Fall 2003

AMS 315 • Education, Culture and Identity

Course Description

To what extent does our education define who we are? How do schools reinforce or challenge our sense of cultural identity? What lessons about race, class, and gender are taught—intentionally or unintentionally—on school grounds? What role does education play in teaching young people what it means to be

Grading Policy

Four reaction papers to assigned reading (2 pages each) (25%) Interview with an adult of another generation about his/her school experience (3-page summary) (15%) Autobiographical essay—a critical meditation on your own education (5 pages) (25%) Letter addressed to the superintendent/headmaster of your high school proposing changes to the curriculum (5 pages) (25%) Attendance, participation, reading quizzes, etc. (10%)

Texts

William Graebner, Coming of Age in Buffalo: Youth and Authority in the Postwar Era Richard Rodriguez, Hunger of Memory Ann Arnett Ferguson, Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity Rippberger and Staudt, Pledging Allegiance: Learning Nationalism at the El Paso-Juarez Border James Loewen, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong Film: The Blackboard Jungle

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