Ira Shor on education "God-words"

I'd go as far as saying that there is no such thing as 'a sound education,' just as there are no such things as 'basic education,' 'basic skills,' or 'basic writing.' In addition, I'd add my disagreement with the notion of a 'core curriculum' or 'general education.' My sense is that these phrases are code words to disguise or to deny that all education is politics, that all pedagogies are ideological, that all curricular choices are value-laden, and that stunningly different outcomes emerge from schooling based on the income of a student's family. Angelic or neutral terms like 'basic,' 'sound,' and 'general' are God-words that rhetorically disguise the inequities and ideologies of the status quo. If something is labeled as 'sound' or 'basic,' then it lays claim to the status of the inevitable and the unarguable. But, I propose that all forms of education are socially constructed and that none can be neutral.

Source: Shor, I. (2006). War, lies, and pedagogy: Teaching in fearful times. Radical teacher 77, pp. 30-5.