Robert D. Putnam.
Review by Duane Campbell
This new book is an
insightful and well researched analysis of on the achievement gap, which
Robert Putnam correctly calls an opportunity gap for the current
generation of young people. I was drawn to the book by respect for his
prior writing, Bowling Alone . This new work is of equal value in
synthesizing social science research. Perhaps it is of more value since
we have major institutions-schools- in positions , that could contribute to the
rebirth of equal, democratic opportunity.
In Our Kids,
Putnam describes major developments in our schools and our
communities - the growing inequality of opportunity for the working class and
the poor.
Educational writers have
long chronicled several of the key concepts, the role of tracking, of concentrations
of poverty and of race. This work excels because it is a very well informed
outsiders sociological viewpoint of these issues. Putnam and research
associate Jen Sliva bring together extensive social science data and research
to support the many interpretive suggestions.
This is not the over
simplification of many general and popular books, nor the ideological tracts of
education’s many critics and neoliberal "reform" advocates. Putnam
provides vivid and useful examples combined with a well informed data bases
of social science research of the most important issues. He builds
his arguments upon both individual interviews and the synthesis of an enormous
amount of social science research thus combining big and important ideas
with the research to support them.
In my own career, and in
my writing, I have long sought to describe several of these issues in a
manner that would guide school improvement. We begin by educating both
the public and teachers on these vital issues of building a democratic school
system that can contribute to improved equality of opportunity necessary for
the survival and rebirth of our democracy. Building a democracy requires this
active interaction between the public, teachers, and the school systems.
Robert Putnam extensively
documents that we are traveling toward a more divided, more unequal
system- the precise opposite of the goals of democratic reform . This
serious and valuable work is not the cant of the neocons, nor of the neo
liberals of higher standards and higher expectations, although both of these
have their place in overall school improvement. But as Putnam
meticulously records, it is the complex interactions of race, class,
communities and the educational systems that creates the growing inequality.
Our Kids,
describes the problems and issues with integrity and care. It does not offer
many solutions for teachers working in schools. The task of developing
daily, practical solutions can mostly come from people working in
education. Each of the case studies offered important
insights. I found particularly insightful the comparisons of two
divergent Mexican American families in Southern California; one that had
achieved a middle class economic standard and the associated middle class schooling,
and a second family where poverty, disruptions, and its associated conflicts
blocked opportunity at great economic costs to the young people.
It is vital that teachers
and education advocates understand the broad and complex issues of schooling
and communicate to the general public the dangers and pitfalls of the growing
inequality in our schools and in society. Our Kids does
summarize examples of major policy directions at work that may provide a
beginning place for needed dialogue between teachers and the general
public. As Putnam chronicles, the hard work of defending and extending
democratic education has been seriously damaged by the neoliberal assault on
our schools, our teachers' unions, and on intellectual integrity. At this
point we must acknowledge that little is likely to develop in the present
political climate of (mostly Republican) neoliberal control of most state
governments and our economy.
Our Kids is a
significant contribution and should be read by teachers interested in pursuing
democracy. It is a sophisticated essay on the complex issues
of poverty and wealth and the growth of inequality in our nation. The author
provides substantive scholarly syntheses of several diverse research directions
revealing the high costs we pay as a society for underserving poor
kids. He astutely points out the substantive challenges not only to
schooling but also to the survival of our democracy and advances in
knowledge of how we might create a more democratic system and reclaim and
renew the democratic project.
Other readers views on this book.
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