Discussion of 187

1
Discussion of 187

• 187 is a kind of urban anthropology
• It attempts to describe the dynamic of the whole
  system, rather than quantitatively analyze some
  one part of it.
• The E. LA school pictured is different from that
  most Villanova students attended,
• but it is not that different from most
  Philadelphia schools.
• Consider the effects of current reforms.

2
Questions and e-mail discussion

• Urban anthropology raises many questions.
• I have placed a grab bag of Questions on 187
  linked to the Power Point index for 9/5,
• but any comments or questions whatever, or any
  reactions to other students comments are
  perfectly appropriate for e-mail discussion.
• What would you (as a substitute teacher) do
  there?
• What can we (as a society) do about such
  schools?
• Think about both individual solutions at the
  micro level (killing bullfrogs) and social
  policies at the institutional level (draining the
  swamp).
• Think systemically
• Find positive and negative feedbacks

3
Thinking systemically

• To think systemically is to see actions and
  structures in their inter-relation with each
  other
• Distinguish what one can and should do as an
  individual from what one can do in conjunction
  with other school structures or from what the
  society can and should do as a society.
• Distinguish the solutions to violence that
  involve direct disciplinary and police action
  from solutions that address underlying problems.
• Distinguish solutions that are limited to the
  school, from those that involve changing
  conditions in the community.

4
Why look for feedbacks?

• Positive feedbacks are amplifiers. Those
• That have negative outcomes are cancers,
• and they create inequality.
• Those that have positive outcomes are
  self-reinforcing healthy changes.
• Negative feedbacks are control systems.
• Ones with negative outcomes keep the system stuck
  in a swamp of social pathology.
• Ones with positive outcomes are self-maintaining.

5
3 Sets of questions

• Garfield believes that he cannot let KOS get away
  with terrorizing people,
• but his vigilantism makes it worse.
• Would more policing work better? (Note that this
  is one of the main things that the Philadelphia
  proposal calls for.)
• Current reforms decrease teacher or school
  principal discretion and increase the number of
  segregated violent students to 2,300.
• This is a substantial stock of stigmatized
  students in schools of crime.
• Equal opportunity.
• Do students in E. L.A. and in 90210 have equal
  opportunity ?
• What would it take to make opportunities equal?
• The interconnection of social problems.
• Why have all the normative structures in ELA
  broken down?
• What else does the school need (e.g. air
  conditioning, sports)?
• What else does E LA need (e.g. jobs, social
  services)?