Pursuing Equal Opportunities By Lesley Jacobs - 2087 Words

Lesley Jacobs’ work â€Å"Pursuing Equal Opportunities† first sets out to provide a theoretical model from which to provide normative foundations for proposing social policies that regulate competition for scarce resources, as well as for the purposes of critiquing them. Jacobs advocates for equal opportunities as a regulative ideal, and the model he uses to justify this is three-dimensional and radical in this way as it includes the addition of â€Å"stake-fairness† to â€Å"procedural fairness† and â€Å"background fairness,† which previous models have not fully articulated. The addition of stakes fairness allows for Jacobs to set the foundation for his equal opportunities ideal in opposition to John Rawls who objected to equal opportunities on the basis of natural inequalities. One of the most shocking parts of this book is Jacobs’ claim that natural inequalities are a myth, therefore an argument for equal opportunities in place of the Rawlsian ideas including the difference principle (Inequalities are ok as long as those disadvantaged by them benefit more than if they did not exist) can be revitalized. Personally, I was on the edge of my seat reading this because being persuaded by such a statement would be tantamount to a sort of freedom I could not possibly imagine on my own. Despite these inclinations to want Jacobs to persuade me, I had reservations. Jacobs’ argument rests on a social constructionist perspective that I am actually partly in favour of and reminds me of a quote I holdShow MoreRelatedTeaching At The School Of Public Education Essay2053 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"without alignment, tests reinforce the inequalities that are already present in larger society and reflected in schools.† In our public education system, it is extremely important to provide all students with equal quality education. Your work as a co-chair of the Educational Opportunity and Achievement Gap Committee has intimated you with this struggle to close the gap created by education untailored to students. As you know, tests innately have a cultural bias with the expectation students will