Failed school reform stems from social structure, not human irrationality or malice
Evidence
Like the egalitarian reformers, the free-school movement seems to have run afoul of social logic rather than reaction, apathy, inertia, or the deficiencies of human nature. — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 217
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the reader’s standing interest in institutions and why well-intentioned reform fails; parallels social-capital work showing institutions arise from structural conditions, not just goodwill. — connects to: Education reform fails because schools express an entire social complex; Educational reform fails when it changes curricula rather than the social complex producing teachers — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 355; A school’s social character comes from perpetuating a group’s class function (+6 more)
Broader Connections
- Education reform fails because schools express an entire social complex
#corroborates(0.90) - Capitalist-class objectives, not reformer ideals, have actually shaped US schooling
#corroborates(0.90) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 569 - Progressive school reforms failed because their goals contradict under corporate capitalism
#corroborates(0.88) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 547 - Educational reform fails when it changes curricula rather than the social complex producing teachers
#corroborates(0.82) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 355 - Differentiated schooling reproduces rather than abolishes class divisions
#corroborates(0.80) - A school’s social character comes from which class it serves, not its teaching method
#expands(0.80) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 365 - A school’s social character comes from perpetuating a group’s class function
#expands(0.78) - Profit imperatives, not human capacities, shape American schooling
#exemplifies(0.75) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 1158 - Capitalism, not technology, limits what schools can reform.
#exemplifies(0.75) — Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis, Schooling in Capitalist America, 289