Full download test bank at ebook textbookfull.

com

Economization of Education Human

Capital Global Corporations Skills
Based Schooling 1st Edition Joel

CLICK LINK TO DOWLOAD

https://textbookfull.com/product/economizatio
n-of-education-human-capital-global-
corporations-skills-based-schooling-1st-
edition-joel-spring/

textbookfull
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

How Global Capital is Remaking International Education

The Emergence of Transnational Education Corporations
Hyejin Kim

https://textbookfull.com/product/how-global-capital-is-remaking-
international-education-the-emergence-of-transnational-education-
corporations-hyejin-kim/

Culture Transnational Education and Thinking Case

studies in global schooling 1st Edition Niranjan
Casinader

https://textbookfull.com/product/culture-transnational-education-
and-thinking-case-studies-in-global-schooling-1st-edition-
niranjan-casinader/

Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality A Brief

History of the Education of Dominated Cultures in the
United States Joel Spring

https://textbookfull.com/product/deculturalization-and-the-
struggle-for-equality-a-brief-history-of-the-education-of-
dominated-cultures-in-the-united-states-joel-spring/

Anthropologies of Education A Global Guide to

Ethnographic Studies of Learning and Schooling 1st
Edition Kathyrn M. Anderson-Levitt (Editor)

https://textbookfull.com/product/anthropologies-of-education-a-
global-guide-to-ethnographic-studies-of-learning-and-
schooling-1st-edition-kathyrn-m-anderson-levitt-editor/
Education Matters Global Schooling Gains from the 19th
to the 21st Century 1st Edition Robert J. Barro

https://textbookfull.com/product/education-matters-global-
schooling-gains-from-the-19th-to-the-21st-century-1st-edition-
robert-j-barro/

Business communication essentials a skills based

approach 7 Global Edition Courtland L. Bovée

https://textbookfull.com/product/business-communication-
essentials-a-skills-based-approach-7-global-edition-courtland-l-
bovee/

Leadership Skills for Maintenance Supervisors and

Managers 1st Edition Joel D. Levitt

https://textbookfull.com/product/leadership-skills-for-
maintenance-supervisors-and-managers-1st-edition-joel-d-levitt/

University Calculus Early Transcendentals Global

Edition Joel Hass

https://textbookfull.com/product/university-calculus-early-
transcendentals-global-edition-joel-hass/

Back to the Future of Education Four OECD Scenarios for

Schooling 1st Edition Oecd

https://textbookfull.com/product/back-to-the-future-of-education-
four-oecd-scenarios-for-schooling-1st-edition-oecd/
ECONOMIZATION OF EDUCATION

“Excellent. Needed. The arguments made for education in our times require a book like this
to understand what has been happening. People have uncritically accepted the new educational
goals. Joel Spring lifts the veil hiding dangerous educational trends. His cogent analysis points
out the powerful forces shaping educational policy today and which endanger both our system
of education and our democratic government. The book is timely.”
—David C. Berliner, Regents’ Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, USA
“Spring’s work has been very valuable on globalization and education and this volume offers a
unique perspective relative to his prior work on the subject. I don’t know of another text that
focuses on the supranational organizations like this one does. A great introduction and overview,
and counterpoint to dominant economics of education texts.”
—Kenneth Saltman, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA

In this timely, cogent analysis of trends and powerful forces shaping global educational policy
today, Joel Spring focuses on how economization is making economic growth and increased
productivity the main goals of schools, and the ways these goals are achieved—including
measuring educational policies by their costs and economic benefits, shaping family life to ensure
productive workers and high-achieving students, introducing entrepreneurship education
into curricula from preschool through higher education, and increasing the involvement of
economists in educational policy analysis. Close attention is given to the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, the World Economic
Forum, and multinational corporations, which, as advocates of economization, want schools to
focus on teaching hard and soft skills needed by the global labor market.
Economization raises questions about the effects of economically driven agendas for schools:
Will education policies advocated by global organizations and multinational businesses
corporatize and standardize human personalities and families? What type of global worker
is being sought by global organizations and multinational corporations? What education
programs are supported to educate the ideal global worker? What is the ideal family life for
economic growth and development? Detailing and analyzing the politics and motivations
driving economization, the book concludes with an assessment of the impacts of the
confluence of business interests, economic theories, governments, and educators.
Joel Spring is Professor at Queens College/City University of New York and the Gradu-
ate Center of the City University of New York, USA.
Sociocultural, Political, and Historical Studies in Education
Joel Spring, Editor

Spring r
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
&EVDBUJPO
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
(MPCBM
$PSQPSBUJPOT
4LJMMT

#BTFE
4DIPPMJOH
.BSUVTFXJD[&ENVOETPO-VQJOBDDJ
r
&DP+VTUJDF
&EVDBUJPO
5PXBSE
%JWFSTF
%FN
PDSBUJD
BOE
4VTUBJOBCMF
$PNNVOJUJFT
4FDPOE
&EJUJPO
Spring r
(MPCBMJ[BUJPO
BOE
&EVDBUJPO
"O
*OUSPEVDUJPO
4FDPOE
&EJUJPO
Portes/Salas/Baquedano-López/Mellom, Eds.
r
64
-BUJOPT
BOE
&EVDBUJPO
1PMJDZ

3FTFBSDICBTFE
%JSFDUJPOT
GPS
$IBOHF
8PMGNFZFS
r
.BUI
&EVDBUJPO
GPS
"NFSJDB
1PMJDZ
/FUXPSLT
&EVDBUJPOBM
#VTJOFTT
BOE

1FEBHPHZ
8BST
4QSJOH
r
1PMJUJDBM
"HFOEBT
GPS
&EVDBUJPO
'SPN
3BDF
UP
UIF
5PQ
UP
4BWJOH
UIF
1MBOFU

'JGUI
&EJUJPO
1JDDJBOP

4QSJOH
r
5IF
(SFBU
"NFSJDBO
&EVDBUJPO*OEVTUSJBM
$PNQMFY
*EFPMPHZ

5FDIOPMPHZ
BOE
1SPêU
4QSJOH
r
&EVDBUJPO
/FUXPSLT
1PXFS
8FBMUI
$ZCFSTQBDF
BOE
UIF
%JHJUBM
.JOE
)FNNJOHT
r
6SCBO
)JHI
4DIPPMT
'PVOEBUJPOT
BOE
1PTTJCJMJUJFT
4QSJOH
r
5IF
1PMJUJDT
PG
"NFSJDBO
&EVDBUJPO
4NJUI4PCFM
r
1MBDF
BOE
$PNNVOJUZCBTFE
&EVDBUJPO
JO
4DIPPMT
4BOEMJO.D-BSFO
&ET
r
$SJUJDBM
1FEBHPHJFT
PG
$POTVNQUJPO
-JWJOH
BOE
-FBSOJOH
JO

UIF
4IBEPX
PG
UIF
i4IPQPDBMZQTFu
4IBQJSP
&E
r
&EVDBUJPO
BOE
)PQF
JO
5SPVCMFE
5JNFT
7JTJPOT
PG
$IBOHF
GPS
0VS

$IJMESFOT
8PSME
#FOIBN
&E
r
*OEJHFOPVT
&EVDBUJPOBM
.PEFMT
GPS
$POUFNQPSBSZ
1SBDUJDF
*O
0VS

.PUIFST
7PJDF
4FDPOE
&EJUJPO
4IBLFS)FJMCSVO
r
3FDMBJNJOH
&EVDBUJPO
GPS
%FNPDSBDZ
5IJOLJOH
#FZPOE
/P
$IJME

-FGU
#FIJOE
0HCV
&E
r
.JOPSJUZ
4UBUVT
0QQPTJUJPOBM
$VMUVSF
BOE
4DIPPMJOH
4QSJOH
r
8IFFMT
JO
UIF
)FBE
&EVDBUJPOBM
1IJMPTPQIJFT
PG
"VUIPSJUZ
'SFFEPN
BOE

$VMUVSF
GSPN
$POGVDJBOJTN
UP
)VNBO
3JHIUT
5IJSE
&EJUJPO
4QSJOH
r
5IF
*OUFSTFDUJPO
PG
$VMUVSFT
(MPCBM
.VMUJDVMUVSBM
&EVDBUJPO
'PVSUI
&EJUJPO
(BCCBSE
&E
r
,OPXMFEHF
BOE
1PXFS
JO
UIF
(MPCBM
&DPOPNZ
5IF
&ÿFDUT
PG
4DIPPM

3FGPSN
JO
B
/FPMJCFSBM/FPDPOTFSWBUJWF
"HF
4FDPOE
&EJUJPO
4QSJOH
r
"
/FX
1BSBEJHN
GPS
(MPCBM
4DIPPM
4ZTUFNT
&EVDBUJPO
GPS
B
-POH
BOE
)BQQZ

-JGF
#PPLT
&E
r
*OWJTJCMF
$IJMESFO
JO
UIF
4PDJFUZ
BOE
*UT
4DIPPMT
5IJSE
&EJUJPO
4QSJOH
r
1FEBHPHJFT
PG
(MPCBMJ[BUJPO
5IF
3JTF
PG
UIF
&EVDBUJPOBM
4FDVSJUZ
4UBUF
4JEIV
r
6OJWFSTJUJFT
BOE
(MPCBMJ[BUJPO
5P
.BSLFU
5P
.BSLFU
Bowers/Apffel-Marglin, Eds. r
3FUIJOLJOH
'SFJSF
(MPCBMJ[BUJPO
BOE
UIF
&OWJSPO
NFOUBM
$SJTJT
3FBHBO
r
/PO8FTUFSO
&EVDBUJPOBM
5SBEJUJPOT
*OEJHFOPVT
"QQSPBDIFT
UP
&EVDBUJPOBM

5IPVHIU
BOE
1SBDUJDF
5IJSE
&EJUJPO
#PPLT
r
1PWFSUZ
BOE
4DIPPMJOH
JO
UIF
64
$POUFYUT
BOE
$POTFRVFODFT
4IBQJSP1VSQFM
&ET
r
$SJUJDBM
4PDJBM
*TTVFT
JO
"NFSJDBO
&EVDBUJPO
%FNPDSBDZ
BOE

.FBOJOH
JO
B
(MPCBMJ[JOH
8PSME
5IJSE
&EJUJPO
4QSJOH
r
)PX
&EVDBUJPOBM
*EFPMPHJFT
BSF
4IBQJOH
(MPCBM
4PDJFUZ
*OUFSHPWFSONFOUBM

0SHBOJ[BUJPOT
/(0T
BOE
UIF
%FDMJOF
PG
UIF
/BUJPO4UBUF
-BLFT$BSUFS
&ET
r
(MPCBM
&EVDBUJPO
GPS
8PSL
$PNQBSBUJWF
1FSTQFDUJWFT
PO
(FOEFS

BOE
UIF
/FX
&DPOPNZ
)FDL
r
4UVEZJOH
&EVDBUJPOBM
BOE
4PDJBM
1PMJDZ
5IFPSFUJDBM
$PODFQUT
BOE
3FTFBSDI

.FUIPET
1FTILJO
r
1MBDFT
PG
.FNPSZ
8IJUFNBOT
4DIPPMT
BOE
/BUJWF
"NFSJDBO
$PNNVOJUJFT
)FNNJOHT
r
$PNJOH
PG
"HF
JO
64
)JHI
4DIPPMT
&DPOPNJD
,JOTIJQ
3FMJHJPVT
BOE

