each student understand cer­ my guide and interpreter. She lesson I observed, one on politics. tain facts and relationships, the poli­ agreed that the methods of the poli­ tics lesson aimed at having the stud­ tics lesson were better but she ex­ ents discover facts and relationships plained that the country had not yet In the Junior High School and then create a new whole by sum­ had time to work on an overall marizing the collective experiences. change of teachers' habits and long A junior high school class was , In both lessons the teacher had used methods. presented with a quotation from the works of Mao. On the board the teacher wrote: "Why is it important to distinguish friends from enemies?" The teacher explained the assignment briefly. Then the stud­ ents from each double desk made groups of four by turning around or joining the couple in back or in front of them. The students had evi­ dently read what Mao Zedong had to say on the subject. Now each one shared with his or her companions examples of what the quotation meant in their own lives, where they had experienced the acts of friends or enemies. The discussions were lively with everyone contributing. Toward the end of the lesson one member from each group reported (very fluently) to the rest of the class a summary of the ideas which had Richard A. Bertocci been generated; it was a synthesis of the group's process. The teacher ·In this class, which took place in a summer playground in Boston, there was no then asked whether the others problem in solving the contradiction between play and study. Every child left his or agreed or not. her play to work with the science materials as soon as we arrived.

November/ December 1979 23 Importance ofthe Method where a similar lesson on circuits is collective discussion about contra­ of Thinking well within the grasp of children dictions all expressed by the aged nine or ten. It is the principle of learners; the group searches for pos­ This problem assumes major im­ the method which makes the trans­ sible solutions, not previously de­ portance at present in the current fer possible. cided. This all leads to collective drive to increase interest and skill in future action. The teacher's role is science all over the country. So far Investigation and Colloquium one of helping to pinpoint the con­ as I know, until recently there was tradictions as expressed by the little science taught in the elemen­ In science we call this type of learners and g1vmg everyone a tary school. Let us see how the lesson "Investigation-Colloquium." chance to contribute, to think to­ method of teaching which conveyed Investigation is provided by first~ gether. The teacher does not give the thinking of the politics class hand contact with materials which answers, but helps with vocabulary, would work out in a science lesson. by their potential interactions are asks questions which have many The principle can apply to any level related to important science con­ possible answers (not just a "right" of teaching, but we will illustrate cepts. The colloquium is a verbal one) and so encourages creative from an elementary school level sharing of perceptual experiences, a thinking.

Principles and Applications of the Investigation and Colloquium Method

Each principle is followed by an application to a 3. After each group has achieved success the teacher science lesson in elementary school. arranges for a verbal sharing period. This is where we learn that the children have discovered many, many dif­ ferent phenomena. Some will say that the wires got hot, I. The teachers or workers committee has to decide others will say they didn't. A contradiction! Further which science concept is to be the focus of study, and in sharing of facts shows that when electric energy (the what ways this is relevant to the social context of the teacher supplies this phrase) is doing work like lighting students. the bulb, the copper wires do not get hot. When there is a "short circuit" and no work done, the copper wires do I. A lesson on circuits would be chosen because it get hot, by turning the electric energy into heat energy. introduces part of the electromagnetic phenomena of Many other problems are revealed. The wires have to be the universe, an aspect of the basic concepts of mass, connected firmly. Isn't there a better way to hold them energy as well as of life. It would be assumed that the than with sticky tape? Two dry cells make the light children had some experience with electric lights and brighter, two lights on one dry ceil have a dimmer light. perhaps electric generators in their commune. And so on and so on. Problems and contradictions galore, many solved by more careful observation or 2. A common experience has to be provided so that more sharing of each other's experiences. the students can think together. The experience is pro­ vided through free experimentation with materials 4. The nature ofthe problems and/ or contradictions whose interactions present the concept to the senses in a has to be reduced to objective statements upon which variety of ways. everyone can agree.

2. The common experience is the crux of the lesson 4. The learnings can be agreed upon and stated to generate the kind of thinking we are talking about. It clearly. The residual problems need to be stated also by really requires that each child has access to carefully sel­ collective agreement. ected materials with which to experiment freely. In this case a group of two, three or four children would sit 5. Solutions to the problems are sought by reading, around a table on which were dry cells, copper wires, by asking other sources, or by further concrete some flashlight bulbs and some kind of sticky tape with investigation. which to hold things together. The only instructions 6. The group pools various ideas oft heir own which needed are: "See if you can make the light light". That is may be original or adaptations of the resources. really all. It invariably works. Children are highly moti­ vated and very ingenious. 7. An explanation or plan ofaction is agreed upon.

3. The group then is able to share each person's 5,6,7. Older children can read or ask adults about perceptions of the experience. This sharing usually the remaining problems, then return to another lesson. reveals problems and contradictions, either in the But this can also be a lesson for which the teacher brings perceptions or in the experiences themselves. in additional materials to provide more experiences.

