The Role Of Reconstructionism In Our Schools

In the following essay I will attempt to address several issues including the definition of reconstructionism, its historical and influential impact in schools today, examples of the process while refereeing to 3 different texts, the issues of human nature being good or basically evil, as well as moral relativity.  Should reconstructionism be implemented in our schools today?
            Reconstructionism is clearly defined by an attempt to change societal values, behaviors, etc by using schools as the vehicle.  Throughout history our schools in the United States have been used as a means of cultural change.  A tool used by society, government, school officials, and communities to reshape some aspect of culture.  The United States government has used this idea of reconstructionism in public school systems to tackle issues plaguing society at that time.  Examples of this can be seen during the civil rights movement, the struggle of African Americans in our country post slavery was horrific.  In 1896 the Supreme Court in the landmark decision of Plessy vs. Ferguson, found that the doctrine of “separate but equal” concerning segregation of public facilities did not violate the constitution.  Separate schools for whites and blacks became a basic rule in southern society, legitimated in this doctrine that legalized segregation.  It was not until 1954 that the doctrine of "separate but equal" was challenged. _In attempt to gain equal education opportunities for black children that were not provided for under the Plessy v. Ferguson decision, African-Americans took action against the segregation in America's schools. A group of thirteen parents filed a class action suit, with the help of the NAACP, against the Board of Education of Topeka Schools.  The following decision on the supreme court case Brown vs. Board of Education was a monumental decisions and a clear cut example of society battling over our public institution of schools as a means of changing sociality values and believes.  The case did prove that separate but equal was unconstitutional and so came another example of our society using the school to change believes and the way our culture functioned at the time. 
            In 1983 President Ronald Reagan asked business leaders of the United States, why Japanese businesses were thriving in their economy more so than the U.S.A.  The business leaders pointed at teachers and schools.  So in a form of reconstructionism, to help form a more well balanced society and culture which would help the United States economy thrive in the future as in Japan, Reagan implemented a system of change.  The School year length increased, students going to college for teaching changed to having to have 100 pre-hours of student teaching.  In 1983 before this our society held teachers at a level of low prestige as well as low pay.  After this change in the school system and how it was being run, teachers’ prestige level has risen dramatically and although pay is still not justified, it has also increased.  
            There have been several key incidences of reconstructionism in schools in our countries past.  The Antioch Intimacy Policy is one of the most extreme examples of attempting to control and change behavior in a school setting.  The college implementing a intimacy policy where students had to have written permission to pursue certain steps of intimacy.  Also, Title IX where equals rights for men and women sports in schools, including primary, secondary and collegiate level schools.  During the era of assimilation in our country we moved American Indians into “white America’s” schools as a means of attempting to change society.  The Indians are no longer removed or killed, but they can just assimilate so they can be just like “us”, almost as a means of lessoning the difference between these societies.  Additionally, the 1971 Denver Court Case that said that Cleveland Schools were going to be forced to bus black kids to the white schools and visa versa.  That was another on going example of control using school issues as a tool to change society.  In the 1970’s some companies were giving schools funding and in return the school’s students had to watch 10 minutes of commercials in the morning from these companies as a means of direct advertisement.  This idea, also know as Channel 1, was a big business strategy of using schools as a driving mechanism to fuel sales for their companies.  Some cooperate conglomerates such as Exxon Mobile and Dow Chemical have even taken advantage of this push of reconstructionism as a means of business marketing giving them the opportunity to cover up for years of world wide pollution by having professionals come in and shape the views of children towards these companies to change the way the future society will view them.  As these children get older they would have a more “peachy” view point toward these money superpowers and therefore public relation issues have been enhanced all by tackling the issue at its seed, the future of society. 
            Some current examples of this trend can be seen in our schools today and even in my own community.  With the decline of what some people would consider family morals and the breakdown the American family increasing at alarming rates the schools have implemented a means of sculpting children’s values by implementing a character education program into schools.  Many believe that developing character at an early age will help enlighten our society and increase the productivity our children’s future.  As it states in the issues in the book Taking Sides, “character education would look very different if we began with others objectives like being principally concerned with helping children become active participants in a democratic society.” (Noll, pg 107)  Although the issue of what or how to use character education in a school can be debated and criticized, no one will dispute that the underlying point it to change behavior the future society by modifying kids morals.  To further explore this issue of reconstructionism we can look at the practice of having Korean students come in to elementary school classrooms in Northern New York.  By doing this, we are shaping students views towards other societies and cultures.  A means of combining with this “different” culture and using it at a early age to show acceptance between people from different countries working together.  A concluding example of reconstructionism in schools would be having sexual education classes in schools as well as distributing condoms in nurse’s offices in larger inner city school districts. 
            The issue at hand now would be to discuss whether or not the usage of reconstructionism in United States schools is moral.  The first thing one must realize is the idea of education through schools or anything sort of teaching is done for the sole purpose of influencing and conforming behavior in certain way.  As stated in the book written by Gutek, “children must be trained in a knowledge of what the world is and what it knows and how it does its daily work.  Above all we must not forget that the object of all education is the child itself…”  (Gutek, pg. 376)  There are many other influencing factors in this question at hand.  Is human nature good or is it basically evil?  While I would argue that it is basically good, there are many situations where the more evil part is the most influential in certain situations.  I believe that reconstructionism if used in the right context can be a beneficial way of tackling issues in society by educating them through children.  If a character education program came along that truly increased the activity level of students, the future citizens of society, in a democratic society then this idea should be utilized. 

