Grab Education And Equality Fabricated By Danielle S. Allen Viewable As Edition

book features Danielle AllensTanner Lectures, delivered at Stanford University, along with comments from four distinguished contributorsHarvard philosopher Tommie Shelby education and globalization scholar Marcelo SuárezOrozco UCLA Michael Rebell, executive director of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College, Columbia and Pulitzerwinning playwright Quiara Alegría Hudesalong with Allens response to the commentaries.

Why it is so hard to think about education and equality in relation to each other Allen asks, For all of our talk about the two, we dont actually talk much about how education itself relates to equality, regardless of whether the equality we have in mind is human, political, or social, or connected to economic fairness.
The basic problem that motivates these lectures, then, is the following: Allen thinks that education itselfa practice of human developmenthas important contributions to make to the defense of human equality, the cultivation of political and social equality, and the emergence of fair economic orders.
But she thinks we have lost sight of just how education relates to those egalitarian concerns, If we are to do right by the students we purport to educate, in whatever context and at whatever level, we need to recover that vision, Allens goal, therefore, is to recover our understanding of just how education and equality are intrinsically connected to each other, There is a great idea here, wrapped in an unhelpful frame,

The idea, elaborated in Chapter: Our conception of civics education in Keducation is too tactical and too marginal to empower students of all backgrounds and meaningfully support human flourishing.
Prof. Allen points to colleges as a model for Kthose who complete college vote and participate in civic institutions at much higher rates than those who do not, even controlling for socioeconomic status.
Something happens in college that empowers graduates to be more eager and powerful agents in their societies,

Allen points to verbal acuity and the ability to understand how to collaborate and interact with others as being key to this, admitting that the only data that exists linking these skills to civic participation are correlational.
However, she makes a powerful and convincing case that our Keducation system ought to prioritize verbal empowerment and a positive understanding of politics that goes much deeper than "how a bill becomes a law" in order to balance the scales in favor of students who currently do not or may not in future be as economically empowered via technical education and technological progress as those who are more privileged, over time making our society more equitable.


The problematic frame for this argument, elaborated in Chapter: Education reform has everything backwards by focusing on accountability for skills that are measurable under assessments focused on state standards/Common Core.
The Ksystem overall ignores the true justification for education in the case of individual students, which is to promote their overall flourishing over against society's justification for it, which is crudely pragmatic and economic in nature.


This is a false dichotomy for many reasons, One of the strongest is that the same technical and utilitarian skills that Prof, Allen derides in the first chapter are necessary if not sufficient for readiness for civic and political participation, and are becoming increasingly so, Numeracy, particularly fluency with summaries of statistical data, is now indispensable if one hopes to understand political discourse, make reasoned judgments as a juror, or weigh policy alternatives on issues ranging

from fiscal policy to retirement security to the environment.
Even if somehow a student could hold her or his own in the civic context without the same levels of technical skill that are tested by current summative assessments in Kwhich is questionable, it is not at all clear to me that we are doing all we can to ensure that student's flourishing if she or he cannot compete economically.


Prof. Allen says toward the end of Chapterthat she has "wandered into a defense of the humanities" in making her case for participatory readiness, I wish instead she had intentionally embarked on such a defense, in collaboration with a focus on utilitarian and economically focused skills instead of in opposition to them.
Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvards Edmond J, Safra Center for Ethics, is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought, Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs.
the Board of Education, Why Plato Wrote, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Education and Equality, and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michae Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvards Edmond J.
Safra Center for Ethics, is a political theorist who has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought, Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in both ancient Athens and modern America, Allen is the author of The World of Prometheus: The Politics of Punishing in Democratic Athens, Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs.
the Board of Education, Why Plato Wrote, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Education and Equality, and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A.
. She is the co editor of the award winning Education, Justice, and Democracy, with Rob Reich and From Voice to Influence: Understanding Citizenship in the Digital Age, with Jennifer Light.
She is a former Chair of the Mellon Foundation Board, past Chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society.
Dr. Allen received her undergraduate education in Classics at Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude, She was awarded an M, Phil. and Ph. D. in Classics from Cambridge University and went on to Harvard University, where she received her M, A. and Ph. D. in political science. She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago inas Assistant Professor of Classics, In, Dr. Allen became Associate Professor of Classical Languages and Literatures, Political Science and the Committee on Social Thought, In, she was promoted to Professor, The following year she was named Dean of the Division of Humanities, a role she was in until, Widely known for her work on justice and citizenship in ancient Athens and its application to modern America, Dr, Allen was awarded ina MacArthur Fellowship for her ability to combine "the classicist's careful attention to texts and language with the political theorist's sophisticated and informed engagement.
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