How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education

Labaree, David F.

ISBN 10: 0300078676 / ISBN 13: 9780300078671

Published by Yale University Press (edition Edition Unstated), 1999

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 0300078676-7-1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: How to Succeed in School Without Really Learning: The Credentials Race in American Education
• Publisher: Yale University Press (edition Edition Unstated)
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300078676
• ISBN 13: 9780300078671
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Edition Unstated.
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

Getting ahead and getting an education are inseparable in the minds of most Americans. David Labaree argues, however, that the connection between schooling and social mobility may be doing more harm than good, for the pursuit of educational credentials has come to take precedence over the acquisition of knowledge.

Labaree examines the competing intellectual and ideological traditions that have fought for dominance in our public schools from the nineteenth century to the present. He claims that by thinking of education primarily as the route to individual advancement, we are defining it as a private good―a means of gaining a competitive advantage over other people. He endorses an alternative vision, one that sees education as a public good, providing society with benefits that can be collectively shared―for example, by producing citizens who are politically responsible and workers who are economically productive. He points out that when education is seen primarily as a private consumer good, a number of consequences follow. Formal characteristics of schooling―grades, credits, and degrees―come to assume greater weight than substantive characteristics, such as actually learning something. Grading becomes more important for its social consequences than for its pedagogical uses. For these and other reasons, the pursuit of certification and degrees takes precedence over the goals of learning, and the private benefits of schooling take precedence over its democratic and civic functions.

About the Author

David F. Labaree, associate professor of education at Michigan State University, is also the author of The Making of an American High School.