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Social inequality and its effects
Effects of social economic status in education
Social inequality and its effects
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Appalachia is notoriously known for being one of the poorest regions in the United States. There are many contributions to the financial burden of the Appalachian region, especially education. Appalachia is frequently at the receiving end of many jokes that undermine their education system, as well as, the intelligence level of the people that live there. The financial instability, along with the education quality presents an important question to be answered. How does education affect Appalachia, financially and from an employment standpoint? The Appalachian region has suffered tremendously. Through research, reports show that the region has been negatively impacted by the lack of emphasis put on receiving a quality education. Appalachia …show more content…
Educational absence has proved to be a burden for families in the Appalachian region. Appalachian families suffer intellectually, along with financially. Reports display that the median household income in Appalachia was unluckily around $42,500, which is roughly only $21,000 per adult in each house. An additional 56 counties in Appalachia, unfortunately, had household incomes of under $30,000. In contrast, 19 counties in the region, most of which were in the metropolitan area, had household incomes at or above the national average. Almost all of the counties in the group were outside metropolitan areas and even more of them were in central Appalachia (Pollard, Jacobson 38). This report shows that income levels for the Appalachian region are significantly lower than the rest of the nation, which indirectly illustrates how hard it could be to live on such a low income. In Appalachia, it is not a big deal for people to have no education. Appalachian communities, more common in smaller areas, rely on large firms. Each of these firms usually come with a “higher power territory” in the economy, which simply means that since they are such a huge part of the city or town, they have more economical power than most. Large firms in Appalachia seem to indirectly discourage education, as it provides little to no benefit for them in the work firm. In addition to discouraging education, these firms in the Appalachian …show more content…
Though the rates of schooling have been on a decline for many years, Appalachia is making a comeback and slowly beginning to resemble the rest of the nation. A report by Allan J. DeYoung, Thomas C. Shaw, and Eric W. Rademacher shows, “The most recent decennial censuses provide both positive and negative news for Appalachian communities. After lagging behind the nation in 1980, residents of Appalachia now closely resemble the nation as a whole in terms of the percentage of the population graduating from high school. Appalachian communities also experience a consistent increase in the percentage of the population attaining a college degree or better - from slightly over 11 percent in 1980 to approximately 18 percent in 2000. On the negative side, however, residents living in Appalachian communities continue to lag behind the nation in the percentage of the population possessing a college degree.” (DeYoung, Rademacher, & Shaw, 328) The report shows Appalachia and how the averages of educational attainment have risen. On the down side, the report shows how the Appalachian region still remains behind the rest of the
Communication among settlements was sparse, except for major upheavals such as the Civil War; interaction with the rest of the nation was limited. Isolation was common in the 19th into the 20th century.
Appalachia is no longer the land of severe poverty that it was three decades ago, now the poverty rate of one in 15 is close to the national average. The number of adults who have received a high school diploma has also jumped from one out of three to two out of three; and the infant death rate has been cut in half. Comparing the 391 counties in the Appalachian Regional Commission with counties outside the region that were similar to Appalachian counties in the 1960s, researchers found that Appalachian counties grew significantly faster than their counterparts. Specifically, overall income in Appalachia grew 48 percent faster; per capita income grew 17 percent faster; and population grew five percent faster.
“Appalachia is the land of sky.”(Williams 19) Appalachia considered one of the top ravishing regions in the whole world. Once you visit this rich land, you will always want to retrieve those memories and visit it over and over. Its charming mountains will reflect its beauty and restore a feel of relaxation and purity in your soul. Appalachian is in the southeastern of United States and located in North America (The Appalachian Region paragraph 3). In this paper, we will dig more deeply in the rich Appalachian culture that existed in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. We will focus on variety of interesting Appalachian cultural aspects such as music, dance and food.
Billings, Dwight B. "The Road to Poverty: The Making of Wealth and Hardship in Appalachia." Booklist 36 (1999): 38.