1PMJUJDBM
$SPTTDVSSFOUT
4QSJOH
r
&EVDBUJOH
UIF
$POTVNFS$JUJ[FO
"
)JTUPSZ
PG
UIF
.BSSJBHF
PG
4DIPPMT
"EWFS
UJTJOH
BOE
.FEJB
Ogbu
r
#MBDL
"NFSJDBO
4UVEFOUT
JO
BO
"āVFOU
4VCVSC
"
4UVEZ
PG
"DBEFNJD

%JTFOHBHFNFOU
#FOIBN4UFJO
&ET
r
5IF
3FOBJTTBODF
PG
"NFSJDBO
*OEJBO
)JHIFS
&EVDBUJPO
$BQUVS
JOH
UIF
%SFBN
)POFT
&E
r
"NFSJDBO
%SFBNT
(MPCBM
7JTJPOT
%JBMPHJD
5FBDIFS
3FTFBSDI
XJUI
3FGV
HFF
BOE
*NNJHSBOU
'BNJMJFT
.D$BSUZ
r
"
1MBDF
UP
#F
/BWBKP
3PVHI
3PDL
BOE
5IF
4USVHHMF
GPS
4FMG%FUFSNJOBUJPO

JO
*OEJHFOPVT
4DIPPMJOH
4QSJOH
r
(MPCBMJ[BUJPO
BOE
&EVDBUJPOBM
3JHIUT
"O
*OUFSDJWJMJ[BUJPOBM
"OBMZTJT
Grant/Lei, Eds.
r
(MPCBM
$POTUSVDUJPOT
PG
.VMUJDVMUVSBM
&EVDBUJPO
5IFPSJFT
BOE
Realities
-VLF
r
(MPCBMJ[BUJPO
BOE
8PNFO
JO
"DBEFNJDT
/PSUI8FTUm4PVUI&BTU
.FZFS#PZE
&ET
r
&EVDBUJPO
#FUXFFO
4UBUF
.BSLFUT
BOE
$JWJM
4PDJFUZ
$PNQBSB
UJWF
1FSTQFDUJWFT
3PCFSUT
r
3FNBJOJOH
BOE
#FDPNJOH
$VMUVSBM
$SPTTDVSSFOUT
JO
BO
)JTQBOP
4DIPPM
#PSNBO4USJOHêFME4MBWJO
&ET
r
5JUMF
*
$PNQFOTBUPSZ
&EVDBUJPO
BU
UIF
$SPTTSPBET
%F$BSWBMIP
r
3FUIJOLJOH
'BNJMZ4DIPPM
3FMBUJPOT
"
$SJUJRVF
PG
1BSFOUBM
*OWPMWFNFOU

JO
4DIPPMJOH
1FTILJO
r
1FSNJTTJCMF
"EWBOUBHF
5IF
.PSBM
$POTFRVFODFT
PG
&MJUF
4DIPPMJOH
4QSJOH
r
5IF
6OJWFSTBM
3JHIU
UP
&EVDBUJPO
+VTUJêDBUJPO
%FêOJUJPO
BOE
(VJEFMJOFT
/JFUP
&E
r
1VFSUP
3JDBO
4UVEFOUT
JO
64
4DIPPMT
(MBOEFS
r
0SJHJOT
PG
.BTT
$PNNVOJDBUJPOT
3FTFBSDI
%VSJOH
UIF
"NFSJDBO
$PME
8BS

&EVDBUJPOBM
&ÿFDUT
BOE
$POUFNQPSBSZ
*NQMJDBUJPOT
1VHBDI
r
0O
UIF
#PSEFS
PG
0QQPSUVOJUZ
&EVDBUJPO
$PNNVOJUZ
BOE
-BOHVBHF
BU
UIF

64.FYJDP
-JOF
Spring r
&EVDBUJPO
BOE
UIF
3JTF
PG
UIF
(MPCBM
&DPOPNZ
Benham/Heck
r
$VMUVSF
BOE
&EVDBUJPOBM
1PMJDZ
JO
)BXBJJ
5IF
4JMFODJOH
PG
/BUJWF

7PJDFT
Lipka/Mohatt/The Ciulistet Group
r
5SBOTGPSNJOH
UIF
$VMUVSF
PG
4DIPPMT
:VQJL

&TLJNP
&YBNQMFT
Weinberg
r
"TJBO"NFSJDBO
&EVDBUJPO
)JTUPSJDBM
#BDLHSPVOE
BOE
$VSSFOU
3FBMJUJFT
Nespor r
5BOHMFE
6Q
JO
4DIPPM
1PMJUJDT
4QBDF
#PEJFT
BOE
4JHOT
JO
UIF
&EVDBUJPOBM

1SPDFTT
Peshkin r
1MBDFT
PG
.FNPSZ
8IJUFNBOT
4DIPPMT
BOE
/BUJWF
"NFSJDBO
$PNNVOJUJFT
Spring r
5IF
$VMUVSBM
5SBOTGPSNBUJPO
PG
B
/BUJWF
"NFSJDBO
'BNJMZ
BOE
*UT
5SJCF

m

For additional information on titles in the Sociocultural, Political, and Historical

Studies in Education series visit www.routledge.com/education.
ECONOMIZATION OF
EDUCATION
Human Capital, Global
Corporations, Skills-Based
Schooling

Joel Spring
First published 2015
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
The right of Joel Spring to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other
means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Spring, Joel H.
Economization of education : human capital, global corporations,
skills-based schooling/by Joel Spring.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Education—Economic aspects. 2. Corporatization—United States.
3. Human capital. 4. Educational sociology. 5. Education and globalization.
I. Title.
LC65.S66 2015
338.4c7374013—dc23
2014041455

ISBN: 978-1-138-84460-5 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-84461-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73023-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
CONTENTS

1SFGBDF
xi
1 Economization and Corporatization of Education 1
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
'SFF
.BSLFUT
BOE
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO

$PSQPSBUJ[BUJPO
PG
&EVDBUJPO
BOE
'BNJMJFT

"
%ZTUPQJBO
7JTJPO
PG
$PSQPSBUF
$POUSPM
PG
4DIPPMT
BOE


'BNJMZ
-JGF

5IF
3BUJPOBM
$IPJDF
1BSBEJHN
BOE
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO

3BUJPOBM
$IPJDF
.JMUPO
'SJFENBO
BOE
&EVDBUJPO


7PVDIFST

5IFPEPSF
4DIVMU[
5IF
&DPOPNJD
7BMVF
PG
&EVDBUJPO

(BSZ
#FDLFS
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
BOE
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
UIF


'BNJMZ

%P
&EVDBUJPOBM
*OWFTUNFOUT
3FEVDF
*ODPNF
*OFRVBMJUJFT

5IF
3IFUPSJD
PG
&EVDBUJPO
*OWFTUNFOUT
BOE
(MPCBM


&DPOPNJD
(SPXUI

5IF
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
-JGF

$PODMVTJPO
5IF
&DPOPNJD
7BMVF
PG
&EVDBUJPO

2 OECD: The Economization of Test Scores 30
5IF
$PME
8BS
BOE
UIF
0&$%T
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
&EVDBUJPO

0&$%
5IF
5SJVNQI
PG
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
&EVDBUJPO

&VSPQFBO
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
1VCMJD
1PMJDZ
&RVBM
&EVDBUJPO


BOE
1SPUFDUJOH
$VMUVSBM
5SBEJUJPOT

0&$%
4UBUJTUJDT
(MPCBM
4UBOEBSEJ[BUJPO
BOE
.FBTVSFNFOU

&EVDBUJPO
*OëBUJPO
BOE
UIF
0WFSTVQQMZ
PG
$PMMFHF
(SBEVBUFT

viii Contents

0&$%
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
BOE
UIF
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG


&WFSZEBZ
-JGF

)VNBO
$BQJUBM
4PDJBM
4FSWJDF
BOE
$PIFTJPO

&YQBOEJOH
)VNBO
$BQJUBM

'SPN
.BOQPXFS
1MBOOJOH
UP
5FTU
4DPSFT

&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
5FTU
4DPSFT

1*4"
BOE
JUT
$POUSJCVUJPO
UP
B
8PSME
$VMUVSF
PG
4DIPPMJOH

0&$%
1*4"
BOE
UIF
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
4DIPPMT

$PODMVTJPO

3 Skills: The New Global Currency 55
5IF
4LJMMT
8BOUFE
CZ
(MPCBM
#VTJOFTTFT

*T
B
4LJMMT
(BQ
$BVTJOH
6OFNQMPZNFOU
BOE
-BCPS
4IPSUBHFT

.BLJOH
4LJMMT#BTFE
*OTUSVDUJPO
$FOUSBM
UP
UIF
$VSSJDVMVN


5IF
$BTF
PG
1PMBOE

5IF
8PSME
&DPOPNJD
'PSVN
5FBDIJOH
4LJMMT
BOE
-JOLJOH


4DIPPMT
BOE
#VTJOFTTFT

8PSME
&DPOPNJD
'PSVN
&OUSFQSFOFVSTIJQ
&EVDBUJPO

0&$%
BOE
4LJMMT
*OTUSVDUJPO

0&$%
4VSWFZ
PG
"EVMU
4LJMMT
1*""$

5IF
8PSME
#BOLT
4UFQ
4LJMMT
.FBTVSFNFOU
1SPHSBN


4IBQJOH
UIF
$PSQPSBUF
1FSTPOBMJUZ

"O
&YBNQMF
PG
&EVDBUJOH
GPS
$PSQPSBUF
4LJMMT
$PNNPO


$PSF
4UBUF
4UBOEBSET

5IF
4LJMMT
(BQ

$PODMVTJPO

4 World Bank: “Our Dream Is a World Free of Poverty” 82
'SPN
3FDPOTUSVDUJPO
UP
&EVDBUJPO
GPS
%FWFMPQNFOU

&EVDBUJPO
-PBOT
BOE
.FBTVSJOH
&DPOPNJD
(SPXUI

1VUUJOH
&EVDBUJPO
UP
8PSL
GPS
)VNBO
8FMGBSF


5IF
.D/BNBSB
:FBST
m

5IF
8PSME
%FWFMPQNFOU
3FQPSUT
&EVDBUJPO
BT
BO
&DPOPNJD


i"TTFUu
JO
UIF
8BS
PO
1PWFSUZ

5IF
,OPXMFEHF
#BOL
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
,OPXMFEHF

5IF
8PSME
#BOLT
&EVDBUJPO
4USBUFHZ

$PODMVTJPO
-PBOJOH
.POFZ
GPS
&EVDBUJPO
UP
(SPX
UIF


&DPOPNZ
&OE
1PWFSUZ
BOE
#SJOH
%FWFMPQJOH
/BUJPOT
JOUP


UIF
(MPCBM
&DPOPNJD
4ZTUFN

 Contents ix

5 The World Economic Forum: Partnerships and

Entrepreneurship Education for Global Businesses 105
5IF
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
3FQPSU
"OPUIFS
(MPCBM
0MZNQJBE