Using laws like Title IX and court cases like Brown vs. Board Of Education to better or society within schools are completely acceptable forms of reconstructionism that have improved our society and its behavior toward the former issues which were not accepted.  I would agree with Kant’s point on morality:  “I ought, therefore I can…Which distinguishes moral obligation from determinism.  Man is under the obligation to act according to the requirements of reason in the world of sense and nature.”  (Morality, pg. 1)  Can human nature act according to the requirements of reason?  They should, but there are many cases where we do not.  There is nothing moral about some of the actions big business, political leaders, and government policies have shown throughout history.  So it is hard to say that reconstructionism should always be used in schools when companies like Exxon and Dow Chemical are using it a stage to eradicate past evilness by putting a sugar coating on the companies greediness and the affects that it had on our world today.  Where is the line drawn on what is acceptable reconstruction in schools and what is not?  While I believe that the line between these two extremes in clearly evident, I also realize that this is not how a democratic society runs.  I do believe that it can be used to better our society on many issues.  Although, if we do not curb the evilness of human nature from using this in our schools then we are doing more harm than good.  

Adopted from knol

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RECONSTRUCTIONISM

Although reconstruction finds some of its roots in existentialism, it is primarily grounded in the work of pragmatists. The commonalities are found in the beliefs that everything in the world is relative and that human beings process that world in order to understand and change it. Reconstruction differs from progressivism in the area of educational roles. Unlike the perennialists, who emphasize the transmitting of the knowledge of the existing culture, and the progressivists, who emphasize evaluating the existing culture, the reconstructionists want to transform the existing culture based upon their analysis of its inequities and fundamental flaws. They are critical of contemporary society and are viewed as social activists who address international as well as national concerns. If human beings are to become change agents, they must be equipped to do so; reconstructionists believe it is the responsibility of the school to provide them with the tools that will enable them to transform the contemporary world.

Most of the reconstructionist literature is found in the works of George Counts, Theodore Brameld, and Ivan Illich, and Paolo Freire. The work of Counts provided the key issue for reconstructionism when he posed the question, "Dare the school build a new social order?" His concern that America's schools did not serve the needs of most of the children arose from the impact of the Great Depression in the 1930s and his belief that only a small, favored group was being prepared for the challenges of a technological and global future. One could argue that Counts was well ahead of his time when he wrote in 1952:

The supreme task of the present and the coming generation in all countries, surpassing any domestic issue, is the development of the institutions, the outlook, the morality and the defenses of a world community. All geographical barriers, including distance, have been surmounted. Retreat into the past is impossible; perpetuation of the present means chaos and disaster.

He further believed that teachers play a critical role in shaping culture, for if they are interested in the lives of children--the central responsibility with which they are charged by the state--they must work boldly and without ceasing for a better social order.

Brameld championed the educational role of transforming the existing culture and the need for students to be able to establish useful goals. In his work (1950), Education for the Emerging Age, Brameld suggested that we "give (goals or objectives) not for the sake of credits or even knowledge as such; we give them so that people of all races, creeds, classes, and cultures may realize a more satisfying life for themselves and their fellows. Knowledge, training, skill -- all these are means to the end of such social self-realization."

Illich's contribution is found in his class work Deschooling Society (1970). Illich was a worldly man who had been educated in Europe and had worked in Puerto Rico, the US, and Mexico. His experiences led him to question whether the world could afford schools that, in his opinion, excluded most of its children, made dropouts of the lower classes, and served as straitjackets for thinking about education. In Deschooling Society, he answers this question by showing that the institutionalization of values leads inevitably to physical pollution, social polarization, and psychological impotence: three dimensions in a process of global degradation and modernized misery. Therefore, Illich's contribution to the reconstructionist movement is not an attempt to abolish schools but is an effort to deinstitutionalize the educational experience.

Finally, in the world of Freire, we find a method that provides the tools with which common people can transform the existing culture. Freire saw a connection between language and power and believed if people had a command of language and a high degree of literacy, they could become agents of change. Working mostly in Brazil and Chile, Freire developed a central argument, expressed in his Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1995)which stated that the important thing, from the point of view of libertarian education, is to develop people's ability to identify and question their own assumptions about the nature of the world through dialogue and discussion.

Example of a Reconstructionist Class Activity

Ms. Long and her high school civics class have been studying the impact of local ordinances on their community. One ordinance that has caught their attention gives the county commission the power to sell vacant public land to developers. The students want to see a vacant lot near their school made into a park instead of being used to build a parking garage. They study the issue and decide to write a letter to the county commission asking for time to speak at the next county commission meeting. Students work in small groups to research their arguments, get feedback from community residents, and select a group of students to make a presentation, complete with a model of their ideas for the neighborhood park.
Adopted from Robert Rowe, PhD
 

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