24 Science for the People Investigation-colloquium as a way of teaching science closely parallels the politics lesson: a basic common experience, a sharing of ideas and relevant perceptions inter­ pretations, and a summary of the collective creative thoughts. Investigation-colloquium teach­ ing brings into the classroom a pro­ cedure by which Mao Zedong Thought can be applied to substan­ tial academic subject matter. It parallels not only the procedures used by many forefront scientists but also the study procedures by which members of communes and factories do their after-work study and solve problems of their work life. In these sessions everyone states Melinda Gordon~~ the problem as he/she sees it. These lesson might be followed by one in order. Mao Zedong was eternally statements are then refined until which additional materials would aware of this. In the Soviet Union only the objective facts are left and lead to discovery of what type of where new content after the revol u­ these again are related in a state­ wires allow electrical energy to flow tion was taught by authoritarian ment which voices the problem and through and what type of materials methods people had difficulty the contradictions. heat up. changing. Societies that can prepare For adults and older children children for leadership in social or­ To complete the training in Mao there can be a search into the litera­ ders where the world's goods are Zedong Thought a few more aspects ture and from experts to learn where more evenly distributed, and where have to be incorporated: that of his­ similar problems have been ad­ collective living is the foundation, tory based on class struggle and em­ dressed. The younger children should have the foresight to teach phasis on dialectic change. Of follow their sessions with reading methods of thinking and problem course experience in a related indus­ and then with further investigation solving in anticipation of this new trial set-up and repairing simple ap­ on additional materials supplied by social order. Indeed, they have an pliances is optimum. All this is more the teacher. For example the circuit obligation to do so. readily achieved in a socialist society In the people's Republic of China than in one not yet arrived at in a where thinking is a primary concern nonexploitive system. All aspects of and where science is now on the as­ investigation-colloquium science cendant in the curriculum, a con­ teaching with its trend toward Mao cern for new methods of teaching Zedong Thought are as applicable science might well be embraced. D to the biologic as to the physical sciences, and indeed to all other areas of the school curriculum. NOTE Many examples of sets of materials The Vital Importance of Addressing which motivate the type of thinking being dis­ the Method of Thinking cussed as well as verbatim accounts of "collo­ quia" by children of all ages and social back­ Thinking that emphasizes learn­ grounds are given in the book: Teaching Elementary Science Through Investigation ing from authority is a teaching and Colloquium by Brenda Lansdown, Paul method from feudalistic tradition. Blackwood and Paul Brandwein, N.Y. Har­ Thinking that emphasizes the role of court Brace Jovanovich ( 1971) the individual is a prime example of In several areas where there is concern to the capitalistic mode of teaching. develop in children a type of thinking which will equip them to solve some of the problems Any society inherits the left-over of the future. Investigation-Colloquium traits or characteristic thinking science teaching has been adopted in several methods of the previous social cities in the USA, Canada and Ghana.

November/ December 1979 25 Jonathan Kozol's Tactics for Teachers How to Challenge the School System

Jonathan Kozol is a familiar name within the I. Expose the purpose of the schools by quoting a) circles of alternative education. As teacher and author*, famous educators such as Horace Mann. For example: Kozol has experienced many facets of the public school ... in regards to those who possess the largest system and has had a great deal of personal contact with shares ... of worldly goods, could there, in your administrators, teachers, parents and students. Recently opinion, be any police so vigilant and effective, for he has completed a manuscript entitled "Fighting protection of all the rights of person, property and Back", in which he speaks to the frustrations and feel­ character, as such a ... system of common schools ings of ineffectiveness of many educators and concerned could be made to impart ... Would not the pay- individuals. Kozol offers in his text an entire strategy for ment of a sufficient tax to make such training change ranging from subversive activities within the universal, be the cheapest means of self-protection classroom to small victories within one's community. and insurance? Not surprisingly, Kozol's faithful publishers, b) certain Boards of Education such as Arizona: Houghton-Mifflin and Bantam Books, refuse to publish "It is not the job of the schools to create a new social and distribute his handbook. order ..." The job is to "augment a child's love of Kozol is well aware of the problems in American country, ideals of the home ..." society and its public school system. Solutions require c) school regulations for curriculum content to skill in developing political awareness, time-consuming point out that "schools exist to serve the flag they fly". work, patience, and a specific plan based upon small 2. Speak out in the first person; let students realize gradual steps. One other requirement in the mechanism that teachers have feelings and emotions. Include in this towards social change, and the most important, is process discussion of personal experiences that differ people. a great number of people with common con­ from curriculum textbooks. cerns seeking a common goal. This too is something Kozol has become acquainted with in his years of travel­ 3. Expose the myth of history and the story of ing and meeting people: "progress". Teach an alternative history -that of the ordinary man and woman - generaJly a buried view­ point. Example: Thoreau.( I) It would be deceptive to attempt to build a sense of common cause where none exists. Wherever it 4. Make students realize it is okay to say no. Teach does exist, however - but where people who have them to question the contents and habits of classes, most to gain through recognition of that common schools, and societies that demand unquestioned obed­ cause don't know that it exists- then it seems that ience. A teacher's own political involvement can set the we are in an ideal"breakthrough situation." best example. 5. Break the myth of the infallible authority figure. Organization of these people is also a key factor in Show that someone like a teacher can be wrong by invit­ working toward social change: ing another teacher(s) with whom you disagree into the classroom and debate an issue in front of the class. Clearly, then, with something more than acciden­ tal preparation parents, kids and teachers can de­ 6. Introduce alternative materials, including velop sweeping and long-lasting power to trans­ radical books (SftP materials), films, music, etc. form their schools. 7. Quote extreme views of the radical patriots and radical scientists that you learn about from the alterna­ Following is a summary of 20 tactics that Kozol in­ tive materials. cludes in his manuscript. These can be used in the class­ room setting and many can be adapted for science 8. Include more women's history: e.g., Emma classes. Goldman, Helen Keller, Dorothy Day. (See the article

