Essay – A School’s Purpose: Peace of Mind

Last updated on November 5, 2024

Schools were originally founded to produce factory workers. Much like tragedy in the warehouse led to safety precautions, school safety has been brought to the forefront of debates in recent months following tragic mass shootings — most notably the Parkland shooting. As the eye of the public remained focused on the threat from outside the school campus, an endemic has remained hidden in classrooms from the population, but not from the school system. While fighting for the survival of the student body, schools have forgotten the importance of the individual. Schools have ignored the lasting effects of their surveillance on students in favor of continuing to protect the student body.

In his 1975-1976 lectures at the College de France, the french philosopher Michel Foucault describes the concept of biopower as one with the right to make live and let die. Biopower is power over bodies by manipulation of the individual into what the state or institution defines as ideal.

It evolved from disciplinary power which held the same right to make live and let die. Prior to disciplinary power was the power of the sovereign which also held power over the individual but, differs by holding the right of the sword — the right to take life and let live (Foucault, Society Must, 240). Biopower deviates from its predecessors which held power over the individual by holding power over the population. Building off the mechanism of surveillance from disciplinary power, biopower regulates and organizes the population. By organizing individuals into a group, institutions or states can manipulate these societal subspecies, as termed by Foucault. The duty of the state is to protect and preserve its population thus, the state loses the sovereign power that previously held right to take life and cannot literally kill members of the population without justification. The ability to create a subspecies now becomes useful in labelling it an enemy or threat. Classification such as this is what Foucault concluded to be state racism and is how the state was able to metaphorically kill a population with labels if they did not fit the standard of the state. Using this lens we can see possible state racism in schools through the use of standardized tests. Standardized tests in their most well known form are required large-scale public-school tests that have similar or the same questions and are consistently scored to allow for comparisons of data. The No Child Left Behind Act and other federal/state policies are prime sources of capturing data on student performance for the purpose of improving education for the student body and ultimately society as a whole (How BIG). This is similar to how optimization of the population is the purpose of biopower.

Foucault describes the physical manifestation of the disciplinary mechanism of surveillance with the panopticon. The design of this unique prison maximizes viability. Prisoners are confined to their cells where they cannot see other prisoners or the guards (Foucault, Panopticism). The supervisors gain power over the prisoners by being able to watch while remaining hidden from the prisoners view leading to the prisoners assumption that they are under constant surveillance. New campuses are being built on the concept of natural surveillance — maximizing visibility through positioning of features and barriers (Kennedy). As technology advances, new means of tracking students have been added that allow for constant surveillance. Control over the milieu, or environment, is being used to deter violence in schools similar to Foucault’s implementation in the panopticon (Kennedy).

The purpose of surveillance within the concept of biopower is to learn about the uncertain — the epidemic — that is an unpredictable and therefore, constant threat to a population. Uncertainty is the plague that risks the health and survival of society. To counter this threat, the state and institutions rely on physical and visible surveillance. Visible surveillance is the order that meets the chaos of the plague. It is used to manage and reassure the population of safety and control. As the population feels safe they become tolerant of the surveillance and accept it as a necessary evil for the purpose of ensuring their security. In September of 2017 there were four cases of school violence, three of which involved guns. The involved schools were left with two dead and six injured students (Kennedy). Following these disturbing incidents many politicians and parents alike demanded an increase in on-campus security. In 2013-2014, across the United States, a mere 42% of schools employed resource officers and other on campus security personnel (Kennedy). Currently, two thirds of schools nationwide have CCTV cameras that allow for omnipresent surveillance in an effort to deter any wrongdoing (Fox). On the other hand, escalation in surveillance on campuses raises the concern of an over-correction. The oversecuring of schools conveys to students that they should be afraid: that their lives are in danger. The purpose of surveillance is prevention, preparation and reassurance, not scaring students while in the pursuit of academics. We have fundamentally failed our students in our misuse of surveillance by destroying their peace of mind.

The fears that visible surveillance can communicate to students can be mitigated by keeping surveillance on campus as discreet as possible. Discreet surveillance — hidden surveillance — has another purpose: to collect data. New software has begun tracking students using online schools or tutoring applications that collect the data from the mass to apply to the individual with the purpose of searching for patterns in students emotions, mindsets and ways of thinking(Herold). This is the manifestation of the strategy of using tools and mechanisms to optimize society, the purpose of biopower. Adopting the rationale of the health of the population, institutions use the purpose of biopower as justification for mass surveillance. The institution must also regulate the rest of the population for example: the online school must manipulate the individual student into the ideal student. 

