{"id":741,"date":"2013-04-19T12:59:41","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T17:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foreignersview.wordpress.com\/?p=741"},"modified":"2021-08-20T16:56:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T21:56:01","slug":"against-koppitalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2013\/04\/19\/against-koppitalism\/","title":{"rendered":"Against Koppitalism"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shortened version of this article first appeared on\u00a0<\/em>North by Northwestern<\/a>,\u00a0as part of a series of reactions to a talk by Wendy Kopp<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Wendy Kopp began her lecture yesterday by recounting how she got to the idea for starting Teach For America. She grew up, as did many Northwestern students, in a sheltered upper-class community. The area where she went to high school in the suburbs of Dallas was appropriately nicknamed \u201cthe bubble.\u201d Later, as a public policy major at Princeton, she learned more about America\u2019s inequalities, and it especially shocked her to learn that a student\u2019s place of birth is the biggest factor for determining their educational success\u2014insofar as geography is very tied to socio-economic background in this highly segregated country.<\/p>\n

One might be forgiven for being a little confused about this account. Kopp learned that there are a lot of poor people in the richest country in the world, and she learned that these poor people don\u2019t do very in school. Shouldn\u2019t the first of these be the shocking fact, and the second an obvious conclusion? But of course, Kopp grew up in a time of neoliberal orthodoxy even more constraining than ours. To question poverty itself was nearly unthinkable, but to forbid poor kids from having their own little piece of the American dream was a crime against humanity. Public education, for as long as it has existed, has played this role in the collective imagination of the United States: The \u201cgreat equalizer,\u201d granting the same opportunities to every kid no matter their background (except for black kids, but that\u2019s a story for another day). Capitalism never promised to abolish poverty, but it did promise to allow the poor to move up in life, and in Kopp\u2019s eyes it was now failing by its own standards.<\/p>\n

And so Wendy Kopp made it her mission to bring equity to the American education system\u2014a noble goal, undeniably. But now again, one might think, if poverty is what seems to be causing poor educational outcomes and fixing poverty is out of the question, maybe we can at least try to attenuate its effects. Provide better free meals in high poverty districts, free tutoring services to replace parents who don\u2019t have time to help with homework, that kind of thing. But to a self-identified \u201ccorporate tool\u201d and staff member of the \u201cPrinceton Tory\u201d<\/a> like Kopp, such programs probably amounted to communism. Instead, if there was to be a solution, it could not come from such \u201cpatches\u201d to capitalism, but from capitalism itself. Ask rich donors for money, get recent grads from elite universities to make some temporary sacrifices before they move on to their successful careers in other fields. And thus was TFA born.<\/p>\n

This kind of liberal voluntarism meshes perfectly well with conservative narratives about social problems: Rich people will fix it, so long as neither the government nor unions get in the way. It should come as no surprise that it was so easy for her to get funding, first from Mobil Corp. and Union Carbide Corp.<\/a>, later from Ross Perot<\/a>, and nowadays from all kinds of rich philanthropists, as well as public funds<\/a>. Organizations like Kopp\u2019s play an important justificatory role in capitalist ideology, so whether she intended to or not, she was actually doing them a favor! I\u2019m not trying to say here that people only volunteer their time and money to TFA because it justifies a system that keeps them at the top, but only that given the ideology that tends to pervade the upper classes, TFA is exactly the kind of thing that these type of people will see as a worthy investment. Note that in her talk, when replying to my previous article<\/a> which argued for structural change instead of TFA\u2019s brand of \u201cleadership,\u201d Kopp could only say: \u201cI can’t be more specific. We need leadership, that is all.\u201d Facts be damned, so long as what we do fits my own narrative about how the world works. And in this narrative, all solutions come straight from the top, from the saintly elite \u201cleaders\u201d who contribute to TFA.<\/p>\n