26 Science for the People by Margaret Alic in this issue of SftP for more informa­ racist organization or a company that is polluting the tion). environment: organize a mass mailing to a government 9. Open school records to students, let them see representative concerning a local issue. what's been said about them. 17. Build coalitions with parents, students and 10. Expose the carefully planned learning and "dis­ teachers: share school records, honesty and friendship: covering" that students undergo by giving them the unionize: form teacher centers. Teacher's Guide to various curricula. 18. Teach hardcore basic skills. 11. Write a textbook with the students. Demon­ 19. Take issues to court, such as refusing to say the strate that we are part of history and anyone can create Pledge of Allegiance. Use the press and TV. it. Examine textbook formats and viewpoints. 20. Don't fear taking initiative and following 12. Involve students in real struggles within the through.D community and in the investigation of the underlying politics. For example, help at a daycare center, recycle discarded bottles, or work with a tenants' council. REFERENCES 13. Confront painful contradictions: face up to and deal with those of us who are well off and those of us I. An Underhanded History of the USA. by Nick Thorkelson who aren't, those who exploit and those who are and Jim O'Brien, available from New England Free Press, 60 Union Sq., Somerville MA 02143. $2.00.The History Book, Pal Rydberg and exploited. Gittan Jonsson et al, 1974. Available from Midnight Special, 1335'1, 14. Resist the Pledge of Allegiance. Compare what it West Washington Blvd., Venice, CA 90291.$5.95. says with what really exists. Document your resistance, 2. The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism: (The write a new pledge. Political Economy of Human Rights, Vol. 1), by Noam Chomsky and 15. Teach about repression and U.S. imperialism in Edward S. Herman. South End Press, Box 68, Astor Station, Boston, MA 02123. $5.50. what textbooks call the "Free World", Latin America, etc.(2) *Kozol has written three books that we've found especially val­ 16. Become involved with struggles within your uable: Death at an Early Age (Bantam Books, NY 1968), The Night is Dark and I Am Far From Home (Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, 1975), community. Seek small but visible victories. Picket a and Children of the Revolution (Delacorte Press, NY, 1978).

Discovering the History of Women in Science A Course Outline by Margaret A lie

Recently the scientific establishment and the fed­ of men. We learn about Pythagoras and Archimedes, eral government have professed an interest in encourag­ but not about Hypatia or Hildegard: about Copernicus, ing women to enter the scientific professions. Their ef­ Galileo and Newton, but not about Emilie du Chatelet, forts have usually taken the form of "Career Facilita­ Maria Agnesi or Mary Somerville( l ). We hear about tion Projects" and "Science Career Workshops" for un­ Watson and Crick, but not about Rosalind Franklin dergraduate women, funded by the National Science who unwittingly provided the data that allowed them to Foundation. In addition, various scientific societies determine the structure of DNA(2). have held conferences or established committees on To counter this neglect of women scientists in con­ women. These projects have successfully avoided the ventional curricula, courses have appeared at colleges underlying problem within the educational system: and universities across the country(3). Some of these From elementary school on through university we are classes focus on the problems and roles of women scien­ taught that science is, and always has been, the province tists today. Others, like our course at Portland State University, are concerned with the history of women in Margaret Alic ts a member of the Portland Chapter ofScience science and math. When we first conceived of this course for the People and is working on a book on the history of in 1976 our knowledge consisted of what we had learned women in science. in school and as science workers. Therefore, when we