.VMUJTUBLFIPMEFS
1BSUOFSTIJQT
#VTJOFTT
BOE
4DIPPMT

(MPCBM
&EVDBUJPO
*OJUJBUJWFT

8PSME
&DPOPNJD
'PSVN
1BSUOFSTIJQ
XJUI
6/&4$0

8PSME
&DPOPNJD
'PSVN
#VTJOFTT
1BSUOFSTIJQT
BOE


&OUSFQSFOFVSJBM
4LJMMT

$PODMVTJPO
)VNBO
$BQJUBM
*OEFY
(MPCBM
&EVDBUJPO
*OJUJBUJWFT


&OUSFQSFOFVSTIJQ
BOE
5SVUIJOFTT

6 Economization of the Family and Childhood: Educating the
Corporate Personality 126
&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
UIF
'BNJMZ
+BNFT
$PMFNBO
BOE
4PDJBM
$BQJUBM

&DPOPNJ[BUJPO
PG
UIF
'BNJMZ
(BSZ
#FDLFS

)FDLNBO
BOE
UIF
&DPOPNJD
#FOFêUT
PG
UIF
1FSSZ
1SFTDIPPM

1SFTDIPPM
4PGU
4LJMMT
BOE
UIF
$PSQPSBUJ[BUJPO
PG
1FSTPOBMJUZ

1SFTDIPPM
GPS
UIF
8PSME
5IF
$VMUVSBM
*NQFSJBMJTN
PG


4VDDFTT
JO
UIF
$PSQPSBUJPO

$PODMVTJPO
4IBQJOH
UIF
(MPCBM
$PSQPSBUF
'BNJMZ
BOE
1FSTPOBMJUZ

7 The Confluence of Business Interests, Economic Theories,
Governments, and Educators: Go to School to Learn Job Skills 146

*OEFY
150
This page intentionally left blank
PREFACE

I began this book wondering why there are so many economists involved in
educational research and policy. I was startled by claims that test scores could
predict a country’s future economic growth and that skills were the new currency
of the global economy. In the US many schools had already adopted a skills-
based curriculum called the Common Core State Standards and globally schools
were being ranked by student performance on the Organization for Economic
Cooperation’s international test PISA. It didn’t make sense to me that policy-
makers would declare that investment in education would grow and improve an
economy when the up-and-down swings in the global economy are caused by
events other than the quality of schools.
I trace the influence of economic theories on education back to the 1940s and
1950s and the Chicago School of Economics. As I explain in Chapter 1, it was
this school of economic thought that promulgated theories about the economic
importance of human capital and the idea that education could grow the economy.
Using rational choice theory, some of these Chicago economists applied economic
theories to every aspect of human life. The ideas of the Chicago School of Eco-
nomics appeared in the early work of the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD), the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.
As explained in Chapter 2, the OECD was the first global organization to use
human capital economics to develop education policies and to call on nations
to invest in skills-based curricula. Their policy statements claim that investing in
education causes economic growth and reduces inequalities in income. However,
human capital economists don’t think school credentials and years-of-schooling
are accurate measurements of education’s economic impact. Consequently,
economists wanted to identify the skills learned in schools that contribute to
worker performance and economic growth. By the 1990s, OECD developed
xii Preface

PISA to measure skills related to employment and the world began to jump on
the skills-based education bandwagon.
As detailed in Chapter 3, surveys of global businesses indicated the hard and
soft skills wanted by employers. Hard skills refer primarily to literacy and math-
ematics along with specific skills for a particular occupation. Soft skills refer to
workers’ behaviors, such as conscientiousness, team work, and a work ethic.
Consequently, OECD initiated a survey of adult skills (PIAAC) and the World
Bank developed the Step Skills Measurement Program. These tests, combined
with PISA and the math and science test TIMSS, were to measure the quality of
a country’s human capital. This initiated a world Olympiad of test scores with
national schools ranked on a comparative scale.
As explained in Chapter 4, the World Bank adopted the human capital ideas
of the Chicago School of Economics and lent money to developing nations to
improve their schools as a means of stimulating the economy. The World Bank’s
policies also pressed for improved education to eliminate world poverty.
The World Economic Forum, discussed in Chapter 5, representing the world’s
richest corporations, readily pushed for a skills-based education. The previously
discussed tests were used in determining its Human Capital Report and Human
Capital Index as measures of the quality of a nation’s workforce. The World Eco-
nomic Forum advocated closer ties between businesses in formulating education
policies and introduced entrepreneurship education as another economic solu-
tion for poverty and income inequality while repeating the mantra that education
could grow the economy, end poverty, and reduce income inequalities.
Worried about families teaching the “right” soft skills for school success and
employment, some economists and sociologists turned their attention to fam-
ily interactions. Consequently, as described in Chapter 6, these economists and
sociologists advocated particular family structures to ensure the passing on of the
“right” soft skills. Their position is that if the family fails in this endeavor, then
preschool is to compensate. James Heckman, a Chicago School of Econom-
ics member, argued that preschools should be organized to teach the soft skills
needed for success in further schooling and employment.
Missing from work-oriented soft skills are those that might lead to struggles for
social justice and a pushing back against corporate control; soft skills such as com-
passion, altruism, and empathy. Reflecting the corporate-serving nature of their
arguments, Chicago economist Gary Becker argued that altruism makes fami-
lies efficient while selfishness makes markets efficient. The result is corporatized
schools and the economization of the behavior and attitudes of corporate workers.
Finally, in Chapter 7 I argue that these trends have resulted in an economization
of schools, families, and character development in which the ideal social interac-
tions within the family are to support the work of the breadwinners and prepare
children for success in school and later employment. This economization and cor-
poratization of families and schools is not a conspiracy but a confluence of interests
between global businesses, politicians, governments, and education policymakers.
1
ECONOMIZATION AND
CORPORATIZATION OF
EDUCATION

In his 1992 Nobel Prize acceptance lecture, economist Gary Becker said, “My
research uses the economic approach to analyze social issues that range beyond
those usually considered by economists.”1 The title of the lecture, “The Eco-
nomic Way of Looking at Life,” captured Becker’s pioneering work in applying
economic models to a host of social issues, including the family, crime, dis-
crimination, and, most importantly for this book, education. Becker’s 1964 book
Human Capital continues to influence governments and global policymaking
organizations with its message to invest in education to grow the economy.2
Becker was a member of what became known as the Chicago School of
Economics,i which included other Nobel Prize winners who applied economics
to education, such as Milton Friedman, Theodore Schultz, and James Heckman.
Associated with this group at the University of Chicago was sociologist James
Coleman who contributed theoretical frameworks on social capital and rational
choice to the economization of education.
Historically, human capital and the application of free market economics to
public education received their greatest support from the Chicago School. In fact,
ideas emanating from the Chicago School still infuse global education policies.
The global importance of the Chicago School is captured in the title of Johan
Van Overtveldt’s The Chicago School: How the University of Chicago Assembled the
Thinkers who Revolutionized Economics and Business.3 The Chicago School and its
followers not only revolutionized thinking about economics, but also global edu-
cation policies.
Economization refers to the increasing involvement of economists in edu-
cation research, the evaluation of the effectiveness of schools and family life

i. To be referred to in this chapter as the “Chicago School.”

2 Economization and Corporatization of Education

according to cost/benefit analyses, and the promotion of school choice in a

competitive marketplace. The Chicago School’s application of economic reason-
ing to everyday life results in measuring the contribution of family life and schools
to economic growth and productivity. This general attempt to apply economic
reasoning to all aspects of life is captured in the title of the 1997 publication of
Gary Becker’s popular Business Week columns, The Economics of Life: From Baseball
to Affirmative Action to Immigration, How Real-World Issues Affect Our Everyday Life.4
The application of choice or free market thinking to education can be attrib-
uted to the work of Becker’s mentor Milton Friedman. Friedman introduced
the ideas of school choice in a paper published in 1955 and then used the term
“vouchers” for funding school choice in his now famous 1962 book, Capitalism
and Freedom.5 Friedman contributed to Becker’s efforts, and that of other econo-
mists, to apply economic reasoning to everyday life. In a volume dedicated to
remembering the University of Chicago faculty, Becker described the influence
of Friedman’s teaching: “The emphasis in his course on applications of theory to
the real world set the tone of the department.”6
Becker and Friedman’s application of market principles to education had a
lasting impact on the language of education, introducing terms such as com-
petition, investment, consumer choice, for-profit schools, vouchers, economic
progress, and global free trade in educational services. Friedman advocated
school choice, vouchers, and for-profit education using economic phrases such
as “vocational training . . . increases economic productivity”;7 “schooling adds
to the economic value of the student”;8 “the ‘education industry’”;9 and “voca-
tional and professional schooling . . . is a form of investment in human capital
precisely analogous to investment in machinery, buildings.”10 Written for the
general public, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, coauthored with his wife
Rose Friedman, refers to students as “consumers”;11 teachers as “producers”;12
colleges as “selling schooling”;13 colleges as producing and selling “monuments
and research”;14 higher education as improving “economic productivity of indi-
viduals”;15 and colleges providing an “incentive” to attend by offering an oppor-
tunity for “higher earnings.”16
Similar economic language applied to education can be found in the work of
the pioneer in human capital, economist Theodore Schultz. In his 1963 classic
work, The Economic Value of Education, he referred to schools as “firms” that “spe-
cialize in producing schooling.”17 He also called the educational establishment
“an industry” that makes “production” decisions.18 Schultz portrayed student
actions in economic terms: “Suppose, then, that all of the costs of schooling are
charged to the investment in the production capabilities of students.”19
Gary Becker would influence public views of education as an economic
enterprise by referring in his 1964 book Human Capital to schooling as “Invest-
ment in Human Capital” with estimates on “the money rate of return to college
and high-school education in the United States.”20 In Becker’s writings, as I
describe later, education becomes an investment that results in economic growth,
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 3

increased productivity, higher incomes, decreased economic inequalities, and the

ending of poverty.

Human Capital, Free Markets, and Economization

An important part of the Chicago School’s tradition, as reflected in the work of
Friedman, Schultz, Becker, and Heckman, is the consideration of schooling as
an investment in human capital. For my purposes, I am using the definition of
human capital given in The Oxford Handbook of Human Capital: “The stock of
knowledge and skills that enables people to perform work that creates economic
value.”21
The concept of human capital can be traced back to Adam Smith’s The Wealth
of Nations (1776) when Smith wrote about a person’s talents as “a capital fixed
and realized, as it were, in his person.”22 After World War II, the Cold War
between the Soviet Union and the US pushed the concept of human capital to
the forefront. Almost immediately following WWII, US policymakers began to
worry about having the knowledge resources to win the military-technology race
with the Soviet Union. As a result, the National Science Foundation was created
in 1950 to ensure a supply of scientists, engineers, and mathematicians and to
sponsor research. In addition, national manpower planning was formally insti-
tuted with the passage of the 1951 Universal Military and Training Act requir-
ing military service for all men with deferments from military service for those
attending college and for those holding jobs considered important for national
defense. The purpose of college and occupational deferments from military ser-
vice was explained by Anna Rosenberg, the assistant secretary of the Depart-
ment of Defense, to the Senate Committee considering the legislation: “We
feel . . . that with our shortage of manpower it is essential that we make it up
in skills; that the skilled manpower, the scientific manpower, the highly trained
manpower is essential for the national interest.”23
As members of the Chicago School researched the effect of human capital
on the economy, the 1957 launching of Soviet Sputnik I created a demand by
many politicians for more scientists and engineers to keep pace with Soviet tech-
nological advances. Reacting to the Soviet accomplishments in space, President
Dwight Eisenhower said in 1957 that the problem facing the US was graduat-
ing more scientists and engineers to match the numbers that were graduating
from Soviet schools. Eisenhower asserted that “My scientific advisers place this
problem above all other immediate tasks of producing missiles . . . [we need] to
stimulate good-quality teaching of mathematics and science.”24 The result was
Congressional passage of the 1958 National Defense Education Act which pro-
vided funds to attract students into the fields of science, engineering, and math.25
The Cold War also sent a wave of anti-communism through public schools
and universities. The anti-Communist movement in universities favored econo-
mists advocating free markets and who relied on mathematical methods. Prior to
4 Economization and Corporatization of Education

WWII, US economists tended to work from a variety of ideological positions.

