Who’s right: Arne or Michelle [Alexander]?

Arne Duncan: “I believe education is THE civil rights issue of our generation, the only sure pathway out of poverty, and the only way to achieve a more equal and just society.” (Facebook, Info page on May 20, 2010)

Michelle Alexander: “I believe that the mass incarceration of people of color in the United States is the most pressing racial justice issue of our time. And that it is a tragedy of as great proportions as Jim Crow was in its time.” (Bill Moyers Journal interview, April 2, 2010) [SEE THE CHART BELOW!]

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BIOs

Arne Duncan (b. 1964) earned a bachelors degree in sociology from Harvard then played professional basketball in Australia for four years. He returned to the U.S. where investment manager John Rogers employed Duncan to run Rogers' new non-profit education foundation (Ariel Education Initiative). Duncan eventually also sat on a number of non-profit boards and was also “on a team that later started a new public [charter] elementary school.” John Rogers and Duncan had attended the same private school in Chicago and were longtime basketball buddies. Duncan started working for Chicago Public Schools in 1999 – first as Deputy Chief of Staff for CEO Paul Vallas, then as its CEO. He became U.S. Secretary of Education in 2009. Duncan credits his childhood experience of spending afternoons in his mother's inner-city tutoring program “with shaping his understanding of the challenges of urban education.”

Michelle Alexander (b. 1968 approx.) is a graduate of Stanford Law School and Vanderbilt University. Following law school, she clerked for Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the United States Supreme Court, and for Chief Judge Abner Mikva on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She was a member of the Stanford Law School faculty, where she served as Director of the Civil Rights Clinic. She joined the Ohio State University faculty in 2005 and now holds a joint appointment with the Moritz College of Law and the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. Her recently released book is “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.”

Which mind has processed the issues more, Arne's or Michelle's? For my money, I’m going with Michelle Alexander, whose message is absolutely chilling, and totally correct. Arne Duncan is an intellectual lightweight who has embraced repetition of the favored mantras of the ed deform crowd.

Consider the following facts:

1. Since 1957, the proportion of the African American population with a high school degree has increased by 300% (18.4% to 79.2%) and the proportion of the African American population with a 4-year college degree increased by almost 500% (2.9% to 17.2%). Data is from the April 2004 Kirwan Institute PowerPoint report “Social/Economic Indicators by Race: Disparity 1954 and Today.”

2. Even with the significant increase in educational attainment mentioned above, African American unemployment has consistently been about twice as high as white unemployment, at least since the 1950s. What gives with that!? [See the chart below]

3. What's worse is that the number of incarcerated African Americans has increased 800% since the 1950s! Despite only small fluctuations in the violent crime rate in the past 35 years, we’ve gone from 300,000 people in jails and prisons in 1972 -- to 2.3 million today, with an additional 5 million on probation and parole. A grossly disproportionate number of the incarcerated have been people of color. Families and communities have been devastated.

4. We are the worldwide incarceration champions. The U.S. is #1 in the number of prisoners per capita at 715 people per 100,000. To put this in perspective, Russia is #2 at 584, Canada is #73 at 116, and Japan is #126 at 54.

So that's what Michelle Alexander is talking about.

What is problematic for the United States of America is not our public schools and school teachers. THE problem is that our national character has some major flaws.

And now that the men are in jail and/or unemployed and families are in continual chaos, and now that neighborhood schools have been utterly neglected for years, are popularly called "failures," and are being 'innovatively disrupted' by the ed deformers, the state is going after the mothers and grandmothers: 

Calif. bill could jail parents if kids miss school (Fresno Bee, May 13, 2010)*

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The state of California would hold parents responsible if their children are chronically truant under a bill the state Senate approved Thursday.

The bill would let prosecutors charge parents with misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine if their kids miss too much school. Judges could delay the punishment to parents as an incentive to get their children to class.

It applies only to parents or guardians of children age 6 or older in kindergarten through eighth grade. Prosecutors would have to prove the parents failed to reasonably supervise and encourage the student to attend school...

This tough love idea will be sure to affect low-income African American women disproportionately, but given our compulsion to incarcerate people of color, it makes perfect sense.

