Abstract
The United States may be a largely monotheistic nation, but certain societal elements have nevertheless acquired god-like status. The late Neil Postman famously described this process in his provocative book, The End of Education (1995). With respect to the educational endeavor in the United States, Postman identified the largest and most powerful god as one concerned near-exclusively with economic productivity, that is, the god of economic utility. Why do we go to the trouble of providing free schools for all children? Ask any politician in the United States today and you will hear some reference to the economy. One or two of the more thoughtful politicians might add something about citizenship as an afterthought, but make no mistake about it, the common sense, and commonly-held, opinion among politicians and the general public is that schools are designed to serve society by producing youth who are equipped with the skills required by the world of work.
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Theobald, P., Bedward, J. (2015). Balancing Economic Utility with Civic Responsibility. In: Mueller, M., Tippins, D. (eds) EcoJustice, Citizen Science and Youth Activism. Environmental Discourses in Science Education, vol 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-11608-2_20
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