November/ December 1979 27 brainstormed women scientists, we came up with Marie science; 3) to teach such elementary scientific principles Curie, Rachel Carson, a couple of professors we'd had as are needed to understand the work of the women in college, and Rosalind Franklin (having recently read under discussion; 4) to encourage discussion of current Anne Sayre's biography, an answer to the sexist and issues in science and technology that affect us all. self-serving portrayal of Franklin in The Double Our course begins with a discussion of The Double Helix(4) ). After three years of research and teaching we Helix and Rosalind Franklin & DNA, illustrating "how now know of literally hundreds of women who have science works" in capitalist society and the position of either made important scientific contributions, or women within the scientific establishment. This leads whose lives and work illustrate the obstacles that have naturally into the history of genetics and molecular biol­ confronted women scientists throughout written his­ ogy as traced through the work of women scientists, tory. with discussion of recombinant DNA research and the The premise of our course is that women have al­ "biological revolution." ways done scientific work. However, the nature and ex­ We then consider the work of women scientists tent of their contributions, and any recognition they from ancient times through the Renaissance, and the may have received, is determined, at least in part, by the women mathematicians and astronomers of the 18th and 19th centuries. The significant role of women as writers and popularizers of science is also discussed. We trace the growth of an American "community" of women scientists within the women's colleges and the Harvard College Observatory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Marie Curie's role as the ultimate "token woman" is critically examined, along with a general his­ tory of nuclear physics through the work of women. Finally we study the growth of those sciences, such as natural history, botany and nutrition, which histori­ cally have been considered "female sciences". Included also are laboratory exercises, and panel discussions with women scientists and with "non-professional" women doing scientific work. We conclude with a look at socio­ biology and how science has historically been used as a weapon against women. Interest in the history of women in science is grow­ ing rapidly and new books and articles are appearing regularly. Perhaps we are moving closer to the day when women will be considered an integral part of both the history and the current work of science.D

REFERENCES

I. Math Equals: Biographies of Women Mathematicians andRe­ Culver Pictures/Math Equals lated Activities by Teri Perl (Addison-Wesley, Menlo Park, 1978) is an Mary Fairfax Somerville, famous 19th century Scottish excellent elementary text containing information on these women, mathematician. and mathematical exercises suitable for varied backgrounds. 2. Sayre, Anne, Rosalind Franklin &DNA, New York: Norton, position of women and the structure of scientific en­ 1975. deavor in the society and historical period in question. 3. A summary of women-in-science courses is available from The majority of our students have been women with Phyllis Chinn, Department of Mathematics, Humboldt State Univer­ little background in science. Often they exhibit symp­ sity, Arcata, CA 95521. Also, a 1975 "Women & Science" class at the toms of "math and science anxiety" as a result of pre­ University of Washington developed a pamphlet, Hypatia's Sisters: Biographies of Women Scientists Past and Present. It is distributed by vious educational experiences. With these factors in Feminists Northwest, 5038 Nicklas Pl. N.E., Seattle, W A 98105. mind, we have had four main goals for our class: I) to 4. Watson, James D., The Double Helix, New York: Atheneum, study the lives and work of individual women scientists 1968. within their historic context: 2) to identify individual For more information and resources on women in science write to factors (eg. wealth or social status) and historical pat­ or call: terns (eg. increased educational opportunities or the ap­ Science for the People 897 Main St. pearance of a "star" such as Marie Curie) which pro­ Cambridge, MA 02139 mote the participation of women in specific fields of 617-547-0370

28 Science for the People A New Wave of Reaction in Europe Sociobiology Used to Justify Racism, Sexism and Elitism

The Sociobiology Study Group of Boston Science for the People strongly recommends that people read: Psychology, Racism, and Fascism by Michael Billig (A Searchlight Booklet). In 1975, upon publication of E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. we warned that sociobiology would soon be used to bolster reactionary politics. Wilson called this "irresponsible and totally false." We were correct. In March 1979, the powerful and violent neo-N azi party in Britain called the "National Front" published an article which openly used sociobiology as a justification for their racist policies (Spearhead, March 1979). Recently, the intellectuals of the French "New Right"havesought, in this modern version of biological determinism, justification for their avowed policy of rule by the "intellectual elite (see, e.g., Figaro magazine, July 1979). This new attack on egalitarian principles has received extensive publicity (New York Times, July 9, 1979; Le Nouvel Observateur, July 2, 1979; Time magazine, August 13, 1979). During our study of this wave of reaction under the guise of science, Michael Billig's pamphlet Racism, Fascism and Psychology came to our attention. We found his historical analysis of the relation between European academics and Neo­ Fascist movements impressive, thorough and helpful. Billig also analyzes the contemporary neofascist movements and their intellectual supporters. His pamphlet is a source of powerful, documented arguments that demonstrate the "neutrality of science" as the myth that it is. We urge you to read it. The Sociobiology Study Group of the Boston Chapter (A limited number of copies will soon be available from the Cambridge SftP office. Otherwise, send 50 pence U.K. or equivalent to: A .F. and R. Publications, 2/, Great Western Building, 6, Livery Street, Birmingham, U.K.)