These are other things to consider:

• People in this country chose to disinvest in urban public education long ago.
• They/we chose to tolerate high and chronic unemployment in urban minority communities.
• They/we chose to corner inner-city residents into needing to resort to an underground economy.
• They/we chose to adopt policies that would incarcerate huge numbers of African American men.
• They/we chose to turn the other way when the tradition of marriages and two-parent families in these communities started heading to extinction.

So any failures of the schools are BECAUSE of the consequences of these other things. Our domestic problems were never caused by the schools, and our schools never be able to fix them.

*If they can lock up the moms for this offense, shouldn't they also be locking up some of the crooks from Goldman Sachs?

ADDED ON JANUARY 27, 2010: PLEASE SEE THESE RELATED PERIMETER PRIMATE POSTS

• Where Sociology, Criminology, and Charter Schools Converge
• Last night’s stunning Bill Moyers Journal : Part One featured Bill Moyers’ interview with Bryan Stevenson and Michelle Alexander. Part Two was Moyers’ essay on the growing income inequality.
• A Real Crisis

When looking at the "Prison Admissions by Race" graph below, please note that the figures indicate in numbers, not percentages. And be aware that the African American population in 1930 was about one tenth (1/10) the size of the White population. In 1997 it was about one sixth (1/6).

A very important collection of other-statistics

There’s too much talk about the academic attainment of places like Finland and Singapore in education babble these days. Americans would be wise to stop dwelling on the international comparisons of student test scores.

Instead, we need to take a serious look at other indicators, such as the ones below. Then, we should begin the conversation about how much the figures are a reflection of our deeper attitudes about families and children. And that is not a pretty picture.

Mostly, we need to stop getting distracted by comparing ourselves to the Joneses and start to deal with our own enormous flaws. And we especially need to put an end to that fixation on supposed inadequacies of public school teachers. The failures of our children aren't the teachers' fault.

The figures are from the well-reviewed site NationMaster which draws from international studies and always cites the source. Note: "=" means a tie with other countries.

So read up. "Thar’s gold in them thar hills."

HOME AND FAMILY LIFE

Soft drink consumption (Litres per person per year)

# 1 United States: 216 litres

# 2 Ireland: 126 litres

= 3 Canada: 119.8 litres

# 15 Finland: 52 litres

# 17 France: 37.2 litres

Households with television (Households with television are the share of households with a television set. Some countries report only the number of households with a color television set, and therefore the true number may be higher than reported.)

# 2 Norway: 99.97 % 2002

= 9 Canada: 99 % 2003

= 9 Japan: 99 % 2004

# 23 United States: 97.84 % 2002

# 25 United Kingdom: 97.5 % 2001

# 48 Finland: 94.1 % 2005

Television viewing (hours per person per week)

= 1 United Kingdom: 28 hours

= 1 United States: 28 hours

= 11 Finland: 18 hours

= 11 Norway: 18 hours

= 11 Sweden: 18 hours

Infant mortality rate

# 1 Angola: 182.31 deaths/1,000 live births

# 3 Afghanistan: 154.67 deaths/1,000 live births

= 111 Mexico: 19.01 deaths/1,000 live births

# 185 United States: 6.3 deaths/1,000 live births

# 194 Canada: 5.08 deaths/1,000 live births

# 219 Finland: 3.5 deaths/1,000 live births

Abortions (per capita)

# 1 Russia: 19.2885 per 1,000 people

# 6 United States: 4.0945 per 1,000 people

# 15 Finland: 1.8924 per 1,000 people

Teenage birth rate (The number of births to women aged below 20 per 1,000 women aged 15 to 19.)

# 1 United States: 52.1

# 2 United Kingdom: 30.8

# 8 Canada: 20.2

# 20 Finland: 9.2

# 27 Japan: 4.6

Age of women at first childbirth

# 1 New Zealand: 29.9 years old

# 8 Finland: 27.4 years old

= 14 United States: 24.9 years old

Marriage rate (Number of marriages per 1,000 people per year)

# 1 United States: 9.8

# 2 Russia: 8.9

# 10 United Kingdom: 6.8

# 26 Finland: 4.8

Divorce rate (Number of divorces per 1,000 people per year)

