Patrick Cesarano

English 76100m Sauer

November 18, 1996

Degeneracies of Literacy

America basks in her accomplishments. The pride we have for our $4,445,000,000,000 national industrial income is almost unmatched, and our national self image could be likened to pure vanity. This is, of course, unsurprising; we prefer to be thought of in light of our positive accomplishments rather than our shortcomings. Although pride can be excellent for national self-esteem, it can just as often be detrimental; behavior such as this, both individually and nationally, contributes to self blindness and denial. Consider the case of the compulsive gambler who refuses to acknowledge his problem; eventually he encounters a threshold where constructive criticism is no longer sufficient, and only radical measures could hope to curtail his destructive lifestyle. How does this analogy pertain to the state of affairs in America? Because collectively we have reached such a point; we have developed a battery of underlying untruths which we support and protect on vast scales. While scarring America's minorities and exploiting the economy, many of these illusions have been around long enough to become socially 'petrified'; ingrained in every man, woman and child. Frighteningly, some, if not many of us, are fully conscious of the lack of their validity. These "social cataracts," though many may seem benign, are nonetheless leaking into and contaminating our most future-dependant resource; education. The consequences of this are that the educational medium can and often does become a catalyst in conveying mixed messages to America's youth over issues such as politics, elitism, democracy, bias and success. Furthermore, we are resistant to the only hopes of our own salvation, namely true and systematic reform of both society and tradition.

We will see that education is a tremendous mechanism for keeping America an elitist society. First, however, we should consider a few instances of these American myths, and finally ponder how and where they lead America's youth, and consequently our future.

So what, exactly, are we talking about when we discuss entities such as "social cataracts" and their effect on education? As an example let us contemplate a familiar document, not to mention America's proudest: the Declaration of Independence. It is among our most prized and respected works; its ideals are captured daily in customs such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and are embodied in the concepts of truth and, above all, freedom. More importantly, it is studied extensively in American history classes, which are mandatory in most high schools. Before we come to the importance of this, let us establish that most of what it stands for has been compromised at one time or another; that anyone could prevail in arguing that America's compliance in granting equality (either historically or recently) has been lax, and at times nonexistent. To support this, consider the words of the preamble to the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." (Declaration of Independence) These are words known by every American.

Now let us consider words spoken by Abraham Lincoln, the father of the Emancipation Proclamation: "I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races...I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." (Macedo 11) Let us also recall the words of a law once instituted by the Massasachusets legislature: "For every scalp of a male Indian brought in...40 pounds. For every scalp of such female Indian or male Indian under the age of twelve years that shall be killed...20 pounds." (Macedo 11) The list of such aberrations to our policies of equality goes on and on. Case closed.

Inevitably, most minority students attending public schools will learn too soon about not only the early ideology of American ethics, but of the consequent breeches and hypocracies encased within and documented throughout the history of the U.S. Can they truly be expected to believe that times have has changed when they notice that upper-class suburban public schools are funded at an average of twice the rate as inner-city schools? What might their feelings about federal policy and "blind justice" be when they encounter a government spending up to $35,000 a year to keep individual young blacks behind bars, and only a small percentage of that to keep them in schools? (Barber 40, 42) The effects of these and other similar facts are devastating to society and education (for we shall see that the two are deeply intertwined). Moreover, they are compounded by the hopelessness and poverty minorities witness all around them which exist at drastically higher rates among other minorities than among whites.

Where does this all lead? America has a tradition of minority oppression, which makes social revolution difficult, if only because of traditional 'momentum.' As it turns out, however, there are more sinister factors at play. The most direct (though not necessarily abject) damage to these students tends to come from their actual teachers. Donaldo Macedo argues (correctly) that "...they [educators] have invested in a system that rewards them for reproducing and not questioning dominant mechanisms designed to produce power asymmetries along the lines of race, gender, class, culture, and ethnicity." (Macedo 12) He goes on to point out that they are not necessarily to blame; and proclaims that "the dominant curriculum is designed primarily to reproduce the inequality of social classes, while it mostly benefits the interests of the dominant class." (Macedo 153) Macedo, a brilliant social philosopher, compounds this information by relating a trip he took with various other English teachers to an Indian reservation. On asking a teacher why so much of the curriculum overemphasized skills development with only a minimum of substantial reading, he was answered "They are just not readers by nature." (Macedo 149)

One of the most important effects of educational 'segregation' is shrinkage of the middle class. This is a prime component for perpetuating an America at least partially dominated by uneducated and illiterate citizens. To support this statement we should consider the writings of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele. "Nearly thirty-four million individuals and families who earned salaries filed federal tax returns for 1989 reporting adjusted gross incomes between $20,000 and $50,000. They represented the heart of America's middle class......but the middle class is shrinking when measured against comparable income groups of earlier years. The middle-income group accounted for 35 percent of all tax returns showing income from a job in 1989. That was down from 39 percent in 1980." (Bartlett and Steele 4) They go on to reveal that, during this same period of time, the combined salaries of those earning $1 million or more a year increased by 2,184 percent. More than our industrial income, our individuals in power love themselves; they love others like themselves, and are adamant about keeping constant the promise of elitist offspring; what better way to assure this than to rob the hope and education from lower class minority students while separating and cultivating upper-class, white students? This they accomplish in first squeezing the body of middle-class America, and then fostering those at its pinnacle.