November/ December 1979 29 Teaching Science for Humane Survival Basic Skills and More

by George Salzman

Science for Humane Survival is in its eighth species, and I wanted it unambiguously to embrace the consecutive year at the University of Massachusetts' notion of survival under humane conditions, hence the Boston Campus. Controversial from the start, it con­ change of name. tinues to trigger allergic reactions from various sensi­ tized faculty members whenever it comes up for con­ The catalogue description sums it up as follows: sideration at one or another college governance meet­ Science for Humane Survival (is) an interdisciplinary ings concerned with curriculum, most recently last year-long course that attempts to answer two main ques­ spring when its suitability to be included among the core tions: How can long-term survival of the human species courses of the College of Arts and Sciences was, predict­ in humane conditions be achieved? How can individuals ably, challenged. As happened on each earlier occasion, survive as healthy and vigorous humane beings in con­ the course - and the students, who have consistently temporary industrialized capitalist society? Topics in­ been its strongest supporters - won out, and so it con­ clude food, energy, pollution, population, ideology, so­ tinues to fulfill "the science requirement" and officially cial organization, transportation, exercise, clothing, to be a bona fide introductory science course, though shelter, competition. Open to all students, the course suspect (or worse) in the eyes of various more conserva­ has no prerequisites, is organized topically, and may be tive faculty members. entered in the Fall or the Spring and taken for either or It was spawned, as was Science for the People itself, both semesters. Three lecture hours and one film or by the tumultuous climate of the late 60's and early 70's, guest lecture presentation weekly. Several field trips and by a growing realization that science in the real each semester. Offered on a pass/fail basis only (no world was not a neutral, objective, value-free study of letter grades), it carries 4 credits per semester and counts nature. I knew that some of the most elite physicists in as a year of introductory science. the U.S. were directly involved in conceiving and rough­ In the fall of 1976 the Science Teaching Group of designing the automated battlefield for use in Vietnam the Boston SftP Chapter agreed that it would be ap­ and the course grew out of my desire to try to shape m; propriate to call the course "a Science for the People own life so that, as a science teacher, I would have a course," and beginning then that is how I subtitled the positive social effect instead of just serving the system, headings for all materials prepared as handouts for the which I saw through increasingly radicalized eyes. course. In fact it really has been a Sci~nce for the People Science for the People played a large part in chang­ course, as reflected by the viewpoints that it develops ing my perceptions from those of a normal theoretical and because most of the faculty teaching it have been physicist with the customary professional ambitions; 'it members of SftP. Over the years ten faculty were in­ helped transform me into a rebel physicist, and I tried to volved teaching it, seven of whom are in SftP. And one mold the course - initially called Science for Survival of them also taught the course one year at Norfolk and - to incorporate and help teach the value judgments Walpole State Prisons, near Boston. Another, on the which I saw as of at least as great importance as the faculty of the Univ. of Mass. at Amherst, has offered the body of traditional scientific knowledge. course for a number of years in the U niv. Without Walls The course had hardly begun its second year when pwgram. the Popular Unity Government of Chile W'lS smashed During the first twelve semesters that it was offered by the brutal violence of the U .S.-supported military at the Boston Campus, over 3,000 students registered junta. I realized then that "Science for Survival" could for Science for Humane Survival. My guess is that be interpreted to mean "mere" ecological survival of the between 2,000 and 2,500 different students have taken either one or both semesters. Then last year I was on George Salzman is a theoretical physicist who believes that leave, and Joseph Alper of the Chemistry faculty and science and scientists ought to learn that life is even more Sociobiology Study Group (of Bo.ston SftP) who had important than science. co-taught the course with me for many years, continued

30 Science for the People to offer it, and is doing so again this year. Now I'm try­ 17. Gene conservation, the necessity for mainta1mng gen­ ing to develop a "physics for humane survival course" etic diversity. in the physics curriculum proper. Same general motiva­ tion, but more narrowly restricted subject matter. Unit B. Nutrition, hunger, food chemistry, biology of diges­ tion, nitrogen fixation. 8lectures. If you would like more information from any of 19. Food types, organic chemistry, giUl:u~"• those of us in SftP who have taken part in this course, photosynthesis, dynamic equilibrium. you can write to: Science for the People, 897 Main St., 20. Respiratory quotient, proteins, nitrogen, amino acids, Cambridge, MA 02139. sour-dough whole grain rye bread baking. LECTURE SERIES 21. Basic principles of human nutrition, food processing, FALL SEMESTER and toxicity. 22. Food additives, fabricated and synthetic foods. Part I. 23. Contamination in the whole food "chain," environ- Introduction to Science as mental/biological and in processing. The Perception of Reality 24. The physiology of human digestion. Domain, content, and practice of science. Science conceived as 25. Food molecules and their basic chemistry. the study ofconditions that affect life. 2/ectures 26. Risk vs. benefit analyses, their limitations, and the use l. Science and non-science, conceptualization, reality vs. and misuse of science. myths, education vs. indocrination. 2. Objectivity and ideology in science, the nature of the FALL SEMESTER TEXTBOOKS problem. Our Synthetic Environment. by Murray Bookchin, 1974 Part II. edition, Colophon Books (Harper), New York, paperback, lxxvii plus 305 pp., $3.95. Global Considerations The Closing Circle: Nature, Man and Technology, by Unit A. Environment and the science for understanding it. Air, Barry Commoner, 1971, Bantam Books, New York, Water, and radioactive pollution. Environmental impacts of paperback, 344 pp., $2.25. population, affluence, technology, capitalist production. Let's Eat Right to Keep Fit, by Adelle Davis, 1970 edi­ Perspectives of Commoner, Bookchin, Ehrlich. Scientific tion, Signet Books (New American Library), New York, methodology. 6 lectures. paperback, 334 pp., $2.25. 3. The ecosphere, introduction to global considerations Diet for a Small Planet, by Frances Moore Lappe, 1975 and ecological concerns. edition, Ballantine Books (Random House), New York, 4. Basic ideas of chemistry, and their application to air paperback, 411 pp., $1.95. pollution. Manifesto of the Communist Party. by Karl Marx and 5. Threats to the stratospheric ozone layer, introduction Frederick Engels (Samuel Moore's 1888 translation from the to a current controversy. original German text of 1848, edited by Engels), 1975, Foreign 6. Water pollution. Language Press, Peking, paperback, 83 pp., $0.35. 7. & 8. Population, affluence, technology, capitalism, their environmental impacts, and limits to growth. LECTURE SERIES Unit B. Energy, from geophysical and geobiological perspec­ SPRING SEMESTER tives. Sources, utilization, conservation, social factors. 5 lec­ Part IV tures. Science, Mysticism, and Humane Survival 10. Energy, transformations from one form to another, resources, scales of energy. Comprehending the world. Knowledge, belief. mysticism, 11. Nuclear power, basic principles and problems. Water­ wisdom, culture, understanding, expectations. 2 lectures. cooled reactors, breeder reactors. l. The universality of partial ignorance, experience and 12. Alternative energy sources, solar, wind, agricul­ conceptualization, expectations of the university. turaljbiological. 2. Anti-science, mysticism, astrology, relationships to 13. Socio-political aspects of energy use in contemporary nature. industrialized capitalism. 14. New 'Alchemy.' New agriculturejaquaculture low PartV energy intensive technology, an ethic ofland care. Health Care

