Ann Gibson Winfield
Education in America was designed to organize, classify, and sort students according to a definition of ability and human worth provided by a racialized scientism known as eugenics - an ideology whose ultimate goal was the establishment of a superior White race. Eugenicists targeted entire ethnic groups, the urban poor, rural ï¿½White trash, ï¿½ the sexually ï¿½deviant, ï¿½ Blacks, Jews, Native Americans, Asians, Latino/as, and anyone who did not fit with the pseudo-scientifically established ï¿½superiorï¿½ Nordic race. Education leaders, complaining of children of ï¿½worm-eaten stock, ï¿½ established an enduring system to organize and sort students according to perceived societal worth. In exposing and addressing eugenics' place in our educational system, this book provides a groundbreaking addition to, and exceptional correction of, the history of curriculum in America.
Eugenics and Education in America: Institutionalized Racism and the Implications of History, Ideology, and Memory