Economic historian Craufurd Goodwin wrote about this transition: “It is dif-
ficult for the present-day academic economist, accustomed to teaching mainly
the . . . wonders of the free market system, to appreciate that not long ago this
discipline was widely feared as the seat of radicalism.”26
After WWII, university leaders were afraid to hire professors identified with
the political left, or even liberal intellectuals, who might be accused of being
Communist or Communist sympathizers. Consequently, universities favored
economists who espoused free market principles like those advocated by the
Chicago School. In addition, economists strove to be “scientific” so that they
could not be accused of ideological interpretations of the functioning of the
economy. The use of mathematics became central to economic research after
WWII because it appeared ideologically neutral. For instance, Gary Becker’s
research on human capital is punctuated with elaborate mathematical formulas.
However, as I will discuss, this did not result in completely objective conclusions
by Milton Friedman or Gary Becker or other economists of the period. As two
economic historians assert, “the tool-kit style of postwar economics . . . could be
used to disguise theoretical content and ideology to the outside world.”27
In public schools progressive education was labeled “Communist” and there
were calls for a return to the “basics.”28 Along with anti-Communism and a
desire to graduate more scientists and engineers, the post-WWII civil rights
movement struggled against school segregation laws. By the 1960s, the civil
rights movement focused increasingly on the issue of poverty along with racial
equality. A result was the War on Poverty program of President Lyndon B.
Johnson’s administration which stressed increased educational opportunities as
a solution to poverty. The War on Poverty contained human capital arguments
that investment in education would grow the economy, eliminate poverty, and
reduce income inequalities. The 1964 Annual Report of the Council of Eco-
nomic Advisers, “The Problem of Poverty in America,” claimed, “Equality of
Opportunity is the American dream, and universal education our noblest pledge
to realize it. But, for the children of the poor, education is a handicap race;
many are too ill motivated at home to learn in school [author’s emphasis].”29 This
statement foreshadowed the increasing concerns by economists with changing
family life to prepare children for school so that the economy would grow and
poverty would disappear.
Anti-Communism, fears generated by the military-technological race with the
Soviet Union, and concerns about poverty contributed to the dominant role in
education of the Chicago School’s ideas about free markets and human capital.
In 1961, Theodore Schultz noted the importance of human capital: “economists
have long known that people are an important part of the wealth of nations.”30
Shultz argued that people invested in themselves through education to improve
their job opportunities. In his 1964 book on human capital, Gary Becker asserted
that economic growth now depended on the knowledge, information, ideas,
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 5

skills, and health of the workforce. Investments in education, he argued, could

improve human capital which would contribute to economic growth.31
Human capital arguments contributed to thinking about education as primar-
ily an economic activity. Knowledge and skills learned in school were capital to
be utilized in economic activity. Workers with high levels of skills and knowledge
acquired through education and experience are enabled “to produce more with
the same inputs of land, machines, materials, and time than other workers with-
out those traits.”32 This line of reasoning resulted in calls for schools to teach the
knowledge and skills that increase economic growth and productivity. From a
cost/benefit perspective, the benefits from educational investments outweigh the
costs by increasing personal income and economic productivity and growth.
Global businesses and organizations representing their interests support the
idea of the human capital approach to education because, as I explain in more
detail throughout this volume, it emphasizes teaching skills needed in the work-
place. In this context, human capital goals for education trump other educational
goals, such as education for social justice, environmental improvement, political
participation, and citizenship training.

Corporatization of Education and Families

Economic education goals result in corporatization of future workers by attempt-
ing to shape their character traits, knowledge, and skills to meet the needs of the
global labor market and the desires of multinational corporations. In the context
of human capital, skills are divided into hard and soft with hard skills usually
referring to such things as literacy instruction and numeracy and soft skills to
character traits that will help the worker succeed in the workplace.
The corporatization of the global worker is accompanied by attempts to cor-
poratize the family so that family life ensures that workers in the family remain
productive and that their children are prepared to learn the hard and soft skills
needed to enhance their human capital and fit the employment needs of corpo-
rations. As I explain later in the book, the corporatization of the worker and the
family introduces another form of capital, namely social capital. Social capital,
in this context, refers to the contribution of social interactions to economic
growth and productivity. Applied to education, social capital refers to the teach-
ing of soft skills that will prepare the student for productive social interactions
within corporations. Applied to the family, social capital refers to the relation-
ships that affect the human capital of household members, particularly workers
and children. For those arguing education is important for economic growth
and employment, a dysfunctional family has a negative impact on a child’s suc-
cess in school and later employment, and reduces a child’s human capital. The
same argument can be extended to a child’s peer group. Will a child’s social rela-
tions contribute to school success and consequently increase economic growth
and productivity?
6 Economization and Corporatization of Education

In the following section I will highlight the concept of the economization

and corporatization of education and the family by discussing a dystopian view of
the future. Then I will discuss the origins of the economization of education by
members of the Chicago School. The origin of the current global emphasis on
education for growing the economy and teaching skills needed by multinational
corporations can be found in the free market ideas and application of economics
to education and people’s behavior by the members of the Chicago School.

A Dystopian Vision of Corporate Control of Schools

and Family Life
Let us consider the most extreme example of corporatization of education and
family life before explicating the ideas underpinning economization, human cap-
ital, free markets, and for-profit schooling. This example will serve to highlight
the present direction of global education and will illustrate the potential out-
comes of educational economization. Patrick Flanery’s novel Fallen Land depicts
an imaginary global corporation called EKK that offers for-profit services cover-
ing all aspects of life including for-profit charter schools. The corporate offering
of for-profit charter schools illustrates free market ideas applied to education.
Also, EKK shows the potential of the free market to profit from every aspect of
human life. EKK sells services from conception “to death and disposal (crema-
tion, organ and tissue recycling, human remains management).”33 EKK’s cor-
porate divisions, besides their charter school division, offer for-profit services
including fertility and biotech, health care and medical subcontracting, charter
school administration, curriculum development, universities, employment and
employee relations, financial and assets management, security and incarceration,
immigration and detention centers, entertainment, travel, hotel and resort man-
agement, and old age care. In other words, all parts of a citizen’s life are objects
of profit.
Illustrating the attempt to align family actions with corporate productivity,
EKK provides its employees with a home protection system which monitors not
only for fire and burglary, but also uses surveillance cameras to ensure that family
life supports the productivity of adult workers and that their children are prepared
to learn the hard and soft skills needed to succeed in school and the corporate
workplace. In other words, family members are protected against family inter-
actions or behavior traits that might harm their ability to be efficient corporate
workers and students. The home protection system reports back to EKK any
household or individual behaviors detrimental to the good of corporate life.
Flanery describes this corporate control of family life:

Imagine wedding motion sensors to surveillance optics, so that technics

of a given security system work not just to identify intruders, but also and
not exclusively to monitor the health and wellbeing of the citizens it is
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 7

employed to protect. So . . . what then becomes possible is a holistic analy-

sis of domestic health, climate, spending, energy and food consumption,
sleep patterns, work patterns, brand preference, time allocation, interper-
sonal activity, hygiene, nutrition . . . [so] that people will . . . live better,
healthier, safer, more productive lives [author’s emphasis].34

Charter schools operated by EKK use monetary methods to instill corporate dis-
cipline. A newly hired employee is informed that he is expected to enroll his
child in the corporation’s for-profit charter school called the Pinwheel Academy.
The school’s guidance counselor explains to new students that it operates on a
system of disciplinary fines. Each student has an individualized account linked to
their fingerprints. Money deposited in the account by parents is used for lunch
and field trips, and for paying fines, such as $5 for being tardy to school, $25 for
every detention, and $40 a day for unexcused absences.35 Classrooms are tightly
controlled with surveillance cameras whirling overhead, students and teachers
wear uniforms, and students are not allowed to talk to each other during class
and bathroom breaks. For bathroom breaks, students stand next to their desks
and then leave the classroom in orderly lines. Row monitors observe students as
they return and enter the classroom in groups of five. Any talking on reentering
the classroom is, of course, fined. At lunch time, student fingerprints are scanned
and lunch costs are debited to their individual accounts. The lunchroom and play
areas are tightly controlled by security guards wearing hats with EKK’s corpo-
rate logo. When a fight breaks out on the playground, security guards use tasers
to separate students. Classroom lessons are conducted in the same authoritarian
manner.36
The Pinwheel Academy is Patrick Flanery’s vision of a charter school pre-
paring corporate workers through stringent methods of behavioral control. In
contrast, as I will explain later, surveys have found that global corporations want
workers to have soft skills related to teamwork. Teamwork is clearly absent from
Flanery’s dystopian charter school. Of course, the Pinwheel Academy only rep-
resents one novelist’s vision of the future.

The Rational Choice Paradigm and Economization

The rational choice paradigm is central to arguments by Milton Friedman for
freedom in the marketplace and education vouchers, and for Theodore Shultz
and Gary Becker’s theory of human capital. The assumption of the rational choice
paradigm is that humans act according to their calculation of costs and benefits.
This is a highly individualistic concept of humans. Group activity is considered
a result of people deciding that working with others is in their own self-interest.
As part of the economization of education, it is assumed that parents weigh cost
and benefits of spending money on their children’s education and that college
age students weigh the cost and benefits before investing in higher education.
8 Economization and Corporatization of Education

Shultz called calculation of education investments, the “Arithmetic of Schooling

and Growth.”37
Prior to WWI and the influence of the Chicago School, two strands of thought
reflected the pluralism of ideas among economists. Some economists focused
on the public good with their work reflecting the social gospel movement and
socialist movements. Some economists wrote about social reform issues and how
government could act to improve the lives of all. There was also an efficiency
movement related to scientific management, in which some economists exam-
ined how businesses could become more productive.38
After WWII, economists concerned with promoting the public good, in contrast
to the individualism of the marketplace, were often accused of being Communists.
This was exemplified by William F. Buckley Jr.’s 1951 book God and Man at Yale:
The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom”, which criticized Yale’s economics depart-
ment for not stressing the importance of the individual over the collective good:

If the recent Yale graduate, who exposed himself to Yale economics during
his undergraduate years, exhibits enterprise, self-reliance, and independence,
it is only because he has turned his back upon his teachers and texts. It is
because he has not hearkened to those who assiduously disparage the individ-
ual, glorify the government, enshrine security, and discourage self-reliance.39

