Social Efficiency Theory: My Take

When reading Bowles and Gintis, I was reminded of a quote I once heard about privilege. It reads, “People of privilege often think they have hit a triple, however they shouldn’t fool themselves, they were born on third.”

For many successful people the notion that success and wealth aren’t entirely due to merit is hard to swallow. It’s so appealing for us to believe in “The Just World Theory,” which states that people get what they deserve and deserve what they get. Yet, I agree with Bowles and Gintis, our world isn’t just. Neither are our education systems. Yet, I’m not sure to what extent I agree with Bowles and Gintis because some aspects of their opinions are a bit cryptic. I wish I knew if they thought schools served as a repressive force because of the intentions of modern day people or if the schools exist as a repressive force because of structural inequalities created in the past.

I believe that, in most cases, schools don’t serve the dominant, powerful, and the wealthy because of malicious motivation. There are simply structural inequalities present in our current educational system as a result of malicious intentions of the past. For example, during the 1930’s the Federal Housing Administration developed the modern mortgage. In many urban areas, one of which was New Orleans, housing markets were color-coded (or “red-lined”) on the basis of the race in the residents. Ultimately, because of racist thinking, the federal government not only became directly involved in preserving racially homogeneous neighborhoods, but also depreciating the value of the assets of the black community. Eventually this led to a congregation of African Americans in the urban region of New Orleans. Because property values had been depreciated, the property tax used to build the school systems also depreciated and the school systems suffered as a result.

I don’t believe the majority of modern society wishes to maintain the school system as a repressive force. There are passionate people all over this nation seeking to find affective ways to rebuild school systems that are the result of historical indignities. We just haven’t quite figured out how to affectively alter the states of schools in poor regions of our country. Yet we are trying (some, including myself, would argue not fervently enough). Think of the desegregation bussing efforts and programs like Teach for America. Though at some level, I do believe the privileged distance themselves from the harsh realities of our poorest performing schools. Understandably, the wealthy and powerful will always want their children to attend the best school possible and to a certain extent, this perpetuates the cycle of social class dominance. But again, this isn’t done with malicious intent. Parents of the rich, just like parents of the poor, want to see their children succeed.

And by the way, democratic socialism is not a relevant modern day answer.