Ain t No Making It Chapter Summaries
Chapter 1
Our achievement ideology is based on the idea that the U.S. is full of opportunity and anyone can accomplish success in our society if they work hard enough. Many grow up thinking education is the ladder that will allow for this social mobility and all you have to do is be willing to work hard enough to earn it. But what about children who grow up thinking differently? Why do some strive for high paying careers while others refuse school and are seemingly ok with staying working class? MacLeod challenges the notion that America is the land of opportunity with research he conducted while in college. He uses the research of several reproduction theorists to show that schools not only are not great equalizers, as most think, but actually reinforce social inequality.
Chapter 2
Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, both Marxists, believe the American education system builds off of and reinforces the structure of class relations in the U.S. by training the wealthy to take up space at the top of the economy while conditioning the poor to accept their status. Their "correspondence principle" draws the comparison between the social relations of production and personal interaction in schools. They argue that strong structural similarities can be seen in following:
The organization of power and authority in the school and in the workplace
The student's lack of control of curriculum and the worker's lack of control of the content of his or her job
The role of grades and other rewards in school and the role of wages in the workplace as extrinsic motivational systems
Competition among students and the specialization of academic subjects and competition among workers and the fragmented nature of jobs.
They argue this theory with how schools vary in instruction based on their location. Schools serving low-income working class neighborhoods are emphasize rules and behavioral control (similar to what we have discussed in the Gilbert book about social mobility and class
Our achievement ideology is based on the idea that the U.S. is full of opportunity and anyone can accomplish success in our society if they work hard enough. Many grow up thinking education is the ladder that will allow for this social mobility and all you have to do is be willing to work hard enough to earn it. But what about children who grow up thinking differently? Why do some strive for high paying careers while others refuse school and are seemingly ok with staying working class? MacLeod challenges the notion that America is the land of opportunity with research he conducted while in college. He uses the research of several reproduction theorists to show that schools not only are not great equalizers, as most think, but actually reinforce social inequality.
Chapter 2
Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, both Marxists, believe the American education system builds off of and reinforces the structure of class relations in the U.S. by training the wealthy to take up space at the top of the economy while conditioning the poor to accept their status. Their "correspondence principle" draws the comparison between the social relations of production and personal interaction in schools. They argue that strong structural similarities can be seen in following:
The organization of power and authority in the school and in the workplace
The student's lack of control of curriculum and the worker's lack of control of the content of his or her job
The role of grades and other rewards in school and the role of wages in the workplace as extrinsic motivational systems
Competition among students and the specialization of academic subjects and competition among workers and the fragmented nature of jobs.
They argue this theory with how schools vary in instruction based on their location. Schools serving low-income working class neighborhoods are emphasize rules and behavioral control (similar to what we have discussed in the Gilbert book about social mobility and class