The document discusses the history and philosophies underlying classical liberalism and its influence on early American education. It describes key tenets like faith in reason, natural law, republican virtue, and progress. It also outlines Thomas Jefferson's plan for public education, which proposed a multi-tiered system of elementary schools, grammar schools, and a university. The document examines how political economy and ideology shaped early schooling and reveals tensions between liberalism's ideals and dominant social structures.

1. Liberty and Literacy
Now and in the future

2. Crash Course
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3Ox6vG
teek

3. Class Issues
• Infrastructure
• Learning & Assessment
• Challenges
• Differences
• Equality & Equity
• Students
• Values & Ethics in Education
• Liberal Education

4. Political
Economy
Agrarian society
Homogenous
Family unit
Slavery
Revolution
Bourgeoisie
Ideology
Classical liberalism
Patriarchy
Reason
Republican virtue
Natural aristocracy
Capitalism/Freedom
Laissez-faire
Schooling
Schools
Regional differences
Local financing
White males
Religious & Democratic
Three Rs

5. Fundamental Tenets of Classical Liberal
Ideology
• Faith in Reason
• Natural Law
• Republican
Virtue
• Progress
• Nationalism
• Freedom
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6. Faith in Reason
• A better guide than tradition, custom,
and dogmatic faith
• Mind as “blank slate”
• Humankind capable of great feats
• Galileo, Copernicus, Newton
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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7. Natural Law
• “Universe is a machine”
• Understanding yields control
• Science replaces theology as guide to
action
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9. Republican Virtue
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Perfectibility of the individual
Duties to God and to nature
The work ethic
Men’s virtues/ Women’s virtues

10. Progress
• Continual individual and societal
progress toward perfection
• Changing the world to what ought to
be
• Revolution as an option
• Commitment to social meliorism
• Education as the vehicle
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11. Nationalism
• Allegiance to a nation, not a state
• A new national identity
• Uneasy balance between national
government and local self-
determination
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12. Freedom
• “Negative freedom”
Intellectual
• Free from external coercion of church and state
Political
• Representative government
Civic
• Freedom to “live as one pleases”
• Bill of Rights
Economic
• “Laissez-faire” economy
• The Wealth of Nations
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13. Jefferson’s Plan for Popular Education
Self-Education
Elementary
Schools
Grammar
Schools
University
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14. First Tier—Elementary Schools
• Foundation of entire education structure
• Decentralized districts
• Three years of free education
• Screening for future leaders
• Preparing citizens for effective functioning
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15. Second Tier—Grammar Schools
• Boarding schools
• Languages, advanced curriculum
• Developing local leadership
• Preparation for university
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16. Third Tier—University Education
• Common education from grammar schools
allowed for advanced instruction
• Specialization in a “science”
• Preparation for leadership—law,
government, the professions
• Education for meritocracy
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17. Fourth Tier—Self-Education
• Lifelong learning as the culmination of
educational aims
• Jefferson’s support of public libraries
• “Knowledge is power; knowledge is safety;
knowledge is happiness”
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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18. Concluding Remarks
• Political economy and ideology influenced
early education processes, inside and
outside of schools
• Jefferson’s thinking reveals the tensions in
classical liberalism
• Admirable ideals versus the “dominant
ideology”
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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19. Developing Your Professional Vocabulary
• Bill for a More General
Diffusion of
Knowledge
• bourgeoisie
• capitalism
• civic freedom
• classical liberal
• conservative
• democratic localism
• “divine right” of the
nobility
• elementary schooling
• faculty psychology
• faith in human reason
• feudalism
• freedom and
“negative freedom”
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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20. Developing Your Professional Vocabulary
• grammar schools
• happiness
• intellectual freedom
• meritocracy
• nationalism
• natural aristocracy
• natural law
• patriarchy
• political freedom
• progress
• religious revelation
• republicanism
• Rockfish Gap Report
• scientific reason
• social meliorism
• virtue
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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21. • "An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for
our survival as a free people.“

22. • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVoj9nNO
KCU
• http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/edu
cated-citizenry-vital-requisite-our-survival-
free-people-quotation

23. • 1787 December 20. (to James Madison)
"Above all things I hope the education of the
common people will be attended to ;
convinced that on their good sense we may
rely with the most security for the
preservation of a due degree of liberty."[4]

24. Chapter Nine
Liberty and Literacy Today:
Contemporary Perspectives
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25. Literacy as a Social Construction
• Past and present literacy rates affected by
differences in class, race, gender, region,
and social need
• Less need and less expectation of
widespread literacy in 18th and 19th
centuries
• Socioeconomic marginality of illiteracy a
20th-century phenomenon
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

26. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8N9-
ubmuoM
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWDUix
wo9eU
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kc5TVgh
bj-Q

