Showing papers in "Harvard Educational Review in 1974"

A Philosophical Justification For Children's Rights

Abstract: The author discusses the status of children's rights according to various philosophical conceptions of social justice. He describes three traditional paternalist views of children and concludes that, on the whole, they are discouraging in their implications for children. After analyzing some of the difficulties of previous philosophical attempts to create systems of justice ensuring children's rights, Worsfold sets forth three criteria which any adequate justification for children's rights must fulfill. He argues that these criteria are best met within the theory of justice proposed by John Rawls which, while still paternalistic, presents a more adequate framework for securing children's rights to fair treatment.

Children's Television More than Mere Entertainment

Abstract: The authors propose that television, while entertaining children, also socializes them. To support this conclusion they review the literature regarding effects of television content on aggressive and prosocial behavior and social attitudes. The structure of the television industry is examined and economic factors are found to outweigh concern for the public in the choice of programming. To increase the beneficial role of television, the authors argue there must be greater diversity of broadcast content and more parental direction of children's exposure to it.

Why Special Education Isn 't Special

Abstract: Special education has developed in recent years to diagnose more effectively and teach children who, for a wide variety of reasons, cannot learn from a regular curriculum. In this article, the author notes that despite their increasing size and sophistication, special education programs have not been successful for the majority of their students. He suggests that one reason for their ineffectiveness may be the ways in which special educators-teachers, psychologists and administrators-relate to the regular personnel of schools. Because special education is marginal to public school operation, political and organizational obstacles may infringe on the autonomy, funds, and quality of programs special educators can provide.

Sex-Role Culture and Educational Practice

Abstract: How can schools as they currently exist serve the needs of the sexes during an era of changing sex-role sensibility? Addressing this question, the authors propose that the construct of sex role is better conceptualized in cultural than in psychosocial terms. This allows for a more coherent analysis of the interactions of three cultural phenomena: formal schooling, femininity, and masculinity. The concept of sex-role culture is rotated through three models of cultural interaction: Genetic Differences, Cultural Differences, and Biculturalism. Each model contributes to an understanding of the systemic relationship between sex-role culture and educational practice. The authors argue first, that from an educational perspective, sex-linked genetic differences are largely irrelevant, second, that sex-linked cultural differences are real, but unstable and situational, and finally, that bicultural blendings are beneficial and increasingly prevalent. The school's task is to provide children with equal access to tra...

A Policy Statement on Assessment Procedures and the Rights of Children.

Abstract: The author discusses the findings of an eight-year study in which she explored school and agency classification procedures for children based on standardized intelligence tests. Mercer discovered that in the American city she investigated, such procedures resulted in labeling as mentally retarded a disproportionately large number of Chicanos and Blacks. She argues that current classification procedures violate the rights of children to be evaluated within a culturally appropriate normative framework, their right to be assessed as multi-dimensional beings, their right to be fully educated, their right to be free of stigmatizing labels, and their right to cultural identity and respect. Mercer proposes supplementary evaluations which assess an individual's competencies outside of school and suggests that only children scoring in the lowest three percent on standardized IQ tests and adaptive behavior evaluations should be placed in classes for the mentally retarded.

America in Search of a New Ideal: An Essay on the Rise of Pluralism.

Abstract: Demands by ethnic and cultural groups for equal power in society have increased steadily over the past two decades. The Protestant Anglo-American ideal of assimilation has failed in important ways and cannot continue to guide the policies of our social institutions. The result in education has been movements for alternative schools, community control, vouchers, ethnic studies, and bilingual programs. In this essay, the author explores the reasons behind the rise of pluralism. First he describes the elites' style of leadership by distance and their attempts to exclude or denigrate people of other than Protestant, Northern and Western European origin. The author suggests that the resulting decline of Protestant domination has left America without an ideal to direct the socialization process. In its place, he recommends support of pluralistic institutions and communities, setting policies that honor diversity as a way of maintaining unity, and, at the same time, developing a new, universal ideal.

Concept Formation in a Second Language: A Study of Ghanaian School Children

Abstract: Many developing nations use a foreign language as the medium of instruction in elementary school. This study uses Lansdown's approach to Vygotsky's theory of language and concept development as the basis for comparing the conceptual level Ghanaian children express in their native languages (Ga or Twi) and in their school language (English). The children manipulated and then discussed specially chosen science materials. By scoring and counting the untutored statements of the children, the author was able to conclude that children function at a higher conceptual level in their vernacular than in English.

Student Classification, Public Policy, and the Courts

Abstract: During the past two decades, courts have sought to define with particularity the meaning or, better, meanings of equal educational opportunity. Only recently, however, have courts examined within-school practices—ability grouping, special education placement, exclusion of "ineducable" children—which classify students on the basis of academic performance or potential. In this article, the author examines classification practices in constitutional terms; he assesses both the plausibility of treating student classification issues in equal protection and due process terms, and the policy consequences of such treatment.

Radical Correctional Reform: A Case Study of the Massachusetts Youth Correctional System.

