Robert Reich, noted economist and former U.S. Secretary of Labor, appeared yesterday on Oprah tv discussing the changing social class structure in the United States. He authored the best selling book The Future of Success.
Robert says that a family’s ability to provide their children with a quality education, health care and access to other resources determines one’s class. “A lot of kids who are poor or working class are not getting the schools that they need and are not having the connections and the models of success that they need.”
Reich also said in other words that personal discipline, connections, and education are the three indices economists use to distinguish between classes in the U.S.
People interviewed on the street all considered themselves middle class. They used attire/fashion/appearance, speech patterns, eating habits, cars, bling, etc. as indicators of class.
It’s significant to educators that these people also said that they do not intentionally cross class lines for friendships, working relationships, etc.
No one said that educators can help anyone gain useful connections to increase social class standing.
That’s a fundamental change in discussions about academic and popular views of the rationale for public support of schools and uses of schooling in the US. As recently as three decades ago, school evangelists asserted boldly that better education would lead to better social class standing for alumni.
Interestingly, no one mentioned use of technologies, such as cell phones, Tablet PCs, and other ubiquitous devices in schools and business.