Buckley argued that the traditions of the Yale economics department were
leading to a decline of individual power and an increase of government power
“through extended social services, taxation, and regulation.40 The Chicago School
advocated the reduction of government’s role in all three of these government
functions as it took its stand against collectivism and Communism.
The rational choice paradigm appeared ideologically neutral and emphasized
individualism, consequently it escaped accusations of being Communist. Gary
Becker’s A Treatise on the Family provides an example of how economists used the
rational choice paradigm to evaluate education programs.41 Published in 1981,
Becker chided University of California psychologist Arthur Jensen for claiming
that compensatory education programs for so-called disadvantaged children fail
because of the low intelligence scores of African Americans. Becker didn’t disa-
gree with Jensen that compensatory education fails to achieve its objective but he
offered an alternative interpretation using rational choice paradigm with families
treated as individuals who weigh costs and benefits. Public expenditures on com-
pensatory education redistribute resources to some low-income children which,
Becker reasoned, “induces parents concerned with equity to redistribute time
and other expenditures away from these children toward other children or them-
selves.”42 In other words, families supposedly make a rational choice to decrease
money and attention spent on their children who are participating in compensa-
tory education because these children are having extra resources spent on them
by the government. In Becker’s words, “the main effect of the programs [com-
pensatory education] is probably a redistribution of family expenditures away
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 9

from their children [that are] participating . . . . What Jensen and others failed
to realize is that family time and other resources would be allocated away from
participating children to siblings and parents.”43
A reliance on the rational choice paradigm can obscure other factors that
might affect outcomes and create a myopic view of social phenomena. In the
case of the failure of compensatory education, Becker does qualify his conclusion
with the words “is probably.” However, Becker offers no data to show that, in
fact, families shift their resources to children not participating in compensatory
education programs. It often happens, as I will explain in later examples, that
those arguing from the rational choice paradigm interpret data without provid-
ing any evidence that their conclusions are true. A good example is my later
discussion of the use of income data to conclude that education and economic
growth will reduce inequalities in income. In the case of Becker’s interpretation
of the supposed failure of compensatory education, the focus is on family choices
without consideration of other possible issues, such as the government adminis-
tration of compensatory education programs, the social and economic conditions
of families being served, the quality of teachers and administrators, the condition
of schools offering the programs, etc.
The rational choice paradigm was criticized at a 1985 University of Chicago
conference bringing together economists and psychologists, with papers being
published in Rational Choice: The Contrast between Economics and Psychology.44 As
the reader can imagine, defining “rational” and “rationality” was an area of con-
tention with multiple interpretations being given. The editors of the volume
claim that the rational choice paradigm provides economics with a unified the-
ory lacking in psychology and that economists think about market level behav-
ior while psychologists are concerned with mental processes. Also, the editors
argued, economists focus on data and price-benefit relations, while psychologists
focus on the mental processing of data.45
To exemplify the differences between an economist using the rational choice
paradigm and psychologists, the editors of the 1985 Chicago conference papers
examined the statement, “There cannot be any money lying in the street, because
someone else would have picked it up already.” The editors write about this
statement,

For the economist operating within the rational choice paradigm this
statement can be taken to mean that, for all practical purposes, the world
behaves as if there were no money lying in the street. The psychologist,
however, has no reasons to accept this statement as a working hypothesis.
Instead, he or she would accept the possibility that some money may be
lying in the street and would consider it worth learning who finds it and
how.46

At the Chicago conference the most vocal critic of Gary Becker’s use of the
rational choice paradigm to evaluate the supposed failure of compensatory
10 Economization and Corporatization of Education

education was fellow economist Herbert Simon. In his original analysis, Becker
had compared family reaction to compensatory education to public health pro-
grams. When public health programs are made available to families, families
spend less of their money on health matters. Becker used the findings on public
health programs to assert that families would do the same thing if public funds
were used for compensatory education. Herbert Simon criticized Becker’s lack of
evidence that families actually acted in this manner regarding compensatory edu-
cation programs. One should not apply the rational choice paradigm to predict
outcomes, Simon asserted, without having any actual proof that the prediction
is true.47
In another example, Simon criticized Becker for stating that “the major
cause of these changes [in family organization between the 1940s and 1980s] is
the growth in the earning power of women as the American economy devel-
oped.”48 Applying the rational choice paradigm, Becker argued that women
made a rational economic choice to enter the workforce because of rising wages
after WWII. As a result, women had fewer children (staying at home and not
earning money increases the cost of children) and divorce rates increased as
women became more economically independent. Becker concluded, “Greater
labor force participation of women would itself raise the earning power of
women and thereby reinforce the effects of economic development. Women
invest more in market skills [for instance improving their human capital through
education] and experiences when they spend a larger fraction of their time in
market activities.”49
Simon criticized Becker for relying only on income data to explain the increased
participation of women in the labor force. Simon contended that the reductionist
quality and narrowness of the rational choice paradigm results in not exploring
other possible causes rooted in changes in American history, culture, and industrial
organization. He argues that the true explanation for increased participation of
women in the labor force “will be obtained not by raising the sophistication of the
economic reasoning but only by painstaking examination of occupations in manu-
facturing and service industries and an even more difficult empirical examination
of changes in women’s attitudes about where they prefer to work.”50
Simon’s criticisms go to the heart of problems with the rational choice para-
digm, namely neglecting social, political, and historical contexts. As I explain
later, human capital studies of changes in income and education are interpreted
as resulting from individual calculations made over time. The lack of concern
about context in the rational choice paradigm is extremely important since early
human capital arguments relied on income data from the early twentieth century
to after WWII, which encompasses a period of two world wars and a major
world depression. Surely these events affected changes in income and education.
As I explain later, neglecting these historical changes human capital economists
distorted their conclusions, resulting in convincing others that investing in edu-
cation will create economic growth and reduce income inequalities.
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 11

Rational Choice, Milton Friedman, and Education

Vouchers
After completing his Ph.D. at Columbia University in 1946, Milton Friedman
joined the economics department at the University of Chicago where Frank
Knight had already opened the modern discussion of price theory in a 1933 book
on economic organization. Knight identified that a central problem of economic
systems was how decisions were made about what goods and services should be
produced and in what proportions. Knight identified two extremes in determin-
ing what goods and services to produce. On the one hand, decisions about pro-
duction could be centrally planned and, on the other hand, they could be made
by individual choice in a free market.51 In the context of a government-operated
school system, Friedman would contend that decisions about what knowledge
should be taught to students is determined by public officials, while in a competi-
tive education marketplace decisions would be made by consumers through the
exercise of individual choice.
Besides advocating for individual choice in a free market, Friedman used the
rational choice paradigm to predict that individuals will invest in their educa-
tion by taking out loans to attend college because they calculate that a college
education will increase their future incomes. Milton Friedman describes as a
rational decision for individuals to invest in their own human capital, including
schooling and job training, when it raises their productivity and they are then
“rewarded in a free enterprise society by receiving a higher return for . . . services
than . . . would otherwise be able to command.”52 Foreshadowing the future
reliance on student loans in contrast to government providing free higher educa-
tion, Friedman proposed in a 1962 publication that a lender advance a student
funds “needed to finance his training on condition that he agree to pay the lender
a specified fraction of his future earnings.”53
During the time Friedman made his proposal to turn public education over to
the forces of the marketplace, public education was in turmoil as the civil rights
movement struggled to end racial segregation. The 1954 US Supreme Court
decision Brown vs. the Board of Education ended legal segregation in Southern
schools. The civil rights movement reflected a belief that government should act
to protect the public good in contrast to individual choice in the marketplace.54
As I will explain, the 1954 school desegregation decision posed a problem for
Friedman because it highlighted how vouchers might lead to a continuation of
racial segregation through parental choice plans.
The reliance on government to protect the common good would become
part of the educational programs of the War on Poverty in the 1960s. By the
twenty-first century concern with the public good would mostly disappear in a
flood of educational legislation favoring charter schools, for-profit school manage-
ment companies, and investing in education to increase individual incomes, spur
economic growth, and reduce income inequalities. Discussions of education for
12 Economization and Corporatization of Education

social justice, citizenship and environmental education, and improving social

conditions would be overwhelmed by demands that education focus on eco-
nomic growth and increasing incomes. Concerns about the social good would
almost disappear from the educational rhetoric of politicians.
Friedman’s commitment to letting market forces determine the production
of goods and services, such as education, was strengthened a year after joining
the Chicago faculty when he participated with Friedrich von Hayek in the first
meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society near Montreux, Switzerland in 1947 along
with 36 other scholars. The Mont Pelerin Society still promotes free market
economics and on its current website it shows a photo with the caption: “Milton
Friedman (in light coat and with hat, in the center) with friends in an excursion
at the first meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1947.”55 The stated historical
purpose of the Mont Pelerin Society as given on its website is: “Its sole objective
was to facilitate an exchange of ideas between like-minded scholars in the hope
of strengthening the principles and practice of a free society and to study the workings,
virtues, and defects of market-oriented economic systems [author’s emphasis].”56
One of the founders of the Pelerin Society, Friedrich von Hayek, joined Mil-
ton Friedman on the University of Chicago faculty in 1950 as Professor of Social
and Moral Science on the Committee on Social Thought. According to the
historian of the Chicago School, Hayek was not hired by the economics depart-
ment because the members thought Hayek’s book The Road to Serfdom was “too
popular a work for a respectable scholar to perpetrate.”57 Originally published in
1944, The Road to Serfdom became a best seller and appeared in Reader’s Digest as
a condensed book. In 1945, Hayek did a lecture tour promoting the free market
ideas and anti-totalitarian message of the book. While Hayek and Friedman disa-
greed on the extent of the application of scientific methods to economics, they
shared a commitment to the free market.58
Reflecting his dislike for the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and Nazi
Germany, Hayek engaged in a discussion of price theory by arguing that centrally
planned economies would eventually fail because of the difficulty of determin-
ing prices or the value of goods. According to Hayek, the value of goods in a
free market is determined by individual choices while in a centrally planned
economy it is determined by the interests of bureaucrats. What criterion is used
by a government bureaucracy? Hayek’s answer was that the inevitable criterion is
one that promotes the personal interests and advantages of bureaucracy mem-
bers. Bureaucrats and intellectuals supported by a bureaucracy, he argued, will
advance social theories that vindicate the continued existence and expansion of
the bureaucracy.59
Friedman also worried about government bureaucracies determining what
should be produced at what price. In Friedman’s proposed voucher system, what
is valued is determined by parental choice in a competitive marketplace. For
instance, how is value determined in education, particularly with the existence
of a monopolistic and bureaucratic public school system? In the rational choice
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 13

paradigm, individuals, including school officials, pursue their own self-interests.

In this framework, government bureaucrats determine what is valued in educa-
tion based on their self-interest.
Concern about schools being dominated by the interests of educational bureau-
crats was one reason Friedman proposed allowing parents to use a government
voucher for educational expenses to choose any approved public or private school
for their children. In his 1955 essay “The Role of Government in Education” and
his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom,ii he argued that a government subsidy for
schools could be justified by “neighborhood effects,” where a lack of schooling by
one individual might have negative effects on others, such as unemployment and
crime. But, Friedman argued, this justification did not require “nationalization”
of education, by which he meant the “actual administration of educational institu-
tions by government.”60 The combination of government subsidy and adminis-
tration of schools results, he argued, in higher costs and lower quality education,
particularly for the poor who reside in low-income school districts.
Consequently, Friedman advocated government subsidies to support educa-
tional choice between public, private, and for-profit schools.61 In Capitalism and
Freedom, he argued that vouchers would allow low-income families to choose
schools of better quality than existed in public schools in low-income neighbor-
hoods. Friedman proposed that government vouchers could be used to pay for an
education at schools meeting minimum government standards. In explaining his
proposed voucher system, Friedman argued that parents would able to determine
the “value” of the educational services being provided.