Abstract: The authors raise three principal questions. First, what part should traditional training schools play in providing treatment for youthful offenders? Second, what is the relative effectiveness of community based in comparison to institutional treatment services for juvenile delinquents? Third, what problems arise in undertaking a radical change in policy and program from institution to community based services? To answer these questions, the Center for Criminal Justice at the Harvard Law School is evaluating the reforms undertaken by the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services since 1969. This article offers a preliminary report and description of the problems and progress of these reforms through three phases: the emergence of a mandate for reform, the reform of institutional treatment, and the move from institutions to community corrections. Interviews with staff and youth so far indicate a positive response of youth to the new programs.

Credentialing by Tests or by Degrees: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Griggs v. Duke Power Company.

Abstract: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 made it unlawful for an employer to use the results of a test to discriminate because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. If a group could show an adverse effect based on such a test, the employer had to prove the test was job-related. Griggs v. Duke Power Company challenged this principle, and the Supreme Court struck down the use of general aptitude tests and a high school diploma requirement for certain jobs. In this article, the author traces the evolution of Title VII and the Griggs precedent, looking at their implications for education in two ways. First, as the educational system is an employer, it must interpret the law for its own hiring and promotion practices. Second, as educational requirements and credentials are struck down by the courts, there could be major changes in the enrollment patterns, content, and functions of public schools and institutions of higher education.

The Edge of Social Science

Abstract: The author, seeking to define what is special about social science,finds its dustinctiveness in its questions and aims rather than its methods. He argues that precisely because social science is different in its concerns from other modes of social thought, it does not constitute a complete or a sufficient education about society. The essay begins with a comparison of idealized conceptions of social science and social criticism. It then considers self-conscious attempts to combine science and criticism in Marxism and policy research and examines ways in which science becomes a form of criticism. It argues that while science must be critical, criticism itself can never be a science. Next it explores the dialectic between attacks on the legitimacy of social science and efforts within social science to defend it by mimicking the pure sciences. It concludes by rejecting the positivst movement to reduce the social studies to social science and expel moral concerns, arguing that in practice moral convictions and...

Can a Student Sue the Schools for Educational Malpractice

Abstract: Legal intervention into the educational process has been limited largely to questions of equality of opportunity and resource distribution. A unique case, Peter Doe v. San Francisco Unified School District, now asks the court to help citizens hold schools responsible for the professional provision of their services. Peter Doe, a youth who could read only at fifth-grade level when he graduated from high school, claims that his low reading ability is the direct result of the negligence of San Francisco school personnel, and he is asking for monetary compensation for the injuries they have caused him. In this article, the author first treats the legal hurdles the Doe case must overcome simply to win a hearing before a jury. He then describes the issues likely to arise in arguing the case, and examines the repercussions, legal and educational, which Doe's negligence theory may provoke.

Myths and Realities in the Search for Juvenile Justice: A Statement by The Honorable Justine Wise Polier

Abstract: The Honorable Justine Wise Polier retired from the bench of New York's Family Court in 1973 to head the Children's Defense Fund's program in juvenile justice, emphasizing the right to care and treatment. She has served as a judge since 1935. During those years, her work led her to become deeply involved in the lives of children in trouble. She has served as founder and president of the Wiltwyck School for Boys, member of the New York State Citizen's Committee for Children, the Mayor's Committee on Foster Care, the Advisory Board of the League School for Seriously Disturbed Children, the Board of the New York School for Nursery Years, the Policy Committee of the Office of Children's Services of the Judicial Conference, and the Judicial Advisory Committee on Crime and Delinquency, among others. Juvenile Justice Confounded was written under her chairwomanship of the Committee on Mental Health Services in the Family Court. Judge Polier is also the author of books and studies on the law and social welfare incl...

An Interview with Marian Wright Edelman

Abstract: Marian Wright Edelman, as Director of the Children's Defense Fund of the Washington Research Project, has added child advocacy to her agenda of action for social change. Beginning as an attorney in the civil rights movement, she directed Jackson, Mississippi's office of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. Headstart, children, and education were large issues for community development, and her involvement with the Child Development Group of Mississippi focused her concern on the welfare of poor and minority children. One of the principal architects of the Comprehensive Child Development Act of 1971, she has broadened her commitment to advocate the rights of all children. She has selected several specific areas on which to concentrate: the exclusion of children from school, labeling and treatment of children with special needs, the use of children in medical experimentation, their right to privacy with regard to school and juvenile court records, reform of the juvenile justice system, and childr...

In Memory of Marcus A. Foster 1923-1973

Abstract: On November 6, 1973, Oakland School Superintendent Dr. Marcus A. Foster was assassinated in an Oakland, California parking lot. Editorials condemned the slaying as a "senseless act" which deprived the nation of one of its leading educators. But educators and newsmen in their haste to eulogize Foster neglected to analyze the problems facing American educators which his assassination brings to light.

Hostos: Report from a Ghetto College

Abstract: The difficulties encountered by a community college in its first years of operation can be considerable. When that college is initiated in an ethnically diverse community marked historically by inadequate educational and social services, new educational offerings and organizational arrangements at first can prove ineffective. Such a scenario is presented from the author's experiences as a faculty member at Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College, in the South Bronx. The author analyzes social and educational problems which arose during the first two years at Hostos, concluding with a number of recommendations for similar community colleges. Although the article does not describe developments at Hostos beyond the first two years, it is worth noting that the college has survived its early instability and is currently serving the South Bronx community.