A somewhat in-depth and wise article

The Reproduction of Class Order—A Comment on Two "Theories of the Uselessness of Reading"

Li Sanda

The ancient Chinese always viewed reading as personal career and family continuation. An important way, the plaque of "Farming and Reading Heirloom" in "White Deer Plain" is a typical symbol of this tradition. With the help of the market economy, the universalization of the law of money has made reading itself less noble. Chinese people have become more and more "pragmatic" about this problem: once studying, it will neither bring a career nor bring success. Wealth, then what is the use of it? However, this concept is not the common sense of the entire society. The lower class people - who are subject to high tuition fees - will form a psychological identity with the "uselessness of studying" theory, and will regard the wealth myths of business heroes since the reform and opening up as this concept. strong evidence. However, from a sociological perspective, there is a hidden danger called "reproduction" that may have quietly arrived. "The theory that reading is useless" is like the ancient Roman god Janus, who has two faces.

The famous ethnographic work "Learning to Work" by British scholar Paul Willis focuses on exactly this group: they are the children of the working class in the old industrial areas of England, and reading is dispensable for them. , because they know very well that like their fathers, they will eventually find a job in a factory in this industrial area, receive a barely acceptable salary, get married and have children, and let their family repeat the life of a rolling stone like Sisyphus. They are called "guys", and opposite them are the "nerds" who are also working-class children but are eager to change their destiny through reading. However, the anti-school culture formed by "guys" has always regarded reading as something disgusting. Their successive academic failures have gradually made them develop the habit of severely underestimating their own intelligence. Their typical statement is: "I know I It's stupid, so I should spend the rest of my life in a car factory screwing nuts onto wheels. It's fair and reasonable." ("Learning to Work", page 1) Academic failure will in turn strengthen their own reactions. School culture, so the pursuit of "fun" has become the meaning of their school life. They know their future harsh life, so those glorious experiences in school are destined to become their future life wealth worth remembering. It is this kind of thinking that changes It becomes their capital to laugh at "nerds": "What can they remember about their school life? What can they look back on now when they look back in the future? Sitting in the classroom until their buttocks sweat, but we... …I mean look at the things we can look back on, the fights with the Pakistani guys, the fights with the Jamaican guys, and the pranks we did on the teachers, it’s going to be fun to look back on it.” ("Learning to Work." ", page 18)

According to Willis's research, this kind of seeking excitement and joy in the present, and using it to ridicule students who only know how to follow the rules, is just a way for working-class children to better adapt. A way of working for our fathers. "Guys" see "nerds" as "sissies" and see themselves as masculine because they dare to fight, get drunk in bars, and challenge the teacher's authority in class , Dare to resist the oppression of the teaching system. All this will become a valuable struggle experience for them as the working class in the future. They see themselves as manual workers, but they are not ashamed of it, because these jobs are those who sit in the office with their legs crossed and do mental work. Something "sissies" can't do. In order to maintain this sense of practicality and manual labor, they will look down on those who value diplomas and theory, and even put up slogans on the factory floor: "One ounce of intuitive intuition is worth as much as a whole library of diplomas." "It is precisely under the guidance of the concepts of their fathers that "guys" regard reading as useless work and diplomas as a piece of waste paper, because the real knowledge they need to master comes from practice in the factory.

China is currently on the road to modernization. A large number of migrant workers have gotten rid of the shackles of the land and entered factories to engage in production. Heroes of wealth like Li Ka-shing became their idols because he, like these workers, had no diploma, but he achieved social status and achievements that were unattainable.

This ideology makes the children of the lower classes who are receiving education either believe that their talents are limited, or they believe that they can achieve great achievements and status without studying. In addition, the cost of education continues to increase year by year and the employment of college graduates decreases year by year. Efficiency makes them more inclined to believe that factors such as "being a person", "relationships", "entertaining", "cruelty" and "hard work" will bring them success. At this time, both the "tea egg seller" and the "atomic bomb maker" realized that there is no essential connection between reading and success.

However, just as the poor employment situation of college students has caused the "uselessness of studying" theory to be repeatedly touted, the threshold of the college entrance examination is still a bloody fight of "one general succeeds and ten thousand bones are withered". This group of well-behaved children Parents are generally located in the middle class of society, and although children in the elite class are also part of the "anti-school culture" in school, they are different from the working-class children described by Willis. They will be forced by their families to obtain Some degree of "diploma", especially overseas qualifications, is highly sought after. Most of this elite group is the second generation of rich people and officials. Even though they also have the awareness that "study is useless" because they are mostly losers in school education, they are reluctant to throw away the fig leaf that is used to cover their shame. . This is not a situation unique to China. The book "The Hidden Rules of College" by American Pulitzer Prize winner and Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel King reveals the shady story of higher education in the United States. The core content is this paper diploma from a prestigious school.

