A Curriculum of Fear

It can be tempting to generalize certain attributes of schools as either being good or bad. Magnet and charter schools are often characterized as being inherently good. They usually offer special programs that ground all of their instruction. Having that choice is appealing to many families, and why not? Someone must have put a lot of thought into creating that special program, convincing stakeholders to open a school, and persuading teachers to build their curriculum around the program — often times forgoing a higher salary at another school. With the neighborhood school, it seems like had to be there, and there is not anything “special" about it that ties it together, except maybe geography. How is it supposed to compete with International Baccalaureate or STEM or performing arts? These things seem to give school a purpose. But what if the special program is something unexpected, perhaps something with a bit more baggage? How do geography, industry, and what our society expects from students influence the special programs made available to them? Are there any school lotteries you would think twice about before entering your child? In A Curriculum of Fear: Homeland Security in US Public Schools, (University of Minnesota, 2016), Nicole Nguyen, provides an ethnography of a public high school that responded to calls for reform by adopting homeland security as its primary focus and lens for all other classes. She explores the history of militarization in schools, its impact on students, and the intersection of ethics and personal politics.

Her recommended books included the following:

• Citizen, Student, Soldier: Latina/o Youth, JROTC, and the American Dream by Gina M. Pérez by
• The Theater of Operations: National Security Affect from the Cold War to the War on Terror by Joseph Masco
• Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton

Listen to the interview on New Books in Education.