Part III. Unit A. Elements in individual health. How we relate to our­ Food and Nutrition selves (our body/mind), and the Malatesta imperative for the program of anarchism: "bread, freedom, love, and science­ Unit A. Energy in the biosphere, genetic diversity in food for everybody." 5 lectures. crops, the so-called Green Revolution, and the danger of pos­ 3. Food and science, bread and yeast, sprouts, yogurt, sible ecocide. 3 lectures. porridge, granola, peanut/sesame butter, muesli. 15. Biological energy flows, energy use in food produc­ 4. Feet for transportation, the human potential, and the tion, agricultural technology. poetry of the high mountains. 16. The Green Revolution and its ecological and social 5. Mental well-being, testing, grading, pressures of a implications. competitive society.

November/ December 1979 31 6. Centenarian-rich communities and factors apparently SPRING SEMESTER TEXTBOOKS important for health, vigor, longevity. 7. My transformation from conservative to radical, and Our Bodies, Ourselves, Boston Women's Health Book my vision of the future humane society. Collective, 1976, Simon and Schuster, New York, paperback, $3.95. Unit B. Institutional factors in health. Societal goals. The Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1973, Fawcett Publications, commodification of practically everything essential for health. Greenwich, Connecticut, paperback, 304 pp .. $1.25. The role ofideology. 4 lectures. The Opium Trail: Heroin and Imperialism. Committee of 8. Contemporary problems in American health care. Concerned Asian Scholars, 2nd Ed., 1972, New England Free 10. Community health care for people, not profit. Film, Press, 60 Union Square, Somerville, MA. 02143, paperback, Taking Back Our Bodies. II. Violence in sports, the teaching of ideology through 85 pp., $0.60. Mirage of Health: Utopias. Progress. and Biological phsycial education. Change. Rene Dubos, 1971, Harper and Row, New York. 12. Mental health care in China. paperback, viii plus 282 pp., $1.75. Unit C. Biology, psychology, and ideology of human behavior Awar With All Pests: An English Surgeon in People's and of differences in human mental capacities. Social Darwin­ China: !954-1969, Dr. Joshua S. Horn, 1969, Monthly Review ism. the I.Q. controversy, the "new" sociobiology, eugenics, Press, New York, paperback, 192 pp., $3.75. behavior modification and social control. 10 lectures. Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian 13. Contesting ideologies: Social Darwinism vs. Mutual in North America, Theodora Kroeber. 1961. University of Aid. class vs. egalitarian societies, social control vs. freedom. California Press, Berkeley, California, paperback, 258 pp., 14. The nature of biomedical research and women's needs $2.45. in a male-dominated society. The Making of a Radical: A Political Autobiography, 15. Psychology and women: myths and mistreatment. Scott Nearing, 1972, Harper. N.Y. (available only from Social 16. The concepts of normality and pathology, and behav­ Science Institute, Harborside. Main 04642), paperback xi plus ior modification. 308 pp .. $2.45. 17. & 19. The XX-XY problem: How research on biologi­ cal bases of sex roles is used for social control. The Web of Life, John H. Storer, 1972 Ed. with 20. Genetics. reproduction, diversity in and among photographic insert. Signet Books. New York. paperback. 128 populations. pp. plus 22 pp of photographs. $0.95. 21. Genetic engineering. The Forest People: A Study ofthe Pygmies of the Congo, 22. Race. I.Q .. busing. and politics. Colin M. Turnbull. 1961. Simon and Schuster. New York, 23. Sociobiology. paperback. 298 pp., $3.95.

