Jeffersonian Literacy in Contrast With Today’s Educational Values.

1. Jeffersonian Literacy in Contrast With Today’s Educational Values. Michael Cook Pat Lewis Peggy Smith

2. 1800 America Agriculture primary source of income for 90% of Americans North: small cash crop family worked farms. South: (1) large estates – worked by slaves and indentures servants (2) small farms – family worked or possibly a few slaves. • Travel was human, animal or river current based. • Total Population 6 million, mostly rural • New York City 50,000 people , 5 others with 10,000.

3. Early American Governmental Structures and their Commonalties. Structures • Democratic Localism: Local communities should be self-governing with little rule by state and national governments. • Colonies: colonial legislature, British-appointed governor with veto-power, final authority was the British crown. • Confederation of States: limited national government, state legislators with an elected Governor. • Constitution: greatly increased power of centralized national government. Commonalities • Representation in government • Male citizens’ liberties could be infringed upon only for serious reasons of state. • Education was important for all white men, colonial and state governments had ultimate authority in this area.

4. Liberalism The importance of individual liberty Rejects many of the foundational assumptions of previous governmental systems such as the Divine Right of Kings, hereditary status and established religion. John Locke Two Treatises of Government “no man ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.” Jefferson, Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to ensure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Republicanism: the right of individuals to govern themselves through representative government. What is the difference between the writings of Locke and Jefferson?

5. Central Ideas of Liberalism Faith in Reason Natural Law Republican Virtue Progress Nationalism Freedom

6. Jefferson’s Educational Methods Language: - work of memory and the literature they contained offered excellent models of writing Mathematics: exercises our reason, contain truths which are useful in other branches of science

7. Division of Schools and Education Elementary Schools • Divide into small districts • “all free children, male and female” attend for three years for free, or longer at private expense. • Learn necessary life skills. • Reading • Writing • Common arithmetic • History • Who is included at this level of education, and why are these skills important for all members of society to possess these skills?

8. Division of Schools and Education Grammar Schools • Approximately 20 per state. • Six year school. • Each student required to pay tuition, room, board, and other necessary expenses. • Languages the center of the school, Greek, Latin, and English Grammar • Advanced arithmetic, geometry, navigation and geography. School Function • Graduates would become the local “district” leaders, or university students. • Provide leadership in business, local militia, local government. • Would become the teachers of the elementary schools.

9. Division of Schools and Education University Education • “our institution will proceed on the principle…of letting everyone come and listen to whatever he thinks may improve the condition of his mind.” • Study of ancient languages, advanced mathematics, law, ideology, and philosophy. • Also available for study were religion, gymnastics, fine arts. • All students specialize within these “sciences.” • University graduates would become legislators, governors, provide governmental leadership. Self-Education • The most important form of education. • Jefferson believed that the development of reason, the expansion of intellect, and inquiries into the mysteries of the universe were fundamental to human happiness, “knowledge is power… knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness.”

10. Jefferson’s view of African Americans “in general, their existence appears to participate more of sensation than reflection…Comparing them by their faculties of memory, reason, and imagination, it appears to me that in memory they are equal to whites: in reason much inferior…in imagination they are dull, tasteless and anomalous” -Thomas Jefferson 1781 • What is Jefferson implying about African Americans?

11. Jefferson’s Contradictory Views of African Americans and Slavery Positives • Advocate for abolition of slavery • Offered a bill allowing for the emancipation of slavery • Included African Americans as “men” in the Declaration of Independence • Unsuccessfully proposed the Northwest Ordinance • Believed the weaknesses possessed by African Americans could be improved through education Negatives • As President he did not support abolition • None of his legislative proposals on education included African Americans • Continually bought more slaves when 10,000 slaves were freed by plantation owners • Believed that African Americans lacked the intellectual endowment for self-governance • Belief in racial inferiority led him to argue against intermarriage, “amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover of his country no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent.”

12. Jefferson and Native Americans Equal to whites in intellectual endowment Inferior in culture, forced to become “civilized” or driven west of the Mississippi River.