# 1 United States: 4.95

# 3 Russia: 3.36

# 4 United Kingdom: 3.08

# 9 Finland: 1.85

Lone parent families

# 1 Canada: 11%

# 2 United Kingdom: 10%

= 3 United States: 9%

= 3 Finland: 9%

= 18 Japan: 5%

= 18 Germany: 5%

# 23 Sweden: 3%

Paid maternity leave

Brazil - 120 days

Canada - 55% up to $413/week for 50 weeks (15 weeks maternity + 35 weeks parental leave shared with father)

Costa Rica - 4 months

Finland - 105 days

Japan - 14 weeks

Singapore - 12 weeks

United Kingdom - 6 weeks (90%) 20 weeks at a fixed amount (as of March 2006 = £108.85)

United States - 0 weeks

Working mothers (Working proportion of mothers with children under 6 years old 2001)

# 1 Sweden: 76

# 8 United States: 61

= 9 Finland: 59

# 12 United Kingdom: 55

Trade union membership

# 1 Sweden: 82%

= 2 Finland: 76%

# 9 Canada: 30%

# 10 United Kingdom: 29%

# 11 Germany: 26%

= 14 New Zealand: 22%

= 14 Japan: 22%

# 17 United States: 13%

ECONOMIC

Child poverty (Child poverty index is defined as the share of the children living in the households with income below 50% of the national median.)

# 1 Mexico: 26.2

# 2 United States: 22.4

#7 Canada: 15.5

#13 Germany: 10.7

# 21 Finland: 4.3

Population below median income (Percentage of population living below 50% of median income.)

# 1 Mexico: 22.1

# 2 Russia: 20.1

# 3 United States: 17

# 24 Sweden: 6.6

# 25 Finland: 5.4

Income distribution: Poorest 10% [The share of income or consumption (%) held by the poorest 10%]

= 1 Belarus: 5.1%

= 1 Slovakia: 5.1%

# 3 Japan: 4.8%

= 7 Finland: 4.2%

= 7 Rwanda: 4.2%

= 84 Burundi: 1.8%

= 84 Mali: 1.8%

= 84 United States: 1.8%

Income distribution: Richest 10% [The share of income or consumption (%) held by the richest 10%]

# 1 Swaziland: 50.2%

# 2 Nicaragua: 48.8%

# 3 Brazil: 48%

# 54 United States: 30.5%

# 108 Japan: 21.7%

# 109 Finland: 21.6%

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Child maltreatment deaths

= 1 Mexico: 2.2 per 100,000 children

= 1 United States: 2.2 per 100,000 children

= 7 Canada: 0.7 per 100,000 children

= 7 Finland: 0.7 per 100,000 children

= 24 Italy: 0.2 per 100,000 children

= 24 Ireland: 0.2 per 100,000 children

# 27 Spain: 0.1 per 100,000 children

Cannabis use (Percentage share of people who have used cannabis, generally including people 15 and above. Different nations have, however, focussed their studies on different age groups.)

# 1 New Zealand: 22.23%

# 2 Australia: 17.93%

# 3 United States: 12.3%

# 4 United Kingdom: 9%

# 21 Finland: 2.49%

# 25 Sweden: 0.98%

# 26 Japan: 0.05%

Amphetamine use (Percentage of people who have used amphetamines, generally for ages 15 and over.)

# 1 Australia: 3.6%

# 2 United Kingdom: 3%

# 6 United States: 0.7%

= 20 Sweden: 0.19%

= 20 Finland: 0.19%

# 22 Canada: 0.15%

Happiness level: Not very or not at all happy (Proportion of people who answered the survey question "Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?" by stating that they were "not very" happy or "not at all" happy.)

# 1 Bulgaria: 62%

= 31 Japan: 14%

# 34 Canada: 12%

= 36 Finland: 8%

= 36 United States: 8%

= 39 United Kingdom: 7%

= 44 Australia: 5%

Happiness level: Very happy (Proportion of people who answered the survey question: "Taking all things together, would you say you are: very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?" by stating that they were "Very happy".)

