Comment on Richard Merelman's “Democratic Politics and the Culture of American Education”

Abstract

Richard Merelman is one of the talented essayists of our discipline. His previous reflections in the areas of power, political socialization, and the politics of education have been penetrating, insightful, and even provocative. present essay falls within this fine tradition. One can applaud with enthusiasm the application of a sensitive intellect to such a cosmic problem as the teaching of democratic values in the school system. As with all good essays, however, this one raises as many, perhaps more, questions than it answers. first and fundamental question concerns the necessary assumption that American education in fact makes little or contribution to the development of democratic values amongst its charges. Merelman supports this contention primarily by citing research that shows relatively little observable impact on students from teachers, the curriculum, or the school as a whole. Especially because had a hand in some of the research efforts to which he alludes, am not going to quarrel seriously with this argument-though here than is usually the case one wants to utter the obligatory, more research is needed, we need longitudinal designs, the cumulative impact may be immense, we're looking at the wrong things, and so forth. But even granting the validity of the research, does it really provide evidence for the accusation of failure on the part of the schools? answer must be no on several counts. Simply because it is difficult to show specific effects does not necessarily mean that democratic values are not being instilled. Comparison with the studies of occupational and income achievement are instructive. Investigators are hard-pressed (as Merelman notes) to come up with substantial net effects from particular schools, educational practices, curricula, and the like. But one seriously argues that most people would be literate or capable of accomplishing an extraordinary number of things if they had formal education. evidence is overwhelming that education is a very strong predictor of occupation and income. analytic and theoretical difficulty has been trying to determine how education performs this task, especially in the seeming absence of strong school (socialization) effects. One resolution has been to look upon schooling as a certification process, with varying amounts and types of schooling entitling one to certain subsequent opportunities over a lifetime and building up a set of widely recognized role expectations (Meyer, 1977). From a socialization perspective it has also been acknowledged that schools tend to have a common, minimal floor of educational content, thus ensuring some commonalities in outcomes. Another socialization argument has been that education produces propensities and dispositions that are evoked later on. In any event, the contention is not that education, per se, has impact. Now a straightforward application of this line of reasoning to the realm of schools and the teaching of democratic values would be amiss. Nevertheless, there are some striking parallels. There is a mountain of evidence showing that in adult populations education ordinarily bears a strong relation to what theorists typically describe as democratic val. ues. After conducting a massive secondary analysis of survey data drawn from the 1949-1975 period, Herbert Hyman and Charles Wright concluded, The large, lasting, and diverse good effects on values found in this study, coupled with the very large, pervasive, and enduring effects in heightening knowledge, receptivity to knowledge, and information-seeking documented in our earlier study 11975] establish that formal education has long been an important force throughout America in molding character as well as intellect. Our findings are bound to surprise the reader who has come to accept the continuing, widespread, and severe criticisms of educational institutions. . I (1979, p. 61, emphasis added). As with occupation and income, it is not clear to what degree this is a consequence of socialization, certification, or a combination of the two. Does schooling in this country lead to exposure to and internalization of democratic values or does it help slot people into subsequent social, economic, and political roles where these values have a better chance to flourish and be, reinforced? One is a direct effect, the other indirect. Both probably operate. As in the case of occupation and