Algebra Nation, a free software platform that allows students to watch math videos online, has come up with a solution to this that should debut in spring 2019. First they use facial recognition and click patterns to collect data on the students attention. Then they analyze the data to determine if the student is becoming bored and distracted. Their final step bares a similar resemblance to Uber’s “authoritative nudges” (Rosenblatt, 1). Algebra Nation will then alert the user with “personalized prompts or supports” to try and refocus the user(Herold,7). Software intervention through nudging is a new form of micromanaging of student engagement to try and mold their behavior into that of an idealized student. It’s “a new way of managing individuals,” by following them day to day, micromanaging bypasses the original restrictions of surveillance and expands on its uses (Ceyhan, 1). Fears of parents and students alike have been voiced about the possibility of the misuse of the data and nudges that software like Algebra Nation are beginning to implement. Control of Algebra Nation’s software by the public schools would give the government access to data collected, which isn’t ideal either. If we cannot trust the institution or the government, who can protect us from those who claim to be our protector?

Grades are a common tool of ranking student performance in schools based on data. Student placements can sometimes be below a student’s abilities causing the tracking to be particularly “disastrous for those whose abilities fall in the middle range” (Tracking Harms, 1). This method of class placement seems to particularly affect Latinos and African-Americans who are being placed in non prep courses more than twice as often as whites and Asian-Americans of the same ability (Tracking Harms). This discrimination could be an incarnation of Foucault’s theory of state racism. Schools are separating children based on test scores or other measures to further the success of the population’s ideal mass — the higher ranked students — at the expense of the population that needs more help, the lower ranks. Kids are more than a test score yet, this is what schools judge them on for ranking. Students that need more assistance may just need more time when the curriculum is as dense as it has become (Ferguson). In the current school structure, one bad day can have lasting effects on the students life, no pressure.

Tracking students for placement hasn’t always been the approach to teaching. Previously between the late 1970s to 1980s, many teachers used a child-centered learning approach compared to the modern achievement-oriented system adopted by schools. Outcomes, the survival of the mass/health of the population, is now the driving force of education. However, this isn’t the case in all schools. In some schools product qualities like “grade A” student — eerily similar to the label of  “grade A” meat — give way to methods that measure student learning like a new system developed by Courtland Park School in Saint-Bruno, Quebec. The program focuses on developmental stages of students and measures progress in terms of student application of their acquired knowledge (Ferguson). Students also judge their own work. This encourages genuine, deep learning where kids will absorb information into long-term memory rather than remembering it until after the next test. Enthusiasm for learning comes from the student wanting to know more rather than their desire for a label: their disturbing desire to be rated like an object, not person, and be to be molded and controlled by the institution.

This is the fundamental issue with the application of  Foucault’s biopower in schools. It dehumanizes the individual in favor of the mass and students are paying the price. Kids going to school in fear and the brainwashing of student behavior has lasting effects on the individual. Are we not misusing the powerful weapon that is education by damaging the creativity, mental fortitude and thirst for knowledge students possess by incorporating biopower in our academic institutions? It is the easiest path to ensure survival of future generations, but since when has the easiest path been the right one? No longer can we ignore the effects of surveillance and grades on our children. We must find a better way to give students, parents and society peace of mind.

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Works Cited

Douglas, Emily, et al. “How BIG Data Can Inform and Innovate HR in K-12 Education.” Education Week, vol. 35, no. 8, 14 Oct. 2015, p. 22. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=110434865&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Ferguson, Sue. “How Grades Fail Our Kids. (Cover Story).” Maclean’s, vol. 117, no. 2, 12 Jan. 2004, pp. 28-34. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=11843931&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Herold, Benjamin. “Ed-Tech Companies Tracking Students’ Emotions, Mindsets: A Push to Use New Technology to Understand the ‘Whole Child’ Is Sparking Privacy Fears.” Education Week, vol. 37, no. 35, 13 June 2018, p. 1. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=130347791&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

James Alan, Fox. “Out-Of-Sight School Security.” USA Today, n.d. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=J0E177001506814&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

KENNEDY, MIKE. “Enhancing School Security: Guidance for Ensuring the Safest Possible School Environments.” American School & University, vol. 90, no. 2, Oct. 2017, pp. 14-17. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=126149081&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

WILKINS, STEVE. “Unlocked Potential: Carroll School Adopted a Data-Driven Mindset to Find Solutions to the One-Size-Fits-All Problem and Deliver an Education Focused on What Its Students Most Need.” Independent School, vol. 77, no. 2, Winter 2018, pp. 85-91. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=127067470&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

“`Tracking’ Harms Many Students.” USA Today Magazine, vol. 123, no. 2591, Aug. 1994, p. 13. EBSCOhost, login.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=9408186712&site=ehost-live&scope=site.