# 1 Venezuela: 55%

# 2 Nigeria: 45%

= 7 United States: 39%

# 28 Uruguay: 21%

= 29 Finland: 20%

# 31 Bangladesh: 18%

Suicide rates in ages 15-24

# 1 New Zealand: 26.7 per 100,000 people

# 2 Finland: 22.8 per 100,000 people

= 4 Canada: 15 per 100,000 people

= 4 Austria: 15 per 100,000 people

# 7 United States: 13.7 per 100,000 people

EDUCATION

Average years of schooling of adults

# 1 United States: 12

# 4 Canada: 11.6

# 6 Australia: 10.9

# 8 Germany: 10.2

# 9 Finland: 10

= 35 Mexico: 7.2

= 35 Italy: 7.2

= 83 Haiti: 2.8

Duration of compulsory education

= 1 Germany: 13 years

= 1 Netherlands: 13 years

= 7 New Zealand: 12 years

= 7 United Kingdom: 12 years

= 7 United States: 12 years

= 34 Finland: 10 years

= 34 Mexico: 10 years

= 34 Japan: 10 years

= 34 Russia: 10 years

Adults at high literacy level

# 1 Sweden: 35.5%

# 2 Norway: 29.4%

= 4 Finland: 25.1%

= 4 Canada: 25.1%

# 8 United Kingdom: 19.1%

# 9 United States: 19%

# 10 Germany: 18.9%

# 11 New Zealand: 17.6%

Adults at low literacy level

# 1 Portugal: 80.1%

# 5 New Zealand: 50.6%

# 6 United Kingdom: 50.4%

# 7 United States: 49.6%

# 10 Canada: 42.9%

# 13 Finland: 36.8%

Public spending on education: % of GDP

# 1 Kiribati: 16.53 % 2002

# 6 Cuba: 9.77 % 2005

# 19 Sweden: 7.53 % 2003

# 31 Finland: 6.53 % 2003

# 45 United States: 5.85 % 2003

# 48 Mexico: 5.79 % 2003

= 64 Canada: 5.23 % 2002

Public spending on education: % of government expenditure

# 1 Yemen: 32.78 % 2000

# 5 Saudi Arabia: 27.57 % 2004

# 70 United States: 15.25 % 2003

# 71 Denmark: 15.08 % 2003

# 101 Finland: 12.82 % 2003

Student attitude: Dislike of school

# 1 Belgium: 42%

# 2 Italy: 38%

# 5 United States: 35%

# 12 Finland: 26%

= 13 Japan: 25%

= 13 Germany: 25%

Student attitude: Find school boring

# 1 Ireland: 67%

# 2 United States: 61%

= 3 Finland: 60%

= 16 France: 32%

= 16 Japan: 32%

CRIME

Prisoners (per capita)

# 1 United States: 715 per 100,000 people

# 2 Russia: 584 per 100,000 people

# 3 Belarus: 554 per 100,000 people

= 113 Finland: 71 per 100,000 people

Adults prosecuted (per capita)

# 1 United States: 48.029 per 1,000 people

# 2 Finland: 31.6349 per 1,000 people

# 3 New Zealand: 31.059 per 1,000 people

Murders (per capita)

# 1 Colombia: 0.617847 per 1,000 people

# 2 South Africa: 0.496008 per 1,000 people

# 5 Russia: 0.201534 per 1,000 people

# 6 Mexico: 0.130213 per 1,000 people

# 24 United States: 0.042802 per 1,000 people

# 30 Finland: 0.0283362 per 1,000 people

% homicides with firearms

# 1 Thailand: 79.5805

# 3 Colombia: 45.2092

# 7 United States: 39.5604

# 17 Mexico: 20.6051

# 21 Australia: 16.3435

# 32 Singapore: 2.6316

Additional information

Re single parent trends, from the Census Bureau:

The growth rate of single parents was nearly 4 percent a year in the first half of the 1990s, but that growth rate, which establishes a trend for the remainder of the present decade, was not significantly different from that of the 1980s, the Commerce Department's Census Bureau reported today.

And, according to the report titled, "Household and Family Characteristics: March 1994," P20-483, the numerical decline in 2-parent families that began in the 1970s and stabilized in the 1980s appears to have reversed during the first half of the 1990s. There were about 25.1 million married-couple families with children in the United States in 1994, an increase of about 521,000 since 1990, the report said.

There were an estimated 11.4 million single-parents in 1994. Of that number, 9.0 million owned or rented their own home, 1.8 million lived in a relative's home (related subfamilies), and 650,000 lived in the home of a non-relative (unrelated subfamilies).