A major reason for this kind of use of public money is the present system
of combining the administration of schools with their financing. The par-
ent who would prefer to see money used for better teachers and texts
rather than coaches and corridors has no way of expressing their prefer-
ence except by persuading a majority to change the mixture for all. This is
a special case of the general principle that a market permits each to satisfy his own
taste—effective proportional representation; whereas the political process imposes con-
formity [author’s emphasis].62

Important for Friedman’s argument was that vouchers could be used at for-profit
schools. Government vouchers for use at for-profit schools fit his model of an
educational marketplace and provided lasting justification for for-profit school-
ing. Friedman explained it this way:

ii. Friedman’s 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom contains the same arguments for school choice, in
some cases almost word for word, as his 1955 essay. As I will explain, missing from the 1962 volume
is Friedman’s justification for Southerners to choose segregation academies after the 1954 Supreme
Court decision making school segregation unconstitutional.
14 Economization and Corporatization of Education

Governments could require a minimum level of schooling financed by

giving parents vouchers redeemable for a specified maximum sum per child
per year if spent on “approved” educational services. Parents would then
be free to spend this sum and any additional sum they themselves provided
on purchasing educational services from an “approved” institution of their
own choice. The educational services could be rendered by private enterprises
operated for profit, or by non-profit institutions [author’s emphasis].63

In the framework of economization, Friedman justified educational vouchers

as creating a free market for goods and services in which parents could select an
education for their children that they personally valued. Friedman’s goal was for
the marketplace and not bureaucrats to determine value or price of educational
goods and services. He also claimed that competition in the marketplace would
promote efficiency and thus reduce educational costs. These arguments all assume
rational choice on the part of parents where they decide the benefits and costs of
education provided by a particular school.
His 1955 essay on the role of government in education emphasized free-
dom of ideas as a justification for school choice. But, as I will explain, choice
and freedom of ideas might have negative “neighborhood effects” particularly
regarding racial attitudes. “Neighborhood effects” is Friedman’s justification
for government involvement in education. In his 1955 essay he stresses the
teaching of “common social values required for a stable society.”64 However,
he never specifies what these core values are. The closest he comes to identify-
ing them is in the statement: “there is considerable agreement, approximating
unanimity, on the appropriate content of an educational program for citizens
of a democracy—the three R’s cover the ground.”65 Under his school choice
proposal, the government would subsidize parents to choose a public or pri-
vate school that met government standards for teaching reading, writing, and
arithmetic.
In 1955, Friedman encountered a significant problem for his choice proposal
after the 1954 Supreme Court decision ending racial segregation of schools which
resulted in the growth of private white academies.66 In an almost full-page foot-
note in small font, Friedman wrote, “Essentially this proposal [school choice]—
public financing but private operation of education—has recently been suggested
in several southern states as a means of evading the Supreme Court ruling against
segregation . . . My initial reaction—and I venture to predict, that of most read-
ers—that this possible use of the proposal was a count against.”67 However, he
discounted his initial reaction on the principle of free speech. While stating that
he deplored segregation and racial prejudice, Friedman wrote, “it is not an appro-
priate function of the state to try to force individuals to act in accordance with
my—anyone else’s—views, whether about racial prejudice or the party to vote
for.”68 He argued that as long as schools are publicly operated then he would
choose forced nonsegregation over segregation.
 Economization and Corporatization of Education 15

Alluding to the existence of summer camps that were all Jewish, all Christian,
and some of mixed religions, Friedman asked, “Is it an appropriate function of
the state to prohibit the unmixed camps?”69 He argued that one could propagate
views that favored mixed camps while allowing for the existence of religiously
segregated summer camps. In this framework, he argued the government could
make funds available to parents to use “solely in segregated schools” or “solely
in nonsegregated schools.”70 He concluded, “The proposed plan is not there-
fore inconsistent with either forced segregation or forced nonsegregation. The
point is that it makes available a third alternative.”71 The third alternative to
requiring schools to be racially segregated or nonsegregated, as reflected in his
discussion of summer camps, was giving parents the choice of racially segregated
or racially mixed schools, while propagating views against racial segregation. In
other words, he proposed that government subsidies would allow parents, either
black or white, to choose a racially segregated school as long as the government
did not require segregation.
Gary Becker, Milton Friedman’s colleague at the University of Chicago and
former student, echoed Friedman’s call for education vouchers in his columns
in Business Week that appeared from the late 1980s into the late 1990s. Becker
would complain that public schools were making education too expensive: “The
average public school . . . spends over $5,000 per student per year. Yet many
parochial and other private schools provide better education with smaller expen-
ditures . . . A generous voucher system could cost only half of what is spent by
public schools.”72 In writing about a proposed voucher plan for California, Becker
stated, “this competition [between public and private schools] for students would
force public schools to become better.”73 Becker also echoed Friedman’s argu-
ment that vouchers would allow students to escape low-quality schools in low-
income neighborhoods: “Disadvantaged families cannot afford private-school
tuition and can seldom move to communities with better public schools. Usu-
ally they must accept whatever public schools are available, no matter how bad.
A voucher system would give these families some of the schooling alternatives
now open only to middle-class and rich families.”74 Reflecting on the goal of
his mentor to give parents an education that they valued, Becker wrote, “Some
30 years ago, Milton Friedman proposed a voucher system for schooling. Many
critics considered his proposal wild and impractical . . . Education vouchers now
seem rather tame compared with privatization of the postal system, prisons . . . A
voucher system for education is an idea whose time has finally come.”75

Theodore Schultz: The Economic Value of Education

Theodore Schultz’s 1963 interpretative essay on the economic value of educa-
tion relies on earlier works on educational economics. Reflecting the growing
economization of education, Shultz wrote, “The economic value of educa-
tion depends predominantly on the demand for and the supply of schooling
16 Economization and Corporatization of Education

approached as an investment.”76 Using the data on the costs of schooling, school

attendance, and rates-of-return on investment in education, Schultz asserted that,
“As a source of economic growth, the additional schooling of the labor force
would appear to account for about one fifth of the growth in real national income
in the United States between 1929 and 1957 [author’s emphasis].”77
I emphasized the word “appear” in the above quote to indicate that Schultz
did not provide any data that proved that additional schooling increased eco-
nomic growth. He did provide data that the economy and schooling expanded
at the same time during the first half of the twentieth century, but provided no
proof of a causal relationship. In fact, and this is a problem in the work of other
economists I am considering, he never discusses the economic, social and politi-
cal changes that took place between 1929 and 1957. For instance, during the
1930s, unemployment of the depression years caused many youth to remain in
school and during these years the high school became a mass institution. After
WWII, fears of a postwar depression resulted in government funding of veterans
to enter college. In addition, there was a postwar economic boom as compared
to the lean years of the depression.78 Also, the 1951 military draft with exemp-
tions for college attendance prompted many men to go to college.79 None of
these events are considered by Schultz in his conclusion that education causes
economic growth.
In 2009, economist Andrew Hacker challenged this conclusion by offer-
ing another possible interpretation. What about the possibility that education
expanded because the economy grew in the early twentieth century rather than
expansion of education causing economic growth? Hacker offered this alternative
interpretation to highlight the questionable nature of human capital conclusions.
He did not offer any proof for either interpretation of historic income and educa-
tion data.80
In the early 1960s, Schultz claimed that economic interest in education was
“laying the foundations for an economic growth policy which assigns a major
role to schooling.”81 Schultz was correct about the future emphasis on education
as a contributor to economic growth.
Schultz’s reasoning that investment in education would reduce income ine-
quality was supported by the free market ideas of the Chicago School. Schultz
foreshadowed future policy by advancing the hypothesis that “changes in the
investment in human capital are a basic factor reducing the inequality in the
personal distribution of income.”82 He did not provide any proof to support this
statement, but relied on data from studies of the first half of the century. Dismiss-
ing government actions to reduce income inequalities, he wrote, “changes in
income transfers in progressive taxation, and changes in the distribution of pri-
vately owned wealth have been overrated as factors in altering the personal distri-
bution of income.”83 Policies that could be derived from Schultz’s book included
investing in education for economic growth and reducing income inequalities,
while cutting progressive and estate taxes.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
space called the contractile vacuole, which slowly
contracts and disappears, then reappears and
expands (Figs. 9 and 10). This possibly aids in
excreting oxidized or useless material.
Circulation in the amœba consists of the
movement of its protoplasmic particles. It lacks
special organs of circulation.
Feeling.—Jarring the glass slide seems to be felt,
for it causes the activity of the amœba to vary. It does
not take in for food every particle that it touches. This
may be the beginning of taste, based upon mere
chemical affinity. The pseudopods aid in feeling.
Reproduction.—Sometimes an amœba is seen
dividing into two parts. A narrowing takes place in
the middle; the nucleus also divides, a part going to
each portion (Fig. 13). The mother amœba finally
divides into two daughter amœbas. Sex is wanting.
Source of the
Amœba’s
Energy.—We thus
see that the amœba
moves without feet,
eats without a
mouth, digests
Fig. 13.—Amœba, Dividing. without a stomach,
feels without
nerves, and, it Fig. 12.—The
Amœba taking
should also be stated, breathes without lungs, for food.
oxygen is absorbed from the water by its whole
surface. Its movements require energy; this, as in all
animals, is furnished by the uniting of oxygen with the food. Carbon
dioxide and other waste products are formed by the union; these
pass off at the surface of the amœba and taint the water with
impurities.
Questions.—Why will the amœba die in a very small quantity of water, even
though the water contains enough food? Why will it die still quicker if air is
excluded from contact with the drop of water?
The amœba never dies of old age. Can it be said to be immortal?
 According to the definition of a cell (Chapter I), is the amœba a unicellular or
multicellular animal?
Cysts.—If the water inhabited by a protozoan dries up, it encysts,
that is, it forms a tough skin called a cyst. Upon return of better
conditions it breaks the cyst and comes out. Encysted protozoans
may be blown through the air: this explains their appearance in
vessels of water containing suitable food but previously free from
protozoans.
 The Slipper Animalcule or Paramecium
Suggestions.—Stagnant water often contains the paramecium as well as the
amœba; or they may be found in a dish of water containing hay or finely cut clover,
after the dish has been allowed to stand in the sun for several days. A white film
forming on the surface is a sign of their presence. They may even be seen with the
unaided eye as tiny white particles by looking through the side of the dish or jar.
Use at first a ⅓ or ¼ in. objective. Restrict their movements by placing cotton
fibres beneath the cover glass; then examine with ⅕ or ⅙ objective. Otherwise,
study figures.
Shape and Structure.—The paramecium’s whole body, like the
amœba’s, is only one cell. It resembles a slipper in shape, but the
pointed end is the hind end, the front end being rounded (Fig. 14).
The paramecium is propelled by the rapid beating of numerous fine,
threadlike appendages on its surface, called cilia (Latin, eyelashes)
(Figs.). The cilia, like the pseudopods of the amœba, are merely
prolongations of the cell protoplasm, but they are permanent. The
separation between the outer ectoplasm and the interior granular
endoplasm is more marked than in the amœba (Fig. 14).
Nucleus and Vacuoles.—There is a large nucleus called the
macronucleus, and beside it a smaller one called the micronucleus.
They are hard to see. About one third of the way from each end is a
clear, pulsating space (bb. Fig. 15) called the pulsating vacuole. These
spaces contract until they disappear, and then reappear, gradually
expanding. Tubes lead from the vacuoles which probably serve to
keep the contents of the cell in circulation.
Feeding.—A depression, or groove, is seen on one side; this
serves as a mouth (Figs.). A tube which serves as a gullet leads from
the mouth-groove to the interior of the cell. The mouth-groove is
lined with cilia which sweep food particles inward. The particles
accumulate in a mass at the inner end of the gullet, become
separated from it as a food ball (Fig. 14), and sink into the soft
protoplasm of the body. The food balls follow a circular course
through the endoplasm, keeping near the ectoplasm.
Reproduction.—This, as in the amœba, is by division, the
constriction being in the middle, and part of the nucleus going to
 each half. Sometimes two
individuals come together with
their mouth-grooves touching and
exchange parts of their nuclei
(Fig. 16). They then separate and
each divides to form two new
individuals.
We thus see that the
paramecium, though of only one
cell, is a much more complex and
advanced animal than the
amœba. The tiny paddles, or cilia,
the mouth-groove, etc., have their
Fig. 15. special duties similar to the
specialized organs of the many-
celled animals to be studied later.
If time and circumstances allow a prolonged Fig. 14.—Paramecium,
study, several additional facts may be observed showing cilia, c.
by the pupil, e.g. Does the paramecium swim
with the same end always foremost, and same Two contractile
side uppermost? Can it move backwards? Avoid vacuoles, cv; the
obstacles? Change shape in a narrow passage? macronucleus, mg;
Does refuse matter leave the body at any two micronuclei, mi;
the gullet (Œ), a food
particular place? Trace movement of the food ball forming and ten
particles. food balls in their
Draw the paramecium. course from gullet to
vent, a.
Which has more permanent parts, the
amœba or paramecium? Name two
anatomical similarities and three
differences; four functional
similarities and three differences.
The amœba belongs in the class
of protozoans called Rhizopoda
“root footed.”
Other classes of Protozoans
are the Infusorians (in the broad Fig. 16.—Two Paramecia
exchanging parts of their nuclei.
sense of the term), which have
 many waving cilia (Fig. 17) or one
whiplike flagellum (Fig. 18), and the
Foraminifers, which possess a
calcareous shell pierced with holes
(Fig. 19). Much chalky limestone has
been formed of their shells. To which
class does the paramecium belong?
Protozoans furnish a large amount
of food to the higher animals.