Of course, the original American colonial 'essence' of equality does not permit this to happen, so what factors allow the government and other officials in power to wield such fascist power over America? The answer is an obvious one: finance. We find that it is plain (and intrinsic to capitalism) that liberty and justice have their prices. This fact has been dismissed, either in shame or plain apathy, by the vast majority of America. Benjamin R. Barber, in his assessment of America's educational situation "America Skips School" declares that "I am increasingly persuaded that the reason for the country's inaction is that Americans do not really care about education--the country has grown comfortable with the game of 'let's pretend we care.'" (Barber pg. 40) One example of the financial manipulation of education is an entrepreneur by the name of Chris Whittle, who managed to persuade some poorer school boards to allow him to install televisions in their classrooms by offering them free of charge. This act allowed him to offer advertising at prime rates to sponsors "for the sake of education." In advertising for this system, an educational-software company named "Lifetime Learning Systems" was quoted in Advertising Age as saying "Now you can enter the classroom through custom-made learning materials with your specific marketing objectives in mind. Communicate with young spenders directly and, through them, their teachers and families as well." (Barber 43) Barber is extremely critical of the definition of our youth as young "spenders," and rightly so. Mindless consumerism is the modern-day Robber Baron of the middle-to-lower classes, and exists symbiotically with large (often heavily franchised) corporations, keeping them in positions of tremendous power. Here, again, we see middle-class shrinkage; here, again, it has found its home and instrument in the American classroom.

Granted it is not especially shocking or intelligent to point out that we are complacent about the effects of power and money in some institutions of education. There seems to be a mental separation between the two in most of the American population. Whether or not this is true, there is a clear national tolerance, respect, and acquiescence for benefits we know do not exist. We know that more television and advertising cannot facilitate education. We know (and have just seen) that democratic ideals are easily abandoned and ignored. "The great masses of people...will more easily fall victims to a big lie than a small one." -Adolf Hitler (Macedo 9) How does this apathy affect our social environment? Paulo Friere argues that "...the success of any educational transformation goes hand in hand with societal transformations. A society that remains racist, undemocratic, and discriminatory will not tolerate the transformation of schools and their democratization." (Macedo 154) In this way officials in power financially, politically or otherwise, can and have profited off of the country's ignorance. It should already be apparent how some have learned to manipulate commodities such as literacy. Consider that the empowerment of some individuals to efficiently separate and deprive entire regions of society from certain forms of information has both cognitive and (unfortunately) tangible benefits. For one, it keeps much of the public unaware of the present state of government affairs. Of this Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Edward Carrington, wrote "Cherish therefore the spirits of our people and keep alive their attention. Do not be severe upon their errors, but reclaim them by enlightening them. If once they become inattentive to public affairs, you and I and Congress and Assemblies, judges and governors, shall all become wolves." (Barber pg. 44) We are reminded, once again, of colonial virtues and their place in the newborn U.S. government. Once deprived of education and blind to government affairs, much of America would inevitably be doomed to find itself impotent of democratic decision. In addition, it would be ignorant of the meaning or history of social revolt, lacking all access to human rights and reform texts. This was George Orwell's central warning in 1984: don't forget the past; beware of ignorance which can lead only to the loss of thought, and successively of political control.

It seems strange that America has such pride for its prophesied idealism, and yet is so indifferent to the places where it has deteriorated. What is more frightening, however, is not the blind patriotism of Americans, but the effects of their being nonchalant regarding education and literacy among children and especially minorities: "One could argue that the ...incidents [oppression of minorities] belong to the dusty archives of our early history, but I do not believe we have learned a great deal from historically dangerous memories considering that our leaders continue to incite racial tensions...racial divisiveness actually has served the Republican party's interest of splitting voters along class, racial, and ethnic lines." (Macedo pg. 11)

I do not propose that it will be possible to rid America of all our myths and social flaws; nor are they partial only to America; after all, Jonathan Swift wrote Gullivers Travels of just such injustice in Europe during the early eighteenth century. However, I, as do many, feel that we are far progressed beyond the rest of the world. We are not necessarily destined to be a worst-case scenario, but we must stymie drastically our problems, and in very specific ways. We mustn't isolate but integrate problems such as drugs, poverty and education. By addressing each as a partial subset and instigator of the other we can force a restructuring of domestic policy focusing more on prevention than treatment. Before this can be accomplished, however, we must alter drastically our political methods for aiding stricken areas of society. No longer can we maintain such high levels of bureaucracy in light of our present-day circumstances. Political stagnance thus far has allowed instances such as bills for education being killed because of tacked-on clauses requiring waiting day periods for guns, et cetera. Sadly, entire and sincere reform would, I imagine, be nearly impossible to accomplish. It seems logical that our laws should be elastic enough to accommodate unforseen problems in the future, but for some reason we are afraid of any change. I do not believe we will allow ourselves to become enslaved via lack of education and history as Orwell did. I foresee (perhaps more horrifically) that, without revolution our fate may be strictly Darwinian; that we will allow ourselves to become animals. Here we could only watch as every neighborhood is turned into a ghetto, every school a war zone. What more could there be to do but wait for the smoke to clear to begin anew? Morbid as this may seem, we can no longer avoid the warning signs we have seen accumulate over the past two hundred years signaling our own descent. This may yet be another two hundred years away, but having come this far we would find it infinitely more difficult to return to a more humane era two hundred years down the road. Only a 180 degree movement concentrating not only on areas low-education, but on every faction of society and government could hope to stifle the elitism working counter to current reform and bring about a wholly unbiased and genuine epoch.

Works Cited