Purpose Of Education

Purpose of Schooling Final Paper

Azrael Hutchinson

The American education system is undeniably flawed. Currently, it primarily only meets the needs of its privileged students – those who are white, male, English-speaking, upper class, straight, cisgendered, etc. Although attempts have been made by government to alleviate the institutionalized bias within education, they have mostly been ineffective. In addition to this, many teachers respond by only integrating the most minimum effort towards inclusivity in their classrooms, which compounds the problem. This is extremely disheartening, but as new generations of teachers and administrators begin to enter the workforce, they have an opportunity to improve the system. As teachers, we need

The primary function of the American school system is to prepare students for entry level positions in the workforce, and to attempt to lay a common educational base for the populace. However, as the years go on, a college education is becoming much more of a requirement for the average wage-earner. Recently there has been a push to take AP or IB courses in order to prepare the student for their college education. I think that the purpose of schooling should be all of the above; but there needs to be more of a focus on providing a foundation for the student’s well-being. If a student feels unsafe or unhappy, or if their basic needs are not being met, they are not going to be able to perform properly on an academic

There isn’t much of a system in place to help benefit those of other identities. It is getting better, but unfortunately there is still much to be desired. If the school system were to find ways to help make their classrooms equal (some examples that come to mind are low-income programs and gender-neutral bathrooms), it would help teachers do their job, which is to teach their students and give them a good education.

References

Chapman A., (2005). Gender Bias in Education. Retrieved November 7, 2007, from Research Room Exchange Multicultural Pavillion: http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/papers/genderbias.html

Lantieri, L. & Patti J. (1996). Waging Peace in our Schools. Boston MA: Beacon Press.

Nieto, S. & Bode, P. (2012). Understanding the Sociopolitical Context of Schooling. Affirming Diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (6th ed.). (4-40). Boston MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Nieto, S. & Bode, P. (2012). Affirming Diversity: Implications for Teachers, Schools, Families, and Communities. Affirming Diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (6th ed.). (378-400). Boston MA: Pearson Education Inc.

Robinson, K. (2013, April). Ken Robinson: How to escape education’s death valley. Retrieved from