Fig. 18.—
Euglena.
Fig. 17.—Vorticella
(or bell animalcule),
two extended, one
withdrawn.

Fig. 19.—Shell of a Radiolarian.

 CHAPTER III
SPONGES

Suggestions.—In many parts of North America, fresh-water sponges may, by

careful searching, be found growing on rocks and logs in clear water. They are
brown, creamy, or greenish in colour, and resemble more a cushion-like plant than
an animal. They have a characteristic gritty feel. They soon die after removal to an
aquarium.
A number of common small
bath sponges may be bought and
kept for use in studying the
skeleton of an ocean sponge.
These sponges should not have
large holes in the bottom; if so,
too much of the sponge has been
cut away. A piece of marine
sponge preserved in alcohol or
formalin may be used for showing
the sponge with its flesh in place.
Microscopic slides may be used
for showing the spicules.
The small fresh-water
sponge (Fig. 21) lacks the
more or less vaselike form
typical of sponges. It is a
Fig. 21.—Fresh-water Sponge.
rounded mass growing upon
a rock or a log. As indicated
by the Arrows, where does water enter the sponge? This may be
tested by putting colouring matter in the water near the living
sponge. Where does the water come out? (Fig. 22.) Does it pass
through ciliated chambers in its course? Is the surface of the sponge
rough or smooth? Do any of the skeletal spicules show on the
surface? (Fig. 21.) Does the sponge thin out near its edge?
 The egg of this sponge is shown
in Fig. 23. It escapes from the
parent sponge through the
osculum, or large outlet. As in most
sponges, the first stage after the
egg is ciliated and free-swimming.
Fig. 22.—Section of fresh-water Marine Sponges.—The
sponge (enlarged). grantia (Fig. 24) is one of the
simplest of marine sponges. What
is the shape of grantia?
What is its length and
diameter? How does the
free end differ from the
fixed end? Are the spicules
projecting from its body few
or many? Fig. 23.—Eggs and SPICULES of fresh-water
sponge (enlarged).
Where is the
osculum, or
large outlet? With what is this surrounded? The osculum
opens from a central cavity called the cloaca. The canals
from the pores lead to the cloaca.
Buds are sometimes seen growing out from the sponge
near its base. These are young sponges formed asexually.
Later they become detached from the parent sponge.
Commercial “Sponge.”—What
part of the complete animal remains in
the bath sponge? Slow growing
sponges grow more at the top and form
Fig. 24.— tall, simple, tubular or vaselike animals.
Grantia.
Fast growing sponges grow on all sides
at once and form a complicated system
of canals, pores, and oscula. Which of these habits
of growth do you think belonged to the bath Fig. 25.—Plan of
sponge? Is there a large hole in the base of your a sponge.
specimen? If so, this is because the cloaca was
reached in trimming the lower part where it was
attached to a rock. Test the elasticity of the sponge when dry and
when wet by squeezing it. Is it softer when wet or dry? Is it more
elastic when wet or dry? How many oscula does your specimen have?
How many inhalent pores to a square inch? Using a probe (a wire
with knob at end, or small hat pin), try to trace the canals from the
pores to the cavities inside.
Do the fibres of the sponge appear to
interlace, or join, according to any system? Do
you see any fringe-like growths on the surface
which show that new tubes are beginning to
form? Was the sponge growing faster at the top,
on the sides, or near the bottom?
Burn a bit of the sponge; from the odor, what
would you judge of its composition? Is the inner
cavity more conspicuous in a simple sponge or
Fig. 26.—Bath in a compound sponge like the bath sponge? Is
Sponge. the bath sponge branched or lobed? Compare a
number of
specimens (Figs.
26, 27, 28) and
decide whether the
common sponge
has a typical
shape. What
features do their
forms possess in Fig. 28.—Bath Sponge.
Fig. 27.—Bath Sponge.
common?
Sponges are divided into three classes,
according as their skeletons are flinty (silicious), limy (calcareous),
or horny.
Some of the silicious sponges have skeletons that resemble spun
glass in their delicacy. Flint is chemically nearly the same as glass.
The skeleton shown in Fig. 29 is that of a glass sponge which lives
near the Philippine Islands.
The horny sponges do not have spicules in their skeletons, as the
flinty and limy sponges have, but the skeleton is composed of
interweaving fibres of spongin, a durable substance of the same
chemical nature as silk (Figs. 30 and 31).
 The limy sponges have skeletons made of
numerous spicules of lime. The three-rayed
spicule is the commonest form.
The commercial
sponge, seen as it grows
in the ocean, appears as a
roundish mass with a
smooth, dark exterior,
and having about the
consistency of beef liver.
Several large openings
(oscula), from which the
water flows, are visible on
Fig. 30.—A horny the upper surface.
sponge. Smaller holes (inhalent
pores—many of them so Fig 29.—Skeleton of a
glass sponge.
small as to be indistinguishable) are on the
sides. If the sponge is disturbed, the smaller
holes, and perhaps the larger ones, will close.
The outer layer of cells serves as a sort of skin.
Since so much of the sponge is in contact with
water, most of the cells do their own breathing,
or absorption of oxygen and giving off of carbon
dioxide. Nutriment is passed on from the surface
cells to nourish the rest of the body.
Reproduction.—Egg cells and sperm-cells
are produced by certain cells along the canals.
The egg cell, after it is fertilized by the sperm cell, Fig. 31.—Section of
begins to divide and form new cells, some of horny sponge.
which possess cilia. The embryo sponge passes
out at an osculum. By the vibration of the cilia, it
swims about for a while. It afterwards settles down with the one end
attached to the ocean floor and remains fixed for the rest of its life.
The other end develops oscula. Some of the cilia continue to vibrate
and create currents which bring food and oxygen.
The cilia in many species are found only in cavities called ciliated
chambers. (Figs. 22, 32.) There are no distinct organs in the sponge
and there is very little specialization of cells. The ciliated cells and
the reproductive cells are the only specialized cells. The sponges were
for a long time considered as colonies of separate one-celled animals
classed as protozoans. They are, without doubt, many-celled animals.
If a living sponge is cut into pieces, each piece will grow and form a
complete sponge.
That the sponge is not
a colony of one-celled
animals, each like an
amœba, but is a many-celled
animal, will be realized by
examining Fig. 32, which
shows a bit of sponge highly
magnified. A sponge may be
conceived as having
developed from a one-celled
animal as follows: Several
one-celled animals happened
to live side by side; each
possessed a threadlike
flagellum (E, Fig. 32) or
whip-lash for striking the
water. By lashing the water,
they caused a stronger
current (Fig. 25) than
Fig. 32.—Microscopic plan of ciliated
protozoans living singly
chamber. Each cell lining the chamber has a
nucleus, a whip-lash, and a collar around could cause. Thus they
base of whip-lash. Question: State two uses of obtained more food and
whip-lash. multiplied more rapidly than
those living alone. The habit
of working together left its
impress on the cells and was transmitted by inheritance.
Cell joined to cell formed a ring; ring joined to ring formed a tube
which was still more effective than a ring in lashing the water into a
current and bringing fresh food (particles of dead plants and
animals) and oxygen.
Few animals eat sponges; possibly because spicules, or fibres,
are found throughout the flesh, or because the taste and the odour
are unpleasant enough to protect them. Small animals sometimes
crawl into sponges to hide. One sponge grows upon shells inhabited
by hermit crabs. Moving of the shell from place to place is an
advantage to the sponge, while the sponge conceals and thus protects
the crab.
Special Report: Sponge “Fisheries.” (Localities; how sponges are
taken, cleaned, dried, shipped, and sold.)
 CHAPTER IV
POLYPS (CUPLIKE ANIMALS)

