Letters
Editors: In the Summer 2000 issue of Dissent, Will Hutton and Anthony Giddens engage in a timely and entertaining debate over globalization ("Is Globalization Americanization?") Unfortunately,...
...Unfortunately, the authors' conclusion that "grassroots" globalization is an uncertain answer to the problems faced today begs the question: who will he the agents of social change...
...Indeed, it was the "bouncing out" of a principal in October 1998 that paved the way for the destabilization of the school that arose more from the concerted antics of the Board of Education (four principals in a one-year period midOctober 1998 to October 1999...
...Since a voucher cannot reasonably cover the tuition of most private schools, it follows that such vouchers will be an unnecessary subsidy for the wealthy, a modest help for the working poor, and of no use to the poor, unless they result in the less than welcome development of educational Medicaid mills...
...He anticipates that the proposed elementary school on 110th Street will be a "portal for university resources to public schools...
...99-104) Editors: I agree with Maxine Phillips ("The Last Page," Dissent, Fall 2000) that good public schools need advocates...
...Decisions based upon the invisible hand are proven to be much more calculated when, as Hutton points out, although the Americans did not design the crisis, they did benefit hugely...
...But something must be added...
...The larger question raised in my article of commitment to public education as an ideal remains...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes...
...Fixing that means re-industrialization: in short, protectionism, at least in terms of the bread-and-butter products of everyday life, if not of specialty products...
...Editors: Amy Gutmann ("What Does School Choice Mea '?", Dissent, Summer 2000) properly opposes vouchers as way out of the failures of inner-city schools...
...However, if the cold warriors still dominate international relations within the nationstate framework, then the problems of globalization ought to be couched in a language of threat construction...
...By reading our journal so thoroughly, and commenting on it at such length, he demonstrates much more interest and sensitivity toward students as social, thinking, beings than too many administrators and supervisors who view students through the restrictive prism of test scores...
...Interestingly, it's the very "dialogue and discovery"—not unlike Dissent's Symposiums, Arguments, Reconsiderations—that not only provide an avenue for students to go beyond their partial truths but, more important, put them on the road to becoming lifelong autonomous learners committed to imagining and constructing a more humane world...
...Enfranchisement, antiwar, civil rights, environmental, and the "Old" Left or "workers- movements have all experienced varying degrees of success because women and men have placed their bodies in the gears of oppressive structural machines...
...Gardner P. Dunnan, who is Columbia University assistant provost for special projects and one of the prime movers behind the school, has said that 50 percent of the student body will be drawn from the community...
...126 DISSENT / Winter 2001 LETTERS Editors: As the adviser of Crossing Swords, I was delighted with Marshall Berman's compelling article "Crossing Swords: Trees Growing in Brooklyn" (Dissent, Fall 2000...
...Citing an article in the New York Times, Phillips accuses Columbia of neglecting the surrounding community and its public schools...
...What, I wonder, do Hutton and Giddens think the international community ought to consist of, if not grassroots organizations...
...The concrete question of when and how Columbia will construct its twelve-story building is being hammered out at community meetings in the neighborhood...
...I apologize for the confusion about the exact percentages, which was caused by a miscalculation from figures given in the article...
...Would the recent IMF debates in Prague have been so concerned with the fact that three billion people live off of two dollars or less a day if protesters around the world had not rallied...
...We are unable to acknowledge letters...
...If the Western/industrial nations are accumulating the vast majority of the wealth, then shouldn't those same nations do something to ease suffering and increase human dignity...
...But because we have a long "lead time" for each issue, you have to send us your letter within three weeks of getting an issue of Dissent in order to get it into the next issue...
...Letters must be no more than 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...than from "gangs from the streets...
...JOSEPH M. DIAMOND Brooklyn, N.Y...
...Rarely, if ever, is the cause of human emancipation advanced due to the benevolence of a gracious management...
...We accept Email submissions to editors@dissentmagazine.org . DISSENT / Winter 2001 I27...
...The question of whether the forces of globalization are inherently "American" or "Western" is interesting only at the point when it leads to a discussion of responsibility...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...Though Berman is on target about "kids choos(ing) life by turning to each other," he overplays sexual intercourse to the exclusion of the lively discourse and metacognition spawned by students critically engaging each other in print...
...However, I question the accuracy and fairness of what she has to say about the proposed Columbia University school...
...Behind the degradation of the inner-city schools lies the degradation of the inner cities themselves, and for that we must look at deindustrialization, the disappearance of any solid employment future for the people involved, with widespread social decay as a consequence...
...Disregarding the postmodern notion that emancipation is a false construct, real politics ought to be about the reduction of human suffering, not the role of "Western" nations...
...However, in spite of his alluring title, I wonder if, by failing to explicate Crossing Swords' dialectical—"Jaytalking," if you will—nature, he may not have overlooked the crux of the journal, namely its "promise of possibility" by his reductionist approach, which "celebrated" inner-city pathologies: sex, violence, drugs, failure, and so on...
...Real" politics, at least in the realm of social change, has only come from below...
...I would have liked Hutton and Giddens to infuse their argument with the concept of responsibility...
...This unwillingness to judge is inherently unpolitical and too easily becomes an excuse for continued injustice around the world...
...Notwithstanding these minor concerns, the collective of students, parents, and the communityat-large that sustained the publication are elated by the timely and comprehensive exposition on our journal, one that attempts, on the high school level, what Transition evinces—"a grand effort to synthesize 'the incompatible, the disparate, and letting them grow together.'" (Dissent, Spring 1999, pp...
...I applaud the authors for their attempt to reframe the debate on globalization...
...To Letter Writers • We welcome succinct letters from our readers...
...According to a June 2000 working draft of a mission statement for the school that Dunnan made available to me, the school intends to serve as a "research and development lab" for local public schools...
...Giddens's argument is suspiciously similar to Adam Smith's "invisible hand" analogy insofar as he seems unwilling to place blame or responsibility for the extreme disparity that is the hallmark of globalization...
...Gardner Dunnan confirmed to me that indeed 50 percent of the slots would be for children of community residents, and that need-based scholarships for community residents would be available...
...But something more must be added...
...Global poverty, global environmental degradation, and global arms sales are all issues that represent threats to global security...
...As loathsome as it may be to bring up the subject of global order, wouldn't it increase human dignity if the notions of "order and security" meant ending worldwide poverty, hunger, and environmental destruction...
...Presumably, we must read their new book to find out...
...He pointed out that Columbia University is working with School District 3 to offer access to and training for new media resources and has submitted a proposal to form a partnership with a local public school...
...As the worldwide protests against the World Trade Organization and the International Monetary Fund have shown, radical activists armed with puppets, PVC arm locks, rocks, and slogans dramatically help to keep the issue of responsibility on the international agenda...
Vol. 48 • January 2001 • No. 1
