Gutek Chaps. 7 & 9

In Chapter 7, Gutek emphasizes the effect that nationalism has on education and the impact education has on building a national identity. It seems to me that nationalism exists only in a comparative approach (similar to the Kohn quote on page 121-122). Up until a few years ago, if anyone asked me where I was from, I would respond "New Hampshire" without thinking. Unfortunately I made the mistake of doing this while in a Spanish chat room for a Spanish 202 assignment. "New Hampshire" and even "outside of Boston" meant nothing to the teenagers and 20-somethings I was talking to. Many of them were from Spain and it was only when I said I was American that they understood. I had never really thought of myself as "American" because that word had always seemed too vague to me (perhaps due to my lack of international traveling).

I believe that U.S. education is very regionalized and thus has created such regional identities. My dad was in the Air Force so we moved around a bit. As a child, it was annoying having to relearn multiple state's geographies, histories, famous figures, etc. I remember getting confused because in New Hampshire we spent quite a lot of time learning about mills and made multiple field trips to the nearby historic mill sites. In Ohio we had never talked about mills, but more about agriculture. Even now at Emory, I took a course called "The New South" and it seemed that 90% of the material had never been mentioned in my education in the North.

Interestingly, this claim can be supported by Gutek's explanation of U.S. schools being locally controlled and financed (this concept coming from the New England "town school"), as opposed to other countries' centralized national educational systems. Since each state has control over its own curriculum (other than meeting national testing standards), students are going to learn different material. There is lingering nationalism in the background, such as the pledge to the American flag and celebrating Thanksgiving, but overall I find American schools to be regionalistic, unfortunately fracturing the national identity. It is only during times like 9/11 or the election of Obama when we all "come together" and call ourselves Americans. National and international contexts should definitely be emphasized more in public schools.