27. Hegemony Theory
Why, in the face of massive inequalities, does
rebellion not occur in a democracy?
Hegemony theory posits that:
1. Institutional elites control U.S. political and economic
institutions.
2. They share a common ideology that justifies their
position.
3. Public is socialized into accepting these views through
schooling, mass media, workplace.
4. Ideology serves to limit discussion/debate and promote
acceptance of status quo.
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28. Mass Media and Cultural Hegemony
• Corporate chains control significant numbers of
newspapers and magazines; television, publishing
and films
• Concentration of ownership equals restriction of
range of viewpoints
• Media criticisms of American institutions stay
within acceptable bounds
• What will happen with computers and the
Internet?
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29. Schooling and Cultural Hegemony
• Hierarchical distribution of power in schools fosters
compliance
• Nature of students’ work promotes competition; failure is
personal, not linked to a structure that needs winners and
losers
• Social stratification within the school culture encourages
differences rather than commonalities
• Capitalist democracy lauded; instillation of compliance in
students encouraged
• America’s social history selectively presented in textbooks
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30. Schooling and Cultural Hegemony
• American society educates in contradictory ways
Taught that this is a democratic society
Daily experiences reinforce non-participation
The option of questioning this dichotomy is not
presented
• Citizens are prevented from participating in
democratic processes
Ultimately, is this really a democracy if the populace
cannot participate?
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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31. Four Contemporary Perspectives on
Literacy
• Conventional literacy
• Functional literacy
• Cultural literacy
• Critical literacy
Each expresses different understandings of
schooling, political economy, and ideology.
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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32. Conventional Literacy
• 1980 U.S. Census found 99.5% of adults literate— “the
ability to read and write a simple message in any
language”
• Issues with these findings:
Were data collection methods appropriate?
What level of literacy is reflected in the data?
Could respondents read and write in English?
• Conventional perspective useful to support claims of
progress and to mask need for adult education programs
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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33. Functional Literacy
• “Functional literacy” first used by Army
during WWII to mean literacy that would
accommodate military demands
• A literacy that measures ability to perform
tasks requiring literacy skills or to “function
effectively”
• Social class and literacy acquisition go hand
in hand; race and ethnicity matter
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34. Functional Literacy
• Limitations of functional literacy
perspective
Seems to imply minimum competence as a
goal
Tends to lay blame on the illiterate themselves,
rather than social inequalities
Overemphasis on mechanical skills of reading
and writing; less on understanding and critical
thinking
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

35. Cultural Literacy
• E. D. Hirsch’s argument that literacy includes a
basic knowledge foundation that gives meaning
to what is read
• “Intellectual baggage” that supports a familiarity
with the events and ideas that have shaped
American culture
• Historical names and events, authors and works
of literature, geographical places, phrases,
scientific terms, etc.
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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36. Cultural Literacy
• Limitations of functional literacy
perspective
“Trivial pursuit” approach?
Adds meaning, but falls short of advancing
democratic understanding
Emphasizes recognition rather than critical
thinking, and is very testable
Reinforces Eurocentric bias; overlooks global
society
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37. Critical Literacy
• Literacy may enable some parts of society to
control others
• Critical literacy draws attention to power relations
in society by focusing on racial, ethnic, gender,
and class oppression
• Critical literacy attends to how knowledge and
power are interrelated
• Literacy is the capacity to think and act
reflectively—to understand the world and act to
change social relations of oppression
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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38. Critical Literacy Method
• Highlights connection between knowledge
and power
• Freire's pedagogy of “dialogue” and mutual
learning
• Reading and writing as tools to understand,
express, and change social relations
• Balancing criticism of the dominant culture
and learning its “linguistic code”
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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39. (c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD
ZFcDGpL4U
• Paulo Freire
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFOhVdQt27c

40. Usefulness/Drawbacks of Perspectives
• Conventional  evidence of success of U.S. educational
system; obscures the way illiteracy is distributed
• Functional  measurement of ability to function at
minimum level in society; settles for minimal view of
literacy
• Cultural  familiarity with the traditional knowledge base
of our culture; promotes passive absorption of random
knowledge
• Critical  emphasis on relationship between literacy and
empowerment
• Each of these supports a different educational aim
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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41. Concluding Remarks
• The concept of literacy is embedded in
social contexts and is relative to particular
societies and their conditions
• Education is no guarantee of freedom when
participatory self-government is not
fostered by schools and media
• Critical literacy key to challenging this state
of affairs
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e

42. Developing Your Professional Vocabulary
• conventional literacy
• critical literacy
• cultural literacy
• cultural or ideological
hegemony
• Paulo Freire
• functional literacy
• hidden curriculum
• the “information
marketplace” vs. a
marketplace of ideas
• literacy as a social
construction
• mass media
• NAEP (National
Assessment of
Educational Programs)
(c) 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Tozer/Senese/Violas, School and Society, 5e