Wake Me Up; I'm Having the American Dream

If we dismantle the American Dream, what will be the Soporific Replacement?

Before homilies, aphorisms and admonitions that smacked of the Protest Work Ethic were exposed as impolitic, elitist and culturally imperialist; some teachers hung nagging posters which read, “The trouble with opportunity is that it often comes disguised as hard work.”

While some, often times disadvantaged immigrant families, still believe in the American Dream and travel 6000 miles or North of the Border for the privilege of pursuing it, many carping American born citizens have written it off as the Opiate of the Disenfranchised.

Bhashkar Mazumder, recently published his study UPWARD INTERGENERATIONAL ECONOMIC MOBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES; it trots out evidence that many Americans have either lost faith in opportunity, the American Dream or the efficacy of hard work which is inexorably the precursor of economic mobility.

Bhashkar Mazumder is not an evil math teacher out to saddle innocent students under the age of 40 with a sense of personal responsibility; Mazumder is a Chicago economist and a member of the bipartisan advisory board for Pew’s Economic Mobility Project.

Mazumder suggests that the present offers “a unique opportunity to refocus attention and debate on the question of economic mobility and the American Dream” and to “provoke a more rigorous discussion about the role and strength of economic mobility in American society;” he wants “to ensure that the American Dream is kept alive for generations that follow.”

Mazumder says economic inequality can only be viewed as tolerable if there is considerable opportunity for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to move beyond their parents’ place in the income distribution.

The contrapositive is: "If considerable opportunity DOES NOT exist, then economic inequality CANNOT be viewed as tolerable;" it follows then that we would be justified firing up the political and legislative machinery to remedy the situation via redistribution.

Moreover, the non-existence of opportunity is license to vilify the rich, criminalize profits, excoriate the wealthy, socialize housing, implement disproportionate populist levies on the affluent, tax both wealth and income, and to vote in Robin Hood feather-bedding governments like those described in cheap Ayn Rand novels and Tea Party screed.

Assuming irreconcilable inequalities, we as a nation could justifiably explore methods of closing the “economic inequality” gap like extortion, expropriation and nationalization, while abandoning more labor intensive coercive strategies i.e. work.

Contrary to popular mythos, Mazumder’s study showed that “the vast majority of individuals, 71 percent, whose parents were in the bottom half of the income distribution actually improved their rankings relative to their parents;” furthermore, 38 percent of individuals who started in the bottom half of the income distribution moved to the top half of the distribution as adults.”

Of those who started at the very bottom, an astonishing “7 percent actually reached the top income quintile as adults;” this is the inconvenient Horatio Alger “rags to riches” scenario.

Mazumder’s report pointed out “striking differences” between popular myth and data driven reality “given the notable increases in economic inequality in recent decades.”

Mazumder suggests a “critical area for research in intergenerational economic mobility involves understanding the variety of mechanisms by which parents transmit income inequality to their offspring.”

Transmit inequality? Astounding but possibly true!

This is where we trot out the superannuated math teacher—a math teacher who lived his first six years in a house without indoor plumbing, TV or an operable refrigerator yet miraculously made it to that coveted empyreal quintile—anecdotal evidence I agree.

Can we even trust a math teacher? Let’s scout other sources first.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that “half of the recruiters from large U.S. companies surveyed couldn't find enough job candidates with four-year STEM degrees” and this led to “more recruitment of foreigners.”

STEM is the acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.

A November issue of US News reported that “future jobs lie in the fields of math and science; making it all the more urgent for younger generations to embrace these subjects … because of a lack of qualified workers, 2.5 million STEM jobs aren't being filled.”

A bright future awaits, yet STEM jobs are mottled with unfilled vacancies; it demonstrates, in part, how parents might be transmitting income inequality to their offspring.

First a disclaimer; the following examples are distilled from multiple school districts over a period of 20 years.

Math is one pair of crampons useful in scaling the income ladder; yet consider these scurrilous arguments offered by enabling parents.

A student is late to Geometry class 3 out of 5 days a week; the tardy arrivals are reported to the parent; the parent asks, “What class is he late to?” the teacher replies, “Geometry;” the parent responds, “Well then, now you know where the problem is.”

A student is failing math; the student claims the tests are not fair; the parent agrees because the tests expect the student to remember math content for more than two weeks.

A student has not done an assignment since August; it is late December; the parent finally gets mobilized; she claims her son has earned straight As in math until now; it must be the teacher; the student’s transcript shows the last three math grades—with other teachers—are B, C and D; it does not take a linear regression to predict what grade is on deck; but prevarications win the argument.

A student is caught indisputably cheating on a test; the parent assures the teacher that students who cheat are not necessarily cheaters; that everyone cheats; the tests encourage cheating; the administration extracts a formal apology from the teacher.

A bored student continually text messages in class; the parent is called; the parent asks what can be done; the teacher suggests confiscating the cell phone; the parent insists that there must be a less Draconian solution.

For group quizzes, a parent insists that his son who has done no math homework must be placed in a group with students who actually do homework.

A student who brings only a cell phone to class and covertly texts, has her phone temporarily confiscated by a parent; the parent later reports that she was forced to restore the phone because her daughter could not breathe without it.

A student is doing poorly in math; the parent arrives for a conference and announces he hated math and always did poorly in math himself; the student takes a visible sigh of relief; low expectations have been clearly signaled.

Succeeding in math undeniably involves strenuous thinking and hard work but with the right signal from parents the arduous and rigorous elements of a high school education can be successfully circumvented; thus a hollow diploma without all the work.

As Mazumder concludes, “We are only beginning to understand the process by which children who start at the bottom may ultimately develop (or not develop) the requisite skills to have an equal opportunity for economic success; We do not yet know what combination of factors (e.g., parental resources, preschool quality, early life health, peer and neighborhood influences) will ultimately improve human capital development.”

As a math teacher who has witnessed many debilitating subliminal signals that parents erroneously give their children; it’s easy to see what isn’t working.

James Truslow Adams —who popularized the notion American Dream in his 1931 "The Epic of America"—wrote, it is "not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."

Economic mobility, a.k.a the American Dream, is central to defining the American experience; more attention must be paid to understanding American economic mobility particularly as it relates to STEM.

Jeffrey R Smith

Math Dweeb at Encinal High