The enigmatic academy : class, bureaucracy, and religion in American education
- Churchill, Christian J., 1969-
- Philadelphia, Pa. : Temple University Press, 2012.
- Physical description
- viii, 223 p. ; 24 cm.
LC191.4 .C48 2012
- Unknown LC191.4 .C48 2012
- Levy, Gerald, 1940-
- Includes bibliographical references (p. -213) and index.
- Class, Bureaucracy, and Religion in American Education-- CONTENTS-- INTRODUCTION-- PART I. PLUFORT COLLEGE-- Introduction-- The Regional Atmosphere-- The Developmental Thrust-- The Symbiotic Community-- The Academic Trajectory-- The Socio-Political Whirlpool-- The Socially Ironic Reality Screen-- The Public Relations Panorama-- The Competitive Strain-- Conclusion: The Bureaucratic Grip-- PART II. MOUNTAINVIEW SCHOOL-- Introduction-- The Brahmin Tone-- The Civil Service Intrusion-- The Embattled Entitlement Path-- The Clubbable Induction-- The Currency of Behavior-- The Leisured Deviance Realm-- Conclusion: Rentier Incorrigibility in Academe---- PART III. LANDOVER JOB CORPS CENTER-- Introduction-- History: Profit Motives, Local Fears, Violent Outbreaks-- Approaching Landover-- The River to the Job-- Responses to Institutionalized Failure-- Students: "It's a risky place."-- Conclusion: The Veil of Ennui-- CONCLUSION-- ENDNOTES-- BIBLIOGRAPHY.
- (source: Nielsen Book Data)
- Publisher's Summary
- The Enigmatic Academy is a provocative look at the purpose and practice of education in America. Authors Christian Churchill and Gerald Levy use three case studies - a liberal arts college, a boarding school, and a Job Corps centre - to illustrate how class, bureaucratic, and secular-religious dimensions of education prepare youth for participation in American foreign and domestic policy at all levels. The authors describe how schools contribute to the formation of a bureaucratic character; how middle and upper class students are trained for leadership positions in corporations, government, and the military; and how the education of lower class students often serves more powerful classes and institutions. Exploring how youth and their educators encounter the complexities of ideology and bureaucracy in school, The Enigmatic Academy deepens our understanding of the flawed redemptive relationship between education and society in the United States. Paradoxically, these three studied schools all prepare students to participate in a society whose values they oppose. Christian J. Churchill is Professor of Sociology at St. Thomas Aquinas College, author of numerous articles in sociology, and a licensed psychoanalyst in private practice in Manhattan. Gerald E. Levy is a sociologist and author of Ghetto School: Class Warfare in an Elementary School. He taught at the college level for forty years and is now retired.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)
- Publication date
- Christian J. Churchill and Gerald E. Levy.