This chapter discussed some issues that are still relevant in contemporary American society. The concepts that most interested me were the creation of head start programs/ and the channeling of youth for global warfare. In relation to the last chapter on media I will start with the concepts behinds head start, what initially seemed like a great idea in my opinion has now shifted towards the other end of the spectrum. The common theme throughout these chapters was poverty and its Americanization through the usage of education. After reading and discovering that head start was once again a handout to civilize the poor and end poverty it made me consider the kindergarten movement from a previous reading and its initial reason for creation. Kindergarten was a place to promote creativity in children and teach them how to assimilate into higher levels of formal education, all for the purpose of human capital. The government did not care about children in my opinion in any of these programs. Not in those created to aide the educationally impoverished or those that strictly supported the middle class, it was only to train them for the ultimate use of war and social service. In this chapter as in other chapters education became the scapegoat for a selfish nation that saw children as dollar signs instead of the innocent beings that they were. The creation of the SAT and other standardized testing was another way to categorize as American society did, between the capable and the incapable according to who would become most profitable to the economy.
Concerning the concepts of warfare as stated in the chapter the poor always went to war and the rich attended college. It reminds me of the propaganda that the government uses to trap high school students into joining the army with the guarantee of an education and benefits when they come out but the most homeless people especially now in our economy are veterans. It forces me to think about college presently and its expense and the (nonexistent) guarantee of “the American dream” it promotes, in comparison to how it was advertised in the past. The government thought, give handouts to the poor and their children, send our middle class elite to college and eventually increase revenue for the country. They were so interested in school shaping the moral content of its younger citizens it appears that they the government had no morals besides dollar signs.
With the propaganda surrounding head start and early education programs, what problems in contemporary early education have been a trickle down result? Is the concept of “send the poor to war and send our elite to college” still present in our society? Explain the attitude shifts between acceptance of financial assistance from the government in the past to acceptance of financial assistance today, especially as college students?
