Educating the Right Way: Markets, Standards, God, and Inequality

I found this book most helpful in the way that Apple outlines and discusses some of the inherent contradictions of the current Right-wing coalition. That said, one of the critiques I see here from other reviewers is the same one that came up in a class where we all read this book: Apple does not offer solutions. I think there could certainly be a discussion about the extent to which his solutions are viable or are clearly articulated, but nevertheless, he DOES offer solutions. As I read the final chapters I made note of implicit and explicit solutions that Apple does suggest to fight NCLB and other education policies that favor the Right-wing agenda. I think some are better than others. Here they are as I see them: 1) "Repostioning" -a solution that suggests policy makers should see reforms from the eyes of those most oppressed(p. 197) 2) A strong recognition that schools and schooling are a political battlefield (p. 198, 199) 3) Placing race at the fore of all educational reform discussions. He seems to divide it into two approaches. On p. 204 he says we, as a nation, need to confront the white supremecist sins of our past (e.g.Genocide against Native Americans and enslavement of Africans) and then on p. 207 we need to confront white privlege and to make "whiteness strange". 4)Do a better job publicizing good research that supports progressive notions, theories, and experiences about what good teaching is(p. 202). 5) In keeping with #4 above, he says that progressive leaders in ed reform need to do a better job with publicity. For instance, progressive academics like Apple can go on radio talk shows, write op-ed pieces, letters to editors of newspapers, Blog more, etc) 6) Find ways to connect educational efforts to local communities (p.219). Apple does not elaborate or give us any examples regarding this idea. 7) Give marginalized voices a real voice in deliberations about ed. policy(p. 219). This might be what he meansby "repositioning" but since he does not elaborate or give examples its hard to tell for sure. 8) Provide some space in schools for religion. I thought this one was interesting and showed some courage and willingness to compromise with the Christian Right. Of course, he stressed much caution in getting into bed with evangelicals (p. 221) 9) Exploit the inherent tensions and contradictions between the four groups that make up the Right Coalition. One way to do this, according to Apple, is for progressive groups to form their own tactical alliances with groups they might not otherwise share interests with (p. 223) 10)Don't allow the Right to dominate discourse or planning of charter schools. Apple recongnizes that charter schools aren't going anywhere so progressives must be active in building charter schools or they will be left out/behind. (p.226)

This is an excellent book to read if you just don't get it why Christians keep trying to ban all of the books. His analysis of how the Christian evangelical movement coalesces with education reform in the United States is outstanding. Oftentimes, I think that some people who are writing on educatonal theory would really rather be writing political theory if they could hack it in the big leagues. With Apple, it's the opposite. He smokes, he's on fire! I was disappointed, however, that no plan of attack was proposed. We, the readers, get the sense that the current wave of reform is eroding our schools, but no sense of how to block its path. On top of that, I am treated like a class traitor if, after all of that, I am not willing to sacrifice my own children on the altar for public schools. Then Apple undoes himself with an attack on homeschoolers. First of all, he makes an argument that homeschooling is bad because there is not enough governmental oversight to ensure that students are being taught "right" knowledge, i.e. not Christian knowledge, and then he complains that homeschoolers in California receive state subsidies because they are organized into umbrella schools, and THEN he generalizes the experience of Californians to all homeschoolers. In most states, homeschoolers receive few, if any, state subsidies. He does not mention that Californians have no choice BUT to register as part of umbrella schools if they want to comply with state law. His argument about racist anti-muslim textbooks, is like, well, if that is what parents and churches want to teach their children, that is what they are going to teach them whether they homeschool or not. I say Apple "undoes" himself because after much of the book is spent discussing the fallacy of "right knowledge," and advocating for multiculturalism, he ends the book by basically saying that fundamentalist Christians are wrong and have no place in shaping children's understandings of the world. Sorry, man. And I'm an atheist, so that's pretty bad coming from me.

In the last two decades we have been witnessing a wave of "reform" in education. The discourse behind these reforms is one that says that there is only one correct way of educating: the "Right" way. Michael Apple's book is extremely important because it maps out the efforts of the conservative modernization movement in converting their ideology in common sense and thus making their ideology the legitimate one, the one that makes sense. With a sophisticated theoretical framework and a plethora of concrete examples, Apple shows how the conservative reforms are in fact a struggle to constitute a particular view into official knowledge and to make other views of society not plausible. This is a book that will interest everyone who is involved in the field of education or social sciences.