Feed, Need, Greed The Politics of Food in Bite-Size Morsels

by the Boston SftP Food and Nutrition Group

The Food and Nutrition Group of the Boston eating habits and health problems. The common myths chapter of Science for the People has revised our on nutrition, for example that we make free choices alternative curriculum for high school students entitled about what we eat. that overpopulation and hunger Feed. i\'eed. Greed (first written in 1974). Our goal is to result from ignorance. and that multinational corpora­ raise the awareness of students and teachers to the tions such as Nestle truly serve the nutritional needs of "wh~ 's" of food production. to the effects of diet on developing countries. must be examined. To dispel these health. and. in general. to deal with issues of nutrition myths. a political analysis of food and population issues and hunger in a political context. We feel it"s necessary is mandatory. to counter the majorit~ of nutrition texts published by the food industry. which advocate incomplete nutri­ Following is an activity we encourage teachers to tional practices and then blame the consumer for poor use.

32 Science for the People I I I I I I I Junk Food Derby I I I Below are listed twelve foods. Rank the foods from nutrients are important parts of a healthy diet but in I the one you think is most advertised at the top, to the much less quantity. What else besides advertising do I one you think is least advertised at the bottom. Discuss you think influences people's preferences for less than I your guesses and how they compare with the actual healthy diets? I answers. I I. carbonated soft drinks I 2. desserts Below, list four other influences that affect your I 3. citrus fruits food choices besides TV advertising: I 4. candy and gum 5. macaroni and spaghetti I 6. cookies and crackers I 7. vegetables I 8. non-carbonated soft drinks I 9. cheese I 10. meats and poultry I II. shortening and oils I 12. cereals Rank them in the order that they influence your I Is the order of foods advertised from most to least food choices. Discuss your order with the group and I often similar to your own food preferences (yesjno)? together decide on the most influential forces on your I Today, the average diet contains an exc-ess of both diet. I sugar and fat, two nutrients in the greatest quantity of I those foods most often advertised. Sugar and fat also Going Further ActiYities I contribute to modern health problems such as dental Some or all of the following can be done: caries (cavities), obesity and heart disease. If your food I preferences are similar to the majority of American I. Decide on the order of the foods advertised in the I adolescents, you eat over 100 pounds of sugar a year and activity in terms of the most to least healthy. I 30% more fat than a teenager ate in 1910.(1) Both these 2. Write alternative ads. Decide what appeals to the I consumer and what qualities of the food product you I want to sell. Try them out on the group. I. The Changing American Diet, L. Brewster and M. 3. Write ads that really reflect what's being sold. I Jacobson, Center for Science in the Public Interest ( 1775 S Sugary cereals do not make you stronger or better liked I Street, NW; Washington, DC 20009), 1978. by your friends; tell it like it is. I I I I Table of Contents for Answers I Feed, Need, Greed Most advertised I. cereals I 2. candy and gum I Unit I Population and Resour£es Unit III Nutritional-Industrial Complex 3. shortening &. oils I 4. cookies and crackers Section I: Exploding the population Section 1: Tastes like love 5. desserts I myth-Malthus I Section 2: Survival ofthefattest 6. non-carbonated soft drinks I Section 2: Why do people have children? Section 3: Exploited labor and our food 7. carbonated soft drinks I Section 3: Resource limitations Section 4: Bottle or breast? 8. meats and poultry 9. macaroni and spaghetti I 10. vegetables I Unit II The Lean and the Lumpy Unit IV What Do We Do With What Section I: Physical dimensions of We Know? II. citrus fruits I hunger 12. cheese I Section 1: Introduction to change Least advertised I Section 2: Changing eating patterns Section 2: Personal changes I Section 3: Health risks ofthe American Section 3: Local and community actions (Taken from Edible TV, Your Child diet -salt, sugar, andfat and Food Commercials, Sept. 1977, I Section 4: National change Select Committee on Nutrition and Section 4: Politics offood processing Human Needs, p.63.) I Section 5: Global visions I and chemical additives I I I November/ December 1979 33 I I Tale of a Substitute Teacher Teaching or Social Control?

