By the middle of the nineteenth century American society was becoming restructured according to the concept of career. A new middle class emerged, and within it professionalism became the highest goal. The creation of the university in America provided the necessary matrix for its development, making possible new attitudes about authority,…

The frequently referred-to "generation gap" is a myth as yet unsubstantiated by empirical evidence. Explicit definitions of the phenomenon are lacking; implicit definitions are ambiguous and hard to extract. To offer an empirically tested operational definition of "generation gap" and analyze its relationship to several independent social…

"Falling Apart," a report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, indicates that America practices internal colonialism and continues to subject Blacks to "semislavery." The North American slavery system is traced from 1650, and it is shown how characteristics of that system have continued to the present. (PS)

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities' findings are used to support the theory that the interplay between technology, economics, race relations, and power has always guided white treatment of blacks, and that blacks are being forced into ghetto reservations to suffer "conditional genocide" and be exterminated if they cause trouble. (PS)

The concept of community control of schools differs from "decentralization" because community control stresses the possibility of the schools becoming an integral part of the total community. When professional educators are coupled with a cluster of special interest groups (e.g., book publishers, realtors, landowners, politicians), they form…

AN ASSESSMENT IS MADE OF VARIABLES THAT ENCOURAGE OR DISCOURAGE PARTICIPATION IN AMERICAN SOCIETY. ONE VARIABLE IS THE NATURE AND EXTENT OF FELT NEEDS, WHICH ARE DETERMINED PARTLY BY PERSONALITY BUT FAR MORE--ESPECIALLY AMONG THE POOR--BY ENVIRONMENT. ANOTHER IS THE RANGE OF OPPORTUNITIES THAT ONE CAN IDENTIFY FOR PARTICIPATION IN THE LABOR MARKET…

Neoliberalism claims that privatization, marketization, uniform standards, and accountability--some important dynamics surrounding globalization in education--increase choices and quality in education. However, numerous studies show that the market has consistently devalued alternatives; increased the power of dominant models; and exacerbated…

Reviews an ethnographic analysis of Teach for America, a 1990 educational reform program that illustrates how underlying assumptions about "marginal" urban and rural students and their "deficient" environments solidify existing power structures, acculturate students to middle-class norms, generate resistance to teachers, and…

AN ANALYSIS OF THE LIVES OF THE POOR IN AMERICA WILL SHOW DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE IMMIGRANT (AND REFUGEE) POOR AND THE RESIDUAL POOR (NEGROES, PUERTO RICANS, LATIN AMERICANS, INDIANS, AND OTHERS). THE IMMIGRANT POOR WERE ACCULTURATED AND ABSORBED INTO THE MAINSTREAM OF AMERICAN LIFE WITHIN THREE GENERATIONS, WHEREAS THE RESIDUAL POOR HAVE BEEN…