Chapter 8: America’s Race to the Top, Our Fall from Grace

What is the primary purpose of education? According to Jerome Bruner (1996), the answer is antinomic, “pairs of large truths, which though both may be true, nonetheless contradict each other” (p. 66). This contradictory nature of the purposes of education can be seen in America’s diverse populations that never seem to reconcile the reasons for educating its youth. Dewey (1929) understood this contradictory view of the purpose of education arguing that education is life itself, and not chiefly a training ground for one’s future life. Labaree (1997) points out that three competing purposes of education include democratic equality, social mobility and social efficiency. However, education now supports one particular purpose for educating youth: to prepare them to compete in a global economy (Gabbard, 2003; Sleeter & Stillman, 2005). Nevertheless, the United States is a nation composed of many different ethos, pathos, and logos. No single paradigm, should control the educational aims and goals. Today’s narrow approach is neither democratic nor inclusive of needs.