1) Authors and Texts to Form this Blog:
Mary Astell: Questioning Customs
John Stuart Mill: Questioning Customs
Allen Johnson: Privilege, Power, and Difference (Chapters 1–3)
Video: A Short History of Public Schooling (Class Dismissed)
2) Response to the Text and Video:
In our Social Justice in Education course, we are interrogating how schools reinforce hidden systems of privilege. The quotes provided by Mary Astell and John Stuart Mill offer a perfect lens for this analysis. Astell writes, “Ignorance and a narrow education lay the foundation of vice, and imitation and custom rear it up,” while Mill identifies “the despotism of custom” as the primary obstacle to human advancement. These thinkers warn us that when education is narrow, it does not liberate students but rather it trains them to mimic the status quo.
The film Class Dismissed brings these warnings to life. The American school system, championed by Horace Mann, was modeled after the Prussian system to create a "docile... workforce". By emphasizing obedience and standardized testing, the system was designed to turn children into "cogs" in an industrial machine. As the narrator notes, the goal was to "subordinate children and get them in that mindset of being subordinated so they grow up to be subordinated adults".
This "Broken Model" of testing is a key mechanism for that subordination. As the reading notes, tests are "imperfect human constructs" that often fail to measure true potential, instead serving to "label kids, squeeze them into categories, [and] define and often limit their futures." For a long time, I believed this system was inherently fair because I succeeded within it. However, my sister Abi’s story—like the author’s cousin Nadia in the text—forces me to confront my privilege. Abi was denied reading interventions because she did not fit the "standard" mold. Like Nadia, who nearly missed her chance at higher math due to one "botched" placement test, Abi’s future was nearly derailed by a system that prioritizes "snapshot" testing over genuine understanding.
3) Connections to Class Concepts: This aligns with our discussions on positionality and privilege. As we read in Allen Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Difference, “Privilege exists when one group has something of value that is denied to others simply because of the groups they belong to, rather than because of anything they’ve done or failed to do.” Johnson explains that we treat the "default" way society functions as neutral, but that "default" is built to favor specific bodies.
When we apply Johnson’s perspective to the "Prussian model," we see the system wasn't designed to be a neutral place for everyone; it was designed to privilege those who easily conform to its rigid "customs." If we continue to uphold these customs, we are essentially "destroying the imagination" of the students we are supposed to be helping. Furthermore, the reading correctly points out that our system "tends to filter out the creative, different-thinking people who are most likely to make major contributions." True equity requires us to step away from our own biases and actively work to change systems that use "scientific" testing to disguise what is essentially a process of exclusion.
4) Hyperlinks and Further Reading:
To further explore why our current systems often fail to bridge the gap between "equality" and "equity," I highly recommend this Equity vs. Equality visual guide.
For those looking to continue the work of dismantling bias, this resource on implicit bias in education is a crucial starting point for any future educator.
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6) Comments/questions for peers: While not everyone in this Master’s cohort is a classroom teacher, we all share the formative experience of having been students. Looking back on your own K-12 schooling, can you identify a 'customary' practice or expectation that felt entirely normal at the time, but which you now recognize as having privileged some students while marginalizing others?
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