Kitsch: From Education to Public Policy

139 Pages·1999·0.474 MB·English

by  Catherine A. Lugg

KITSCH
PEDAGOGY AND POPULAR CULTURE
VOLUME 3
GARLAND REFERENCE LIBRARY OF SOCIAL SCIENCE
VOLUME 1146
PEDAGOGY AND POPULAR CULTURE
SHIRLEY R.STEINBERG AND JOE L.KINCHELOE, SERIES EDITORS
AMERICAN EDUCATION KITSCH
AND CORPORATIONS From Education to Public
The Free Market Goes to School Policy
by Deron Boyles by Catherine A.Lugg
POPULAR CULTURE
AND CRITICAL PEDAGOGY
Reading, Constructing,
Connecting
edited by Toby Daspit
and John A.Weaver
K
I T S C H
F E
ROM DUCATION TO
P P
UBLIC OLICY
BY
CATHERINE A.LUGG
FALMER PRESS
A MEMBER OF THE TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP
NEW YORK AND LONDON
1999
Dedication
To Nathen E.(Doc) Jones
A Most Wise and Wonderful Teacher
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Copyright © 1999 by Catherine A.Lugg
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress
Kitsch: from education to public policy/by Catherine A.Lugg.
ISBN 0-203-90505-9 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-90598-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-8153-2595-9 (Print Edition)
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Chapter 1
Kitsch 3
Chapter 2
Kitsch and the American Political Spectacle 13
Chapter 3
Kitsch and Leadership 53
Chapter 4
Kitsch and Social Policy 75
Chapter 5
Resisting and Subverting Kitsch 103
Chapter 6
The End? 117
Index 123
v

Acknowledgments
Some scholarly books cover the darndest topics, and this is one of
them. The idea for examining Kitsch, education, and public policy
sprang forth in the summer of 1995, when I was a newly minted Ph.D.
Underemployed, almost completely bored off my rocker, and looking
for something to do, I asked Joe Kincheloe if I could sit in on his
graduate class on Power and Curriculum. He graciously allowed me in,
and I spent the rest of the summer rapidly broadening my theoretical
horizons and intellectually sparring with most everyone in the class. It
was truly a “mind-expanding” experience.
At the time, I was reading Murray Edelman’s From Art to Politics,
which contained an intriguing section on Kitsch. Drawing on my
background in educational policy and history, and my earlier life as a
musician and blending in what we were examining in Joe’s class, I
briefly sketched a paper linking Kitsch with education, politics and
policy making. Joe believed that I was on to something and encouraged
me to transform the entire enterprise into a book. The rest is my (and
to some extent, his) fault.
Between that summer and now (August 1998), both the book and I
have undergone a few transformations. Along the way, I have received
assistance and encouragement from numerous individuals. Special
thanks to all of my friends and colleagues from Penn State, including
William Pencak, Henry C.Johnson, Jr., William Lowe Boyd, R. Andrew
and Elizabeth Lugg, and Julie Weber. Since relocating to Rutgers
University, I have been blessed with two wonderful intellectual
playmates, James R.Bliss and William A.Firestone. They good-naturedly
read and commented on numerous (and at times, insufferable) drafts.
H.Scott Kynrim has been my longtime political partner in “crime,” and
vii
viii Acknowledgments
he helped me keep the project focused. Lee Carpenter has been a
fabulous editor, gently cleaning up occasionally sloppy prose and
muddled thinking. Mark R.Costello, Timothy L.Short, KT Scott, Ruth
Slotnick, and Michelle Kneissl all provided me with friendship and
much laughter throughout the writing process. And finally, special
thanks to Joe Kincheloe and Shirley Steinberg for keeping the faith in
this project and occasionally giving me a much needed prod.
K I T S C H