Kopp says she recognizes that TFA-type solutions can only go so far. In the end, there are structural problems to solve that can\u2019t be solved by more and more voluntarism. For example, she admitted in her talk that we\u2019ll need to pay teachers more if we want to improve the education system in the long run. But actions speak louder than words. TFA alumni like Michelle Rhee, whose union-busting tactics as chancellor of DC public schools do everything but make the teaching profession easier, get invited to speak at TFA alumni summits<\/a>; while TFA alumni like Alex Caputo-Pearl, a teacher in LA who plays a leading role in activism against privatization and for better working conditions, tend to get the cold shoulder<\/a>. As for poverty? According to Kopp, the way we\u2019ll inoculate kids against it is by teaching them \u201ccharacter strength\u201d alongside their academic skills. \u201cKids who succeed in the face of challenges are the ones with the strongest character,\u201d she said at her talk. So if you\u2019re poor, grin and bear it. Maybe if you\u2019re lucky TFA will send one of their \u201cleaders\u201d to help you out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A shortened version of this article first appeared on\u00a0North by Northwestern,\u00a0as part of a series of reactions to a talk by Wendy Kopp. Wendy Kopp began her lecture yesterday by recounting how she got to the idea for starting Teach For America. She grew up, as did many Northwestern students, in a sheltered upper-class community. … Continue reading “Against Koppitalism”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Here's my latest piece: Against Koppitalism #TFA #Kopp","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[12,30,49,61,62,72,88,96],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-capitalism","tag-education","tag-kopp","tag-neoliberalism","tag-northwestern","tag-politics","tag-tfa","tag-wealth-distribution"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3A68f-bX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":738,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2013\/04\/19\/we-dont-need-your-missionaries\/","url_meta":{"origin":741,"position":0},"title":"We don’t need your missionaries","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"April 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A version of this article first appeared on\u00a0North by Northwestern. At Northwestern, we love to talk about leadership. We are a \u201cleading institution,\u201d educating \u201cstudent leaders\u201d to be the \u201cleaders of tomorrow.\u201d If you haven\u2019t heard at least one of these phrases in the time you\u2019ve been here, you really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/10\/18\/daily-columnist-dangerously-shortsighted\/","url_meta":{"origin":741,"position":1},"title":"Daily columnist dangerously shortsighted","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"October 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This piece first appeared on The Protest. You can also read it there, the formatting is way fancier. If you haven't already read the latest installment of Northwestern racism, courtesy of The Daily Northwestern, take a deep breath and read it now. The piece is so awful from beginning to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":354,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/02\/22\/the-living-wage-fight-continues-at-nu\/","url_meta":{"origin":741,"position":2},"title":"The living wage fight continues at NU","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"February 22, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I got an article published on socialistworker.org! Here's a taste of it: IN THE fall of 2009, a group of students from the Northwestern Community Development Corps circulated a petition that called for the university to pay a living wage to all its employees. The students gathered more than 1,000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":381,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/03\/01\/letter-to-the-editor-its-time-to-fight-for-our-rights\/","url_meta":{"origin":741,"position":3},"title":"Letter to the Editor: It’s time to fight for our rights!","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"March 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I got a letter to the editor published on the Daily today. Here's an excerpt: Every time the city government does something students don't like, there is a lot of angry talk on campus. \"They have no right to do this! They don't care about us!\u00a0Morty, come save us!\" Read\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":361,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2012\/02\/25\/the-million-dollar-degree\/","url_meta":{"origin":741,"position":4},"title":"The million dollar degree?","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"February 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was inspired by this post on Crooked Timber, which was in turn inspired by David Graeber's\u00a0Debt: The First 5,000 Years. If somebody asked you to put a price on your upbringing, how much would say it's worth? A hundred thousand dollars? A million? I had a great childhood,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":745,"url":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/2013\/05\/07\/cultural-appropriation-or-why-cant-i-wear-a-sombrero\/","url_meta":{"origin":741,"position":5},"title":"Cultural Appropriation, or: Why can’t I wear a sombrero?","author":"Mauricio Maluff Masi","date":"May 7, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"This post was written for\u00a0The Protest. If you're a Northwestern student, you've probably received an email from ASG and Alianza calling for a \"respectful celebration of Cinco de Mayo.\" The letter explained what the date actually means to Mexicans, and among other things, contained the following statement: Unfortunately, instead of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics"","block_context":{"text":"Politics","link":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"HA1194350","src":"https:\/\/foreignersview.files.wordpress.com\/2013\/05\/ha1194350.jpg?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1059,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/741\/revisions\/1059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmaluff.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}