by Nancy Gigowski Brown

Between December. 1978 and were going to learn anything. But Some of the students laughed at June. 1979. I worked in ten different there was no one else to take this my anger. I asked two students. a Boston inner cit\' schools as a substi­ class. so they misplaced me in an art boy and a girl. why they were doing tute teacher. In some oft he schools I class teaching a subject I knew what they were doing. Why did they spent enough time to get more than nothing about. need to kick the chairs around. a general idea of what »"GS taking The problems continued and I fin­ throw books on the floor. swear at place. In most cases I was randomh ally got angry. The students were the teacher. disrupt the rest of the assigned to classes and subjects that somewhat shocked at my outburst. I class to a point where it was total I was certainh not qualified to felt tears. Holding them back trying chaos? It seemed like a simple teach. Generally. when I arril'ed at to maintain some sense of order. I enough question. Their answer was the school I was asked to sign mr wanted to shout how unfair this clear and strong. They hated school: name and was gil'ell a room number whole situation was to all of us. I they hated teachers! I was a teacher. and the name of the teacher and sub­ wanted to tell them how I felt about They hated me. I was stupid. didn't ject to which I was assigned. My ex­ what a farce schools were and that know what I was doing there. And periences were certainly l'aried and they were right: schools were places besides. what difference did it make 1·err interesting. I decided to keep a where students were kept. where anyway? They didn't learn anything journal to record each day what I they lined up. where they spoke there. School was boring. They sa11·. what happened. »·hat studems when spoken to. where. ifthey made couldn't do what they wanted to. and teachers told me. and the many misguided attempts at grownup be­ and they would quit as soon as they questions I found myself asking. havior. challenging the authority. could - two more years. maybe The following is an entry from one they would immediately be dealt sooner. I felt every word they said. A such dar. with in terms of problems and simple but tragic loss of interest and Every day there is so much to punishment. any commitment to learning. write about. Today half of my day was spent struggling with students who strolled into class late. refused to work. refused to leave the class. and who yelled out more bad lan­ guage than I had heard in a year. They called me stupid and said "fuck you"" as I asked them to leave. As they explained. I was stupid be­ cause I was teaching a craft I had just learned the day before and I was slow at showing the students what to do. I had to ask for help from another woman teacher across the hall. I felt caught up in the system I II II that produces these kinds of situ­ ations. Of course the students had a right to demand that the. teacher IIIII know what she was doing if they

Nancy Gigowski Brown is a nutritionist now working as a nutritional educator IIIII and coordinator in the Wakefield Schools. 1111··· 34 Science for the People I talked with the guidance coun­ selor that afternoon. I found out most of the students I had continual trouble with came from "difficult family situations," a nice way to Announcing Jan;BO describe their problems. They were low academic achievers, were absent a forthcoming book more than they were in school, had no parental communication, had no hope. But as I inquired further, I found Science and Liberation such a description was common for -edited by Rita Arditti, Pat Brennan, Steve Cavrak many of the students in the school. Over half of the children in the city's public schools come from low­ EDITED BY long-standing members of Science for the income families, perform poorly in People, Science and Liberation offers a critique of science with­ academics, and live in environments out being anti-science. It challenges us to think about how that perpetuate their social, aca­ science done in the U.S. today might be re-structured, re­ demic, and economic problems. The thought, re-done in a way that serves the majority of people and counselor said the problems were not just the monied and powerful few. immense, too immense for the SECTION I takes to task the myth of the neutrality of science schools to know just what to do. and presents concrete examples of how belief in this myth has I asked how often teachers talked led to uses of science that tyrannize people. about these problems and of their SECTION II on science and social control brings to light how long-range effects on each other, on science, based on present day ideological assumptions, in­ their families, on the schools, on the creases the power and control of the experts, who are trained community. He smiled, saying I had not to consider the moral or political dimensions of their work. not been there long enough. Most of SECTION III looks beyond the exciting image of science at the the teachers find a way to do what actual work of the scientist and technician, the work of the they have to do; but many do give majority of people in the field who are not "the experts." up and just put their time in. The SECTION IV addresses the question of how science could be way things have come about, the different and presents ideas for teaching it in a new way, for systems of learning are now too designing supportive and cooperative workdays in non-compe­ powerful to change. I disagreed. I titive labs, for addressing racism and sexism and introducing felt we could bring about whatever new values into scientific thought and process. c'hanges needed to take place. I told MANY of the contributors of the 25 articles include people him I felt the parents and kids could familiar to SftP readers (Kathy Greeley, Sue Tafler, Bob help. They needed to be a part of the Broedel, Gar Allen, Bob Park) as well as others whose articles decisions. We needed to start over if are welcome additions (Barry Commoner, Andre Gorz, Helen nothing else worked; and from what Rodriquez-Trias, Hilary and Steven Rose). I saw this was not working. I asked another counselor what she thought were some of the stud­ ents' concerns and problems. She YOU CAN HELP us finance the printing of this book by advance ordering for yourself, friends, or classes. We are said that most of the students she an independent socialist press, non-profit and collectively worked with expressed in different run, and our aim is to provide books (20/year) that help ways a sense of hopelessness, a people take charge of their lives, their communities and nothingness for learning and, most workplaces and at the same time assist organizations of all, for their futures. They knew such as Science for the People in their work. there were few options open to them in the world of work. The future Science and Liberation _copies (5.50/ 12.50)-­ (Special discounts for organizations & bulk orders.) showed them nothing. It was frightening to them. I kept hearing what she said over and over. I didn't want to come back to school the South End Press next day. Or if I did, I wanted every­ Box 68 Astor Station/Boston MA 02123 thing to be different. D

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