The so-called American elites described in this book generally have good backgrounds, which means that their college education is concentrated in so-called prestigious schools, such as the Ivy League in the northeastern United States, the Ivy League in the west, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, or Duke in the south, etc. These elites usually recommend their children to their alma maters as alumni, and these prestigious schools are also willing to take care of the children of their alumni. This is called the "family policy." Certain wealthy people who have no experience in prestigious schools will also get the attention of schools such as Harvard and Princeton. If they are willing to donate a considerable amount of money, their children can also enjoy priority admission. This is called a "development project." If you are neither aristocratic nor a tycoon, but you are a star in the entertainment industry, you will also be favored by Ivy League schools such as Brown University, as long as you can attend a cocktail party to fundraise for the school or give a speech. If none of the above fails, there is a final magic weapon. Many children of wealthy families spend staggering amounts of money to learn certain aristocratic sports, such as golf, polo, equestrian, rowing, etc. These prestigious schools will focus on the so-called diversification to provide valuable admission places for these children who have piled up "athletic talent" with money. This really echoes the old Chinese saying "dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and mice give birth to burrows." Generations of elites have tried their best to get this diploma. This is undoubtedly the other way around. A mockery of the theory that reading is useless.

Once we understand the "invisible hand" of American higher education, it seems necessary for us to be proud of China, which has yet to achieve quality education. Although the dilapidated machine of China's college entrance examination has been criticized many times, every time Yao Jiaxin comes out or someone revisits the "Qian Xuesen Question", this old ideological machine is cheered by everyone and should be withdrawn. historical stage. However, the rote memorization of the one-size-fits-all college entrance examination is also the most powerful weapon for many of China's first-generation elites who have successfully achieved upward mobility. There is no "family policy" or "development project policy". China's college entrance examination, which determines life after one test, is also the most powerful weapon. Many rich but incompetent second-generation officials and second-generation rich people are forced to go to the other side of the ocean to receive foreign education with broken English. Even if they have to enter famous schools through various secret doors, they cannot be as blatant as entering famous American schools. They have to Doing secret work behind the sun. This has to be said to be its former glory, but this does not mean that its history is so innocent. The huge contrast between the enrollment quotas in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and other places and the enrollment quotas in Shandong, Henan, Hubei and other places has become the biggest cancer in China’s college entrance examination policy. Its effect is no different from the policies of prestigious American schools. Generation after generation. A generation of Chinese elites have gathered in these developed areas, resulting in a monopoly on huge educational resources. However, with the breakup of the unified college entrance examination and the gradual increase of provinces with independent propositions, students from different regions have been separated by the barrier of "quality education", and students from developed areas are dubbed as having higher "quality". Use those educational resources reasonably and legally.

What is chilling is that China seems to never have a Daniel King publish a Chinese book called "Unspoken Rules of Universities".

In fact, the "uselessness of reading" theory of the lower class people and the elite's layer-by-layer protection of diplomas both serve the same purpose: "reproduction of class order." French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu's "reproduction" theory is also the main target of Paul Willis's theory. This theory believes that: "Education disguises social choices under the cloak of technological choices, and transforms social classes into school classes through utilization. The legalization of reproduction provides this service to certain classes." ("Reproduction", page 165) This means that through complicated systems such as school entrance and graduation, the lower class people who continue to fail in their studies realize that they are themselves. Their talents are not as good as those of the elites, and thus they identify with their social status and the existing order of society. In fact, Bourdieu believes that the education system "disguises admission opportunities as opportunities for success" and ultimately aims to achieve "the elimination of the lower classes" ("Reproduction", p. 171). Specifically, the more the lower class believes in the "uselessness of reading," the more they laugh at "nerds," and the more they believe in "anti-school culture," the less resistance the elite will encounter in keeping future generations in the same class. The most regrettable thing is that the working-class children in "Learning to Work" who are also students in the school who believe in "anti-school culture" will forever copy their views on "nerds", "diplomas", They ridicule "knowledge" and so on and comfort themselves by "enjoying" the glory of manual labor. However, the rich kids in "The Hidden Rules of University", after consuming champagne parties, drinking and drug abuse and other unbearable life experiences, end up with The spirit of "prodigal son turning back" is to pick up the great achievements of his father's generation again, or to shoulder the heavy responsibility of the enterprise, or to inherit the father's legacy and become active in the political arena. In this regard, the admissions directors of prestigious schools will be quite pleased that their vision was correct after all. Like Al Gore III, he violated school rules in high school, but because his father was the vice president, he was finally able to enter Harvard. After graduation, he founded his own magazine and followed his father in advocating for environmental protection, but he was arrested for speeding and drug possession ("University Hidden Rules", page 371). However, if he donates a considerable amount of money to Harvard, his children can openly claim on the Harvard campus that they got in solely because of their strength, but they don’t know whether this strength is intelligence or the surname "Gore". .

This is why the "theory of the futility of reading" is like Janus. For the problem students at the lower level, it is a shackles that shackles life. For the dandies at the upper level, it is just a saying: "People are not frivolous and waste their youth." ". China is not the United States yet, but its reverence for money is even greater. Bourdieu’s words are particularly useful for today’s China: “The heir to the privileges of the bourgeoisie cannot cite the fact that his class has historically denied the enjoyment of the aristocracy. Blood rights...nor can they invoke the virtue of hard work that the first-generation entrepreneur used to illustrate his achievements by his performance. Today, he must turn to written testimonials from his school, which can prove his talent as well as his achievements. "("Reproduction", page 225) The first-generation entrepreneurs currently occupy the mainstream in China, but many phenomena indicate that they are no longer able to stop them from reproducing the second-generation order.