13. Jefferson and the Education of Women “A plan of female education has never been a subject of systematic contemplation with me. It has occupied my attention so far only as the education of my own daughters occasionally required.” “might enable them, when they become mothers, to educate their own daughters, and even to direct the course for sons, should their fathers be lost, or incapable, or inattentive.”

14. Was Literacy Necessary in the 18th and 19th Centuries?

15. Social Construction of Literacy During the 18th and 19th Century Everyday requirements for literacy less demanding Literacy not so essential to employment or conducting everyday affairs, employers feared an educated work force Women, African and Native Americans had no voice in government and could not vote

16. Why did literacy become important during the late 19th and 20th century? Socioeconomic marginality of illiteracy All powerless groups in U.S. History have desired access to literacy for economic and social advancement

17. Literacy Conventional Functional Cultural Critical

18. The Census Bureau Defined literacy as “ the ability to ready and write a simple message in any language. Literacy rate determined by latest completion of grade level. Findings were based on written questionnaires and telephone interviews. Does not account for levels of literacy.

19. Conventional Lieracy Simplest form Definition: The ability to read and write Emphasizes social and educational progress and obscures the social and educational inequalities .

20. Functional Literacy a conception that emphasizes the level of ability to read and write necessary to function well in a particular society.

21. Limitations Kozol’s objection is that it denotes as a goal “the competence to function at the lowest levels of mechanical performance Lankshear adds the tendency to blame the victims of social inequity for illiteracy.

22. What, in your view, does the functional literacy perspective contribute to our understanding of the political of literacy in the US?

23. Hirsch Best-selling book Cultural Literacy His conception of cultural literacy goes beyond the technical reading of functional literacy to embrace the democratic ideals of Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King, Jr. What do you think?

24. Features of Critical Literacy Draws attention to power relations in society by focusing on oppression Attends to how knowledge and power are interrelated The capacity to think and act reflectively, not the ability to read lines on a page. Simply it’s the ability to understand and act against the social relations of oppression.

25. Schooling and Cultural Hegemony Hierarchical distribution of power in the schools The nature of student work The social stratification within the school structure.

26. Literacy Which of the perspectives of literacy presented do you think is the most important for individual teachers and for schools in general to embrace in the US today?

27. General Electric is one of Eight G.E. is not alone in its power to manipulate the way news is distributed. As 2007 began, eight media giants dominated the American news business: Disney, TIME Warner/ AOL, Yahoo!, Viacom, G.E. (NBC News), News Corporation, Microsoft, and Google . Knowing this, how do you think the bias from those people in power manifests itself? Two examples follow:

28. Who is in charge of the news? Overall, reports on domestic issues in America, such as job cuts, the economy, & what ails American schools are told as bad news. The flip side of the issue is the American public usually learns no way of understanding the bad news is the pre-determined outcome of the structure of corporate capitalism itself.

29. Implications for the American Education system It is not just the news on television and the internet that affects people’s ability to think for themselves about their way of life. The technology itself affects people’s ability to develop literacy skills and to think critically. One government study showed students who watched three or less hours of television a day showed higher levels of reading skills than students who watched six hours or more a day.

30. Unequal distribution of computers in schools In middle class schools, the number of computers is substantially more than in working class or inner city schools populated by African Americans. According to researcher Michael Apple, “These more economically advantaged schools not only have more technical and teacher support , but the very manner in which the computer is used is different from what would be found in schools in less advantaged areas.

31. How do schools reflect the hegemony of society? If the hegemony theories are accurate, they have a lot of implications for education, the two most basic say: 1.) It appears society is educating in profoundly contradictory ways . On one hand, citizens are taught in the schools and through the media that we live in a democratic society. 2.) On the other hand, they are taught through daily experience not to expect to take part in basic decisions that affect their lives.

32. 1.) They decide which stories get covered in terms of which will and which will not serve their interests. 2.) As news gets reported, their criticisms address problems in American institutions . However, they do not usually address how those institutions are structured. The media may criticize how a game is played, for instance, but they do not question the rules of the game.

