discussion questions.
1) How has education changed within the span of 100 years?
2) Has gender roles changed within this span?
3) If we were to put Sara Smolinsky into these pictures, in which ones would she appear the most?
4) Where are the people in these pictures going to be, in say, 20 years from when the picture is taken?
5) Is there a promotion of higher education? With whom and what pictures?
Uncle Sam - Strong Features
"Uncle Sam is a Man of Strong Features" (1898)
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ReplyDeleteThe american education system has seen drastic changes since the publication of these photos, most of them obvious, (changes in gender role, curriculum, racial integration). However I think it is the similarities between the current system of education and that of the Italian settlement house which are most telling.
ReplyDeleteIt is clear that the primary purpose of the Italian settlement house was to acclimate the immigrants to american culture and participation in it's work force. However, the photos also display an the schools effort to maintain the cultural ties, such as the photo of the students learning to read and write in their own language so that they can remain connected to their homeland through letters. Also the notions on some of the photographs display a sort of cultural pride or "habits of his race". This sort of cultural pride is one of the key features which defines the old methods of cultural assimilation from the new.
I believe that the existing public educational system, particularly the NYC public school system, is heavily invested in the cultural and intellectual homogenization of it's students. As an education student I am aware of the on-going educational discussion of cultural integration and acclimation. Similarly the discussion of the inevitable dissonances between immigrant cultures and the overtly westernized and anglo american educational system. The prevalence of this sort of discussion in educational circles is clearly correlated to the rise of immigration into the united states starting in the 1980 and inclining into the 90's and today. (as supported by this graph from the congressional budget office)http://www.cbo.gov/docimages/60xx/doc6019/601902.gif
One way in which our approach to assimilation differs from the Italian Settlement project is the complete ignorance of none western cultures and methods. It is clear from the overtly nativist behaviors of our cultural institutions that we have not come far since the early 1900's in regards to cultural equality and equanimity. In fact it seems retrograde from the Italian Settlement house project in that at least they were taught to their own cultural values in conjunction with american values.
I agree with Greg. I too am an education student and it has been burned into our brains that we need to see the communities of the neighborhoods we teach in. We are constantly discussing how to differentiate our classrooms not only for students with different learning abilities but also different cultural backgrounds. With the rise of immigrant children entering the NYC public school system it would be ridiculous not to think about trying to meet their needs as well as the needs of all the children in our classrooms. I think this is not something that was thought to be very important back in the day and it was very hard for immigrant children to get by in school. Hopefully as things have changed through out the years, it has gotten better and will continue on so that we can help everyone acclimate to their environment.
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