story by David Hoffman
College of Education & Human Development alumnus Wade Morris (Ph.D. ’22) published a new book entitled, “Report Cards: A Cultural History.”
In this book, he details the history and impact of the report card on the American education system.
Q: What prompted you to write a book on the history and cultural impact of the school report card?
A: My first inspiration was French philosopher Michel Foucault, who caused educational historians to reexamine systems of grades and testing with a new, sinister perspective. From the Foucauldian perspective, teachers have been reduced to “capillaries of disciplinary power,” agents of control through the means of surveillance, ranking and recording. However, I was struggling to reconcile the deep truths in Foucault’s observations and my personal enjoyment with teaching. I felt that Foucault disciples were a bit too reductionist in distilling my career as a teacher down to being a capillary of power.
As I was struggling to make sense of Foucault, the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Like everyone else, my family transitioned to online learning, but my middle daughter struggled. Online worksheets were stressing her out, pushing her to daily tears. I suggested that she go outside and play instead of working on the worksheets. But my wife disagreed. “The incomplete worksheets will go on her report card,” she said.
That’s when the light bulb went off. Maybe I could use report cards as a metaphor for a series of microhistories on the evolution of Foucauldian education in the 1800s and early 1900s. I wanted to highlight the experiences of teachers, students and parents. Ultimately, I wanted to see how ordinary school people like me and my daughters navigated the ubiquitous power of academic ranking and reporting embodied by school report cards.
Q: What are the 2-3 key takeaways you want people to remember after reading your book?
A: Are schools instruments of social control or avenues for social mobility? The answer is yes and yes. I think we should acknowledge the reality that generations of people have used formal schooling to their own advantage, that they were not automatons. The people that I studied saw the system for what it was: Deeply flawed, overly reductive in distilling the lives of children to numbers on a page, and far from a level playing field. Yet, these critically conscious protagonists in my book were obsessed with grades, they wanted more testing and several leveraged the system for their own purposes. For nearly two hundred years, people within schools have had agency – they are not the faceless stooges being controlled in Foucault’s more sinister version of education.
So, Foucault is undeniably correct, and we need to be critically conscious of systems of control that masquerade as education. However, don’t despair too much. We can take comfort in the understanding that generations navigated the power dynamics in education with varying degrees of success.
Q: How do you think your book will help move lives forward?
A: I hope that this book, at least in some small way, can raise historical awareness for students and teachers struggling to reconcile their ideals with the realities of formal schooling. I hope that they can see that we are living through a centuries-long epoch that isn’t likely to end in our lifetimes. I also hope that the book helps them recognize that they are not alone, that it is possible to carve out meaning within the disciplinary power of schools to find joy in formal education.