33. The fourth branch would be represented by the free press, and other forms of the media. A lot of historians as well as people in government believe the American way of life could not be sustained without the fourth branch. The free press is needed to attack suspected government corruption and to report on any political whose integrity appears questionable. Jefferson had said he would rather live in a country with no government but with newspapers than a country with a government without newspapers.

34. Would Jefferson be America’s conscience today? Jefferson believed there was no democratic justification for a ruling class that monopolizes decision making. A democracy stripped of substantial participation by people in the basic decisions affecting their lives is not a democracy at all. Those who do not participate in the decision making process are not required to learn, an if what hegemony theorists believe is accurate, the educational gap between the powerful and powerless grows greater with each passing year.

35. G.E. is one of Eight • G.E. owns the National Broadcasting Network (NBC). Because G.E. has a large number of revenue sources, some of which are defense contracts, how do you think this may affect the way news is reported on NBC? • G.E., as most any corporation in the United States, seeks to gain profit by eliminating jobs. It would also tend to seek advantage by encouraging the dissemination of information consistent with its military, global, and international interests.

36. Students are not taught by school or society to examine and question decisions between what they are told and the reality they experience every day. Instead, they are taught in schools to tolerate such contradictions if they recognize them at all. They are taught that democracy is working well.

37. Who is in charge of the news? Unemployment is built into the capitalist system since it benefits the stockholders. Investing in profits such as the less expensive workforce in a foreign land instead of investing in American workers is but one example. As television news tells stories of our national interests, usually what get portrayed as news was determined by those interests of corporate directors.

38. What is your philosophy of education? In New York State, as you interview for a job to teach in a school, one thing you will need to show will be a philosophy of education. How will you articulate your beliefs as they will manifest themselves in the classroom? Would such a philosophy of education reflect how you would impart teaching of values, and character education?

39. Jefferson did not have all of the answers. Jefferson said a society cannot be ignorant and free; but did he understand that education is not guarantee or freedom?

40. Would Jefferson recognize America today? Think back to the analogy of four legs of the stool, and the fourth leg of government represented by journalism. Also, think back to an idea brought up earlier by Jefferson. He said he would prefer to live in a country where there were newspapers and no government as opposed to a government but no newspapers.

41. We will return to Jefferson and his vision for America. Let’s consider who influences the American press. . . General Electric (G.E.) is the ninth largest corporation in the world. Its revenues are equal to the gross national product of Norway. If G.E. would be a national economy, it would be larger than 130 countries.

42. What would Jefferson think about the state of journalism today? What if the people who write columns on the internet, for instance do not tell the truth. On the conservative side, we have Rush Limbaugh, and on the liberal side, we have Arianna Huffington. Both routinely distort the facts to make a point. This leads to a discussion question: Could Jefferson have foreseen multinational corporations controlling the public’s perception of the media and politicians? Those newspapers without a corporate connection are rare today. What would Jefferson think of newspapers today?

43. Jefferson’s vision for America Consistent with his vision, a lot of historians use the following analogy to explain the value of newspapers in America: Imagine a stool that needs four legs to stand. Each leg of the stool represents a branch of the United States government. One branch of the stool represents the judicial branch, a second represents the legislative branch, and a third represents the executive branch.

44. Summary During those times when an understanding of critical literacy must come to the fore, the teacher must understand a connection to liberty must exist. Teachers must impart that students’ knowledge, skills and dispositions reflect critically on their experiences and their relationships with those in power in their lives.

45. What is your philosophy of education? The concept of literacy has evolved as American society has evolved. As future teachers, will you all understand which definition of literacy needs to take precedence during one interaction and how another needs to manifest itself during another? Functional literacy, cultural literacy and critical literacy each points to a different direction as literacy is embedded in separate teachable moments.

46. What kind of teacher will you be? How will your personal philosophy of education manifest itself? Will you teach your students to be inquisitive? Will you teach them that there are no dumb questions? Will you teach them that unfairness against a person of a different social class, gender or race affects them all? Will you teach them to value education, and to continue learning for the rest of their lives?