John Marsh, Ph.D., shares his epiphany, that his sharing the popular belief that higher education was the answer to bringing about economic equality and curing poverty, was in fact wrong; in this short selection, “Why Education Is Not an Economic Panacea”, taken from his book, “Class Dismissed: Why We Cannot Teach or Learn Our Way Out of Inequality”. Marsh had felt that gaining a higher education himself worked to bring him to a level of economic equality, so, it should work the same way for everyone else. His change of heart comes after perhaps stepping down from the pedestal that many, with lots of letters after their name, sit on, or are put upon by others, and witnessing first-hand the dismal rates of graduation of students in the single course he teaches for The Odyssey Program. Serving as good Public Relations for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the program’s purpose was two-fold; it was to provide, at no cost, college level course(s) for low-income adults and look good for the University. In this excerpt, Marsh’s narrow vision seems to have opened up somewhat, however, it does not demonstrate that his visual field widened enough to see that there is much, much more than simply economics or education that is at play in determining where people end up in the spectrum of being considered successful in the United States. (Marsh 914)
Marks, Alexandra. "Less Welfare, Same Poverty in Heart of Appalachia." Christian Science Monitor. 6 May 1998:1
Education can help Americans receive a well paying job and lead to less low income families. A quality education allows people to feel accomplished and empowered to get a job that could help their family and their financial needs. According to an article by the Global Partnership, education reduces economic inequality and “If each [employee] from poor and rich backgrounds receive the same education, the disparity between poverty would decrease by 39 percent” (“5 Ways Education Can Help End Extreme Poverty”). In an article by William Bennett, states that American companies estimate that currently there are 3 million jobs available. The downside is that the children are poor and lack the education to fulfill those jobs. The government needs to provide more affordable schooling so that young adults can obtain a higher education to earn a higher salary. Currently, The U.S. Census Bureau reported that in 2014 the poverty rate of people twenty-five and older was 12 percent. Figure 1 demonstrates the statistic provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. It clearly displays that Americans who obtain more years of schooling and further their education, display a lower poverty rate. In 2014, those who have obtained no high school diploma show a greater poverty rate in relation to those who do have a bachelor degree. For example, Americans who have no high school diploma have the highest poverty rate at 29 percent. In contrast, Americans who have Bachelor’s degrees or higher, have the lowest poverty rate at 5 percent (“How does level of Education Relate to
While efforts to rebuild ENC are in effect, the fact that 16% of residents are in poverty still remains. Education, or in this case the lack of, has proven to be a major factor in the poverty levels in Eastern North Carolina as opposed to the rest of the state. The fact that service jobs requiring less education are hiring most residents also affects the poverty rate. Lesser education requirements mean lesser pay, therefore contributing to the rise in poverty. Community colleges have acknowledged the booming industries aforementioned, and with the combined efforts of the Aerospace field, provide the opportunity to expand their education as well as their bank accounts.
Laden, Greg. "Children from Low-income Families at Educational Disadvantage." Science Blog. N.p., 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 8 Jan. 2014.
“College education is only a mere rite of passage these days and a capstone to adolescent party time” (Henry). This is one of the things William A. Henry had to say about College Education, especially community colleges. William A. Henry was a critic, columnist and an author. In his career he received several prizes including the Pulitzer Prize as a drama critic for Time Magazine. He also wrote several books including his final and controversial book In Defense of Elitism which he talks about the tension America always had between elitism and egalitarianism. In those terms he sheds some light on education. Stanley Fish who published an article Colleges Caught In a Vise stating that colleges are offering an inferior product, in other words- an education that isn’t worth anything. Stanley Fish is a literary theorist, scholar, author, and was a professor in several Universities but now a Professor of Law at Cardozo Law School and a dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois. What these two authors had to say about college raises a question whether community colleges should exist anymore. William A. Henry even states that community colleges should be closed and the number of high school graduates that go on to college should be reduced by about fifty percent. I agree with William A. Henry that the number of community colleges should be reduced down in our education system because first: a community college certificate has no value and oversupply of college graduates is affecting the economy. Second, community college tuition and expenses are climbing and in result continuing to offer cheaper education. I will analyze what community colleges are currently doing wrong, why they should be closed, and r...
...ducation makes them unskilled at helping their children do well in school. Heath studied their struggles and identified significant ways to teach these children. As the study closes, we realize that to improve the education of the Roadville and Trackton communities, we would need to change the home environment, the religious traditions, and the culture of the communities to match that of the townspeople. To change the school to meet the needs of the students would not create a long lasting improvement. I for one find difficulty in judging one community as being better than another since each has its own value. Homogeneity seems to be an evil, but one that education in America both supports and at times seems to demand. Perhaps someday we will find a solution.
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
Rodney K. Smith’s mere opinion of his publication is that children with a higher level are more like to secure a job rather than those with no or little education. His view is upheld by the statistics of bureau that gives a clear statistics of the percentage of the salary earned by students with higher education and that of lower education. This makes his claim more reliable and credible because the bureau of labor and statistics is a reputable institution in the United States that deals with the percentage of people who work in United State. Smith’s own personal anecdote appeals to the feelings of the audience in which it ignites them with feelings of possibility.
Education is a major component in an individual’s future success in today’s society. The traditional model that we are taught to follow is to achieve good grades in High School so that we are able to get accepted to a good college in order to obtain a good high paying job. However, if the major building blocks of our education are somehow hindered by sociological influences, it would be correct to assume that our future success would also be affected. An example of a situation in which sociological aspects impact that education system can be found right here in the city of Lowell. According to the United States Census Bureau, the median household income for the year 2012 was about $51,714 annually compared with the average income throughout Massachusetts which was about $66,658 annually. Additionally in the year 2012, the statistics for the persons below the poverty level was 17.3 percent, significantly higher than Massachusetts average of 11.0 percent. Lowell is known as an urban environment and a city full of many different and diverse types of people. However, the city of Lowell does contain a large population that are, by today’s standards, considered to be living below the poverty line. ("U.S Census Bureau")
Education is the absolute most essential factor in the development of our nation. In particular, advanced education clears a future and gives chance to understudies that go to college and gives them a shot at a vocation. 50 years prior, college was entirely for the tip top, high class Americans. Presently, it appears that each regular family has no less than one relative go to college. In any case, with the expanding drop out rate today, understudies appear to be less inspired by learning at college and their needs change from their unique objective of graduating. The significance of education today is a developing variable on the grounds that the fate of this nation relies upon the understudies in college today.