The Hydra, or Fresh-Water Polyp

Suggestions.—Except in the drier regions of North
America the hydra can usually be found by careful
search in fresh-water ponds not too stagnant. It is
found attached to stones, sticks, or leaves, and has a
slender, cylindrical body from a quarter to half an
inch long, varying in thickness from that of a fine
Fig. 33.—A needle to that of a common pin. The green hydra and
Hydra. the brown hydra, both very small, are common
species, though hydras are often white or colourless.
They should be kept in a large glass dish filled with
water. They may be distinguished by the naked eye but are not
studied satisfactorily without a magnifying glass or microscope.
Place a living specimen attached to a bit of wood in a watch crystal
filled with water, or on a hollowed slip, or on a slip with a bit of weed
to support the cover glass, and examine with hand lens or lowest
power of microscope. Prepared microscopical sections, both
transverse and longitudinal, may be bought of dealers in microscopic
supplies. One is shown in Fig. 39.
Is the hydra’s body round or two-sided? (Fig. 35.) What is its
general shape? Does one individual keep the same shape? (Fig. 34.)
How does the length of the threadlike tentacles compare with the
length of the hydra’s body? About how many tentacles are on a
hydra’s body? Do all have the same number of tentacles? Are the
tentacles knotty or smooth? (Fig. 35.) The hydra is usually extended
and slender; sometimes it is contracted and rounded. In which of
these conditions is
the base (the foot)
larger around than
the rest of the
body? (Fig. 34.)
Smaller? How
many openings
into the body are
visible? Is there a
depression or an
eminence at the
base of the Fig. 34.—Forms assumed by Hydra.
tentacles? For
what is the
opening on top of the body probably used? Why are the tentacles
placed at the top of the hydra’s body? Does the mouth have the most
convenient location possible?
The conical projection bearing the
mouth is called hypostome (Fig. 34).
The mouth opens into the digestive
cavity. Is this the same as the general
body cavity, or does the stomach have a
wall distinct from the body cavity? How
far down does the body cavity extend?
Does it extend up into the tentacles?
(Fig. 39.)
If a tentacle is touched, what happens? Is the
body ever bent? Which is more sensitive, the
columnar body or the tentacles? In searching
for hydras would you be more likely to find the
tentacles extended or drawn in? Is the
hypostome ever extended or drawn in? (Fig.
34.)
Locomotion.—The round surface,
Fig. 35.—Hydra (much or disk, by which the hydra is attached,
enlarged).
is called its foot. Can you move on one
foot without hopping? The hydra moves
by alternately elongating and rounding the foot. Can you discover
other ways by which it moves? Does the hydra always stand upon its
foot?
Lasso Cells.—Upon the tentacles
(Fig. 35) are numerous cells
provided each with a threadlike
process (Fig. 36) which lies coiled
within the cell, but which may be
thrown out upon a water flea, or
other minute animal that comes in
reach. The touch of the lasso
paralyzes the prey (Fig. 37). These
cells are variously called lasso cells,
nettling cells, or thread cells. The Fig. 36.—Nettling Cell. II.
thread is hollow and is pushed out discharged, and I. not discharged.
by the pressure of liquid within.
When the pressure is withdrawn the
thread goes back as the finger of a glove may be turned back into the
glove by turning the finger outside in. When a minute animal, or
other particle of food comes in contact with a tentacle, how does the
tentacle get the food to the mouth? By bending and bringing the end
to the mouth, or by shortening and changing its form, or in both
ways? (Fig. 34, C.) Do the neighbouring tentacles seem to bend over
to assist a tentacle in securing prey? (Fig. 34, C.)
Digestion.—The food particles break up before remaining long in
the stomach, and the nutritive part is absorbed by the lining cells, or
endoderm (Fig. 39). The indigestible remnants go out through the
mouth. The hydra is not provided with a special vent. Why could the
vent not be situated at the end opposite the mouth?
Circulation and Respiration.—Does water have free access to
the body cavity? Does the hydra have few or nearly all of its cells
exposed to the water in which it lives? From its structure, decide
whether it can breathe like a sponge or whether special respiratory
cells are necessary to supply it with oxygen and give off carbon
dioxide. Blood vessels are unnecessary for transferring oxygen and
food from cell to cell.
Reproduction.—Do you see any swellings upon the side of the
hydra? (Fig. 34, A.) If the swelling is near the tentacles, it is a
spermary; if near the base, it is an ovary. A sperm coalesces with or
fertilizes the ovum after the ovum is exposed by the breaking of the
 ovary
wall.
Somet
imes
the
sperm
from
one
hydra
unites
with
the
Fig. 38.—Hydras on the under
ovum
surface of pondweed.
of
anoth
er hydra. This is called cross-
fertilization. The same term is applied
Fig. 37.—Hydra capturing a to the process in plants when the male
water flea.
element, developed in the pollen of the
flower, unites with the female element
of the ovule of the flower on another plant. The hydra, like most
plants and some other animals, is hermaphrodite, that is to say, both
sperms and ova are produced by one individual. In the autumn, eggs
are produced with hard shells to withstand the cold until spring.
Sexual reproduction takes place when food is scarce. Asexual
generation (by budding) is common with the hydra when food supply
is abundant. After the bud grows to a certain size, the outer layer of
cells at the base of the bud constricts and the young hydra is
detached.
Compare the sponge and the hydra in the following respects:
—many celled, or one-celled; obtaining food; breathing; tubes and
cavities; openings; reproduction; locomotion. Which ranks higher
among the metazoa? The metazoa, or many-celled animals, include
all animals except which branch?
Figure 39 is a microscopic view of a vertical section of a hydra to show the
structure of the body wall. There is an outer layer called the ectoderm, and an
inner layer called the endoderm. There is also a thin supporting layer (black in the
figure) called the mesoglea. The mesoglea is the thinnest layer. Are the cells larger
in the endoderm or the ectoderm? Do both layers of cells assist in forming the
 reproductive bud? The
ectoderm cells end on the
inside in contractile tails
which form a thin line and
have the effect of muscle
fibres. They serve the
hydra for its remarkable
changes of shape. When
the hydra is cut in pieces,
each piece makes a
complete hydra, provided
it contains both endoderm
and ectoderm.
In what ways does the
hydra show “division of
labour”? Answer this by
explaining the classes of
cells specialized to serve a
different purpose. Which
cells of the hydra are least
specialized? In what
particulars is the plan of
the hydra different from
that of a simple sponge?
An ingenious naturalist
living more than a century
ago, asserted that it made
no difference to the hydra
whether the ectoderm or
Fig. 39.—Longitudinal section of hydra (microscopic the endoderm layer were
and diagrammatic). outside or inside,—that it
could digest equally well
with either layer. He
allowed a hydra to swallow a worm attached to a thread, and then by gently pulling
in the thread, turned the hydra inside out. More recently a Japanese naturalist
showed that the hydra could easily be turned inside out, but he also found that
when left to itself it soon reversed matters and returned to its natural condition,
that the cells are really specialized and each layer can do its own work and no
other.
Habits.—The hydra’s whole body is a hollow bag, the cavity
extending even into the tentacles. The tentacles may increase in
number as the hydra grows but seldom exceed eight. The hydra has
more active motion than locomotion. It seldom moves from its place,
but its tentacles are constantly bending, straightening, contracting,
and expanding. The body is also usually in motion, bending from one
side to another. When the tentacles approach the mouth with
captured prey, the mouth (invisible without a hand lens) opens
widely, showing five lobes or lips, and the booty is soon tucked
within. A hydra can swallow an animal larger in diameter than itself.
The endoderm cells have amœboid motion, that is, they extend
pseudopods. They also resemble amœbas in the power of intra-
cellular digestion; that is, they absorb the harder particles of food
and digest them afterwards, rejecting the indigestible portions. Some
of these cells have flagella (see Fig. 39) which keep the fluid of the
cavity in constant motion.
Sometimes the hydra moves after the manner of a small
caterpillar called a “measuring worm,” that is, it takes hold first by
the foot, then by the tentacles, looping its body at each step.
Sometimes the body goes end over end in slow somersaults.
The length of the extended hydra
may reach one half inch. When
touched, both tentacles and body
contract until it looks to the unaided
eye like a round speck of jelly. This
shows sensibility, and a few small
star-shaped cells are believed to be
nerve cells, but the hydra has not a
nervous system. Hydras show their
liking for light by moving to the side
of the vessel or aquarium whence the
light comes.
The Branch Polyps (sometimes
called Cœlenterata).—The hydra is Fig. 40.—Hydroid Colony, with
the chief fresh-water representative nutritive (P) reproductive (M) and
defensive (S) hydranths.
of this great branch of the animal
kingdom. This branch is characterized
by its members having only one opening to the body. The polyps also
include the salt water animals called hydroids, jellyfishes, and coral
polyps.
Hydroids.—Figure 40 shows a hydroid, or group of hydra-like
growths, one of which eats and digests for the group, another
defends by nettling cells, another produces eggs. Each hydra-like
 part of a hydroid is called a
hydranth. Sometimes the buds
on the hydra remain attached
so long that a bud forms upon
the first bud. Thus three
generations are represented in
one organism. Such growths
show us that it is not always
easy to tell what constitutes an
individual animal.
Hydroids may be conceived
to have been developed by the
failure of budding hydras to
separate from the parent, and
by the gradual formation of the
habit of living together and
assisting one another. When
each hydranth of the hydroid
Fig. 41.—“Portuguese Man-o’-war” devoted itself to a special
(compare with Fig. 40). A floating hydroid function of digestion, defence,
colony with long, stinging (and sensory) or reproduction, this group
streamers. Troublesome to bathers in Gulf
of Mexico. Notice balloon-like float.
lived longer and prospered;
more eggs were formed, and the
habits of the group were
transmitted to a more numerous progeny than were the habits of a
group where members worked more independently of one another.
As the sponge is a simple example of the devotion of special cells
to special purposes, the hydroid is a primitive and simple example of
the occurrence of organs, that is of special parts of the body set
aside for a special work.
How many mature hydranths are seen in the hydroid shown in Fig.
40? Why are the defensive hydranths on the outside of the colony?
Which hydranths have no tentacles? Why not?
Jellyfish.—Alternation of Generations.—Medusa.—With
some species of hydroids, a very curious thing happens.—The
hydranth that is to produce the eggs falls off and becomes
independent of the colony. More surprising still, its appearance
changes entirely and instead of being hydra-like, it becomes the large
and complex creature
called jellyfish (Fig.
43). But the egg of the
jellyfish produces a
small hydra-like
animal which gives
rise by budding to a
hydroid, and the cycle
is complete.
The bud (or
reproductive
hydranth) of the
hydroid does not
Fig. 42.—The formation of many free-swimming
produce a hydroid,
jellyfishes from one fixed hydra-like form. The
but a jellyfish; the egg saucer-like parts (h) turn over after they separate and
of the jellyfish does become like Fig. 43 or 44. Letters show sequence of
not produce a diagrams.
jellyfish, but a
hydroid. This is called by
zoologists, alternation of
generations. A complete
individual is the life from the
germination of one egg to the
production of another. So
that an “individual” consists
of a hydroid colony fixed in
one place together with all
the jellyfish produced from
its buds, which may now be
floating miles away from it in
the ocean. Bathers in the surf
are sometimes touched and
stung by the long, streamer-
like tentacles of the jellyfish.
These, like the tentacles of
the hydra, have nettling cells
Fig. 43.—A Jellyfish. (Fig. 41).
 The umbrella-
shaped free-swimming
jellyfish is called a
medusa (Fig. 44).
Coral Polyps.—
Some of the salt water
relatives of the hydra
produce buds which
remain attached to the
parent without,
however, becoming
different from the
parent in any way. The
coral polyps and
corallines are
examples of colonies
of this kind, Fig. 44.—A Jellyfish (medusa).
possessing a common
stalk which is formed as the process of
multiplication goes on. In the case of
coral polyps, the separate animals and
the flesh connecting them secrete
within themselves a hard, limy,
supporting structure known as coral.
In some species, the coral, or stony part,
is so developed that the polyp seems to
be inserted in the coral, into which it
withdraws itself for partial protection
(Fig. 45).
Fig. 45.—Coral Polyps The corallines secrete a smooth stalk
(tentacles, a multiple of six).
Notice hypostome.
which affords no protection, but they
also secrete a coating or sheath which
incloses both themselves and the stalk.
The coating has apertures through which the polyps protrude in
order to feed when no danger is near (Fig. 46). The red “corals” used
for jewelry are bits of stalks of corallines. The corallines (Figs. 47, 48)
are not so abundant nor so important as the coral polyps (Figs. 45,
49).