We frequently hear critics argue that U.S. students can’t write well and that there is a “literacy crisis” in the U.S. What is the origin of these discourses? What do they have to do with immigration, national security, and economics? How does the notion that Americans can’t write drive the national push to test writing? Here we explore the history of writing and testing in the U.S., the “science” and technology of testing approaches, and how the rhetoric of assessment impacts the lives of Americans today.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Free Will and (not “or”) Determinism

In Soc119 Race Relations, we have been learning about the two different ways of viewing the inequalities found between different races in areas such as income, wealth, home-ownership, college graduation rates, etc. As we talked about in today’s class, there are two different ways of viewing the data.
1. Free Will: We make the choices that determine the outcome of our lives.
2. Determinism: We are largely dictated by circumstances outside of our control.
Obviously, both approaches coincide with one another and perpetuate a cycle of lower test scores and social and educational inequality for certain groups (for our discussion purposes). My Sociology professor could not stress enough that the two are not entirely different approaches and are actually intermingled (Hence the title of this post). On the first day of this semester I strongly believed that people have the power to control their lives, but if you asked me now I would say that people can only make the best out of the circumstances they have been given. What’s your opinion?
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1 comment:

Mya Poe said...

Gilyard presents a third option--a transactional view--"a focus on the choices certain individuals make when confronted with certain circumstances" (p. 63) Gilyard suggests that between free will and determinism is a socially-mediated option. Your evolving thinking about inequality seems to be like Gilyard's view. Would you agree?

February 23, 2011 at 9:46 AM

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