In 1994, there were about 9.9 million single mothers versus 1.6 million single fathers. About 38 percent of single parents in 1994 had never been married, and roughly the same proportion were divorced at the time.

Single parents accounted for almost two-thirds (65 percent) of all African American family groups with children present, compared with 35 percent among Hispanics and 25 percent among Whites.

Re childhood obesity trends, from the CDE:

Childhood obesity has more than tripled in the past 30 years. The prevalence of obesity among children aged 6 to 11 years increased from 6.5% in 1980 to 19.6% in 2008. The prevalence of obesity among adolescents aged 12 to 19 years increased from 5.0% to 18.1%.

Re the dramatic rise in daily media use among children and teens, from the Kaiser Family Foundation:

With technology allowing nearly 24-hour media access as children and teens go about their daily lives, the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth, according to a study released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time ‘media multitasking’ (using more than one medium at a time), they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.

Why Urban School Districts Make Easy Targets

In Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (2003), Annette Lareau compares the parenting styles of middle-class families to that of working class and poor parents. I’ve written about her work before.

According to Lareau, one characteristic of working class and poor parents which would make them easy targets for the school privatization movement is that this group does not have the same type of social competencies as middle class parents. Lareau describes how these different competencies affect the types of interactions which the parents have with their children’s schools, for instance, working class and poor parents:

• are less likely to customize interactions to suit their preferences
• accept actions of persons in authority, but at times covertly resist them
• are sometimes not as aware of children’s school situation
• may resist school rules as unreasonable
• have trouble getting “the school” to respond to their needs
• give a lesson in powerlessness and frustration in the face of an important institution
• are generally unable to make the rules work in their favor when they confront the institution

Because middle class parents rear their children in a “concerted cultivation” model, succeeding generations are instilled with a sense of entitlement. Working class and poor parents rear their children according to a “natural growth” model, which perpetuates a sense of constraint in their succeeding generations.

Nearly completely absent in education reform discussions is how schools could be improved by building stronger ways to foster a greater sense of entitlement in working class and poor families, as well as to guide them in ways to effectively implement it. This would be especially challenging to do with those who have experienced living under a weak or non-existent democratic model, or who have limited English-speaking abilities, but it would not be impossible and this is what the venture philanthropists should be spending their money on. Increased civic engagement on the part of parents would certainly provoke a greater bureaucratic response on the part of their school districts. Parents who feel empowered and competent who are advocating for change can accomplish a lot. Remember the Chinese fishing proverb?

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

But because building a greater sense of mastery for parents has not been sufficiently nurtured, and has even been sabotaged and discouraged by school bureaucracies, a door has been opened wide for the outside privatization forces to insert themselves into those communities. This is evident in the expansion of “we want your child, but we don’t need your input" charter schools. And as this feature is getting more and more firmly rooted in the ground, any and all remaining levels for an opportunity for true community engagement is being entirely wiped out. With school boards being abolished, no elections will be held, and no meetings will be conducted to invite public input. School enrollment is depending more and more on how successfully schools can market themselves to working class and poor parents, with pretty imprinted pencils, glossy color brochures and glowing promises.

The popular explanation of how it this all going to sort itself out is that parents “will vote with their feet.” This method causes an awful lot of disruption, as unhappy parents who don't have a say in how things are run, yank their kids out mid-year and wander over to the next school. Most parents would be perfectly happy if their children could stay put, if their input was regularly solicited, if their comments actually listened too, and if they were made to feel that they were respected and that their views were considered to be valid. This doesn’t happen enough in today’s school bureaucracies, and it hasn't for years. But it is entirely excluded when there is a top-down regime operating from afar, such as is the case with Oakland’s largest charter school provider, Aspire Public Schools. The members of its board of directors hail from far reaching communities, big businesses, and venture capital organizations, and none of them have anything to do with the People of Oakland. A middle class community would never permit its public schools to be run this way.

