1. What is the author referring to by “free enterprise”? A free enterprise system is usually used in reference to an economy that has very little restrictions placed on it and is allowed to sort itself out via competition. In an educational sense I interpreted it more as driving competition between students, as well as letting the issues of focus be determined by society’s whims.
2. I enjoyed reading this over because I got the overwhelming sense of history repeating itself while reading it over, and I believe it is extremely important for us as educators to try and ensure that future generations do not repeat the mistakes of our generation and the ones before us. In order to grow as a society and develop a better knowledge of the world we need to change and always be striding to be better, to have a better view of the world and more thorough understanding of the problems we face in the field of our choice. This feeling was particularly felt while reading pages 4 and 5. Specifically the references to 1960’s culture and how the youth of that generation, upon developing a better understanding of the “American Dream” in its reality, rejected it and fought for change on a multitude of fronts. This upheaval was years long, and we still see today that a lot of the issues that were being fought over(Minorities not being treated fairly, equal rights for women, anger over wealth inequalities) were never properly dealt with and settled the right way, because we are still seeing marches, and protests, and unfair treatment continuing today. Occupy Wall Street protesting the wage gap and in their minds the exploitation of the lower and middle class, opposing what they view as social oppression the same way some of their mothers and fathers protested in the 1960’s. I think it is our job to provide an education not just in the subject matter we choose to specialize in, but on social issues as well. I think this falls under the idea of “enlightened persuasion” touched on in the paper, but I would prefer the term “enlightened apprising”. I don’t want to persuade my students that what I am telling them is true, I want to to tell them the truth as we know it, as well as the counter-points to that so they might draw their own conclusions.
3. Did Arthur Jensen really believe IQ was innately inherited? I do believe that genetics plays some part in intelligence, but to argue that poor people are poor because they are unintelligent seems like madness. Taking into consideration the innate disadvantages that having little money brings to “moving up” the social ladder makes it all to understandable why many poor families are poor for generations. How is someone supposed to take the time off to go to school full-time to get a degree if they have to work 2 jobs in order to make ends meet? Is it a poor persons fault that schools in poor areas are typically lacking and provide an education that is less robust than a wealthier districts school, thus leading to even more disadvantages when it comes time to take standardized tests such as the OGTs,SATs or ACTs? Standardized tests by themselves are a hot debate topic, but when you take into consideration that these tests are typically being updated fairly regularly, often at a pace that makes it difficult for a poor school to keep up, what with buying new training and learning materials or adopting new curriculum.