Are Unmotivated Students Cultural Critics?

This article asks whether unmotivated and underachieving students might be considered in the tradition of the cultural critic. From its earliest days in the United States, we see schools developing along with the industrializing economy, a sea change often resisted by those over whom its waves rolled. From the textile regions of New England to the Post-Bellum South and the cities of the Progressive Era, schools inculcated the discipline, docility, and individualist-competitive ethic needed to fuel the growth of capital. Analyzing such patterns through a Marxian lens, we can see how many of today’s pre- eminent capitalists shape education and the social economy according to Neoliberal ideology. This is a raw deal for those trapped on the bottom rungs of the ladder. Short of casting them as sages before the fact, educators may seriously consider the nature of the horizons of achievement being rejected by some unmotivated students, and perhaps look to them as resources for recognizing the perversities of school, culture, and society to which we adults have become inured and therefore accept as natural.