So along these lines, there was an interesting segment on The World the other day (12/9/09). Anchor Marco Werman spoke with Christian Science Monitor correspondent Fred Weir in Moscow about the Russian culture of accountability. Weir has been living in Russia for 23 years. The story pertained to the Russia’s culture of corruption, indifference and fatalism in relation to the tragic nightclub fire:

I think it’s an age old problem, probably because people are disconnected, and always have been, from authority and the means of getting things done. You know it’s very common for people in Russian to say, “Well nothing depends on me.” I think that’s part of the story and the corruption comes also from just an unaccountable bureaucracy. They’re not elected, they’re not transparent, they’re not susceptible to public pressure and they tend to use their positions – and this is an age old thing in Russia again – to enrich themselves…

…Russia has never had a functioning democracy. It doesn’t have the civil society, the kinds of unity avenues by which people, say in the United States, do insert themselves in the process, again not perfect, but you have so many different ways if you are an individual in a Western country to express yourself, be heard, to at least take a shot rhetorically at an official who you feel has wronged you.

You have so many different ways [in the U.S.] that just don’t exist in Russia, and never did. And this, of course, leads to the sense of impunity on the part of bureaucrats and officials who just don’t feel any need to respond to public pressure.

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...[change] involves actually changing that bureaucracy, dragging them out into the open, making them publicly accountable, having elections that are truly competitive and which would allow opposition figures perhaps to come into power. You know, allowing people in their communities to show initiative runs the risk of them challenging authority, and this is where Russian reformers always tend to draw the line after they’ve made these wonderful speeches. They want the country to modernize, but they don’t want opposition to form. They don’t want real, independent initiatives to take place, and that’s the conundrum that we always see.

Urban areas don’t need more charter schools and more passivity; this is a wrong and dangerous direction to take. For our democracy to stay strong, we need to start building the capacity of people to become regularly and effectively engaged. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is alarmed at the loss of civics instruction in school over recent years. She said:

... public education is the only long-term solution to preserving an independent judiciary and, more importantly, to preserving a robust constitutional democracy,” she said. “The better educated our citizens are, the better equipped they will be to preserve the system of government we have. And we have to start with the education of our nation’s young people. Knowledge about our government is not handed down through the gene pool. Every generation has to learn it, and we have some work to do.

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One unintended effect of the No Child Left Behind Act, which is intended to help fund teaching of science and math to young people, is that it has effectively squeezed out civics education because there is no testing for that anymore and no funding for that,” she said. “And at least half of the states no longer make the teaching of civics and government a requirement for high school graduation. This leaves a huge gap, and we can’t forget that the primary purpose of public schools in America has always been to help produce citizens who have the knowledge and the skills and the values to sustain our republic as a nation, our democratic form of government.

Related concerns are also expressed by James Boyd White in Part one of his essay, “Law, economics, and torture”. White is a law professor, literary critic, scholar and philosopher who has been teaching at the University of Michigan since 1983:

As the government withdraws from the regulation of the economy, as it has been doing for decades now, its place is taken by private individuals or private organizations which have immense power over the lives of all of us.

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The rhetoric supporting this movement speaks of government as the enemy, and the market as freedom for us all. But the power that is created by the disparity of wealth is real power and, unlike governmental power, it is not shaped or guided by law and democracy. Corporate owners and managers are not elected by the people, not subject to the constitution, not supposed – or even allowed – to be motivated by any ideal other than the acquisition of wealth and power, and usually not responsive to argument or complaint.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The consumer dream of our culture teaches us that we have no responsibility, no capacity for action, no right to demand meaning in our work and lives, and no obligation for the welfare of others. It induces the sense of learned helplessness I referred to earlier—which is exactly the opposite of the kind of vigorous independence and competence upon which democracy depends.

And in discussing propaganda and advertising, White says

…one characteristic of both forms is that nothing is meant, everything is said for the moment, all on the assumption that the people who make up the audience have no memory and no capacity for critical thought. A world is created where thought is not possible. In neither domain—the consumer economy or the world of politics and government—are we defined as responsible participants in a world of shared life and action. Rather, we are manipulated objects of an empire.

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…the reason we do not rebel at the immense and unfair transfer of wealth, and all that is associated with it…is that in some sense we do not believe that we really have democracy at all any more, at least in the sense in which we once thought we did.

With restricted autonomy and “learned helplessness,” calling ourselves a democracy is a falsehood. To make our public schools better and to keep our democracy strong, this is the situation we need to begin to reverse, and quickly.