Individuals who belong to lower socioeconomic backgrounds, as demonstrated in previous paragraphs, experience many social difficulties in comparison to their upper-middle-class counterparts. These difficulties and obstacles experienced by working-class students most likely elevate the likelihood of encountering poor mental health (Darnon et al., 2017). Working-class parents often work to make ends meet in their family (Darnon et al., 2017). Therefore, they have little/no time to be involved in their children’s lives or provide them with access to extracurricular activities. It is also important to take into consideration that extracurricular activities, as well as parental involvement in children, lives assists in improving the mental well-being …show more content…
Privileges and opportunities available to individuals among the social classes influence the type of profession they pursue as well as the income they receive. It is well known that any career in the performing arts is very risky to pursue. Therefore, it can be inferred that individuals who identify with a lower/working-class may avoid pursuing a degree in that field. This notion is supported by the study Friedman, O’Brien, and Laurison (2017) conducted which concerns the class background of individuals who pursued a career in acting. As one might expect, the results demonstrated that individuals from privileged backgrounds were more likely to pursue careers in acting compared to their disadvantaged counterparts (Friedman et al., 2017, 993). Empirical evidence also suggests that an individual’s social and economic background among other factors (i.e. culture) greatly influence the type of professions individuals choose to pursue (Friedman et al., 2017, 993). In this case, Marxists will infer (as for previous studies) that this supports the concept of alienation as individuals are alienated from their creativity. Since individuals of the lower/proletariat class are limited in the opportunities available to them, they are unable to achieve their ultimate/highest potential as individuals. Therefore, analyzing the class background of individuals in
Authors Michelle Tokarczyk, Peter Sacks, Robert Haverman and Timothy Smeeding all write about certain problems that working class students are facing in education in the U.S. , especially in college education which is usually defined as higher education. Although they focus on different aspects of the problem, they still have some ideas in common. In their articles, all of them discuss how economic and social class occupies a very significant role in the quality of education an American student receives. In order to support their claims, all of them employ studies as their strong evidence. They also imply that college education fails to consider the special issues and conditions that working class students have. In addition, higher education fails to help those students to improve their circumstances and social mobility. Even though all of the problems that working class students face are important, some of them are extremely significant factors to their struggles to obtain a college education, such as the economic and social class of the working class student. The main problems that working class students face in America also occur in the education system in China.
In the article “The Case against College,” Linda Lee argues that upper-level education should only be for those who intend to go into jobs where a degree is essential such as medicine, law, and education. Lee dismantles the hope for higher education for those who are unsure of what they want to do or simply see it as the next step in life. Lee’s case is not specifically about why not to go to college; it is more about who belongs there and who does not. Receiving a degree, especially in the creative department of the music industry, may not be as important as society makes it out to be. Creativity is natural, and people are born with ingenuity; it cannot be taught. Lee’s argument is very fitting to those in the field of music. As a music business major, pursuing a career as a singer-songwriter, it is common knowledge that success in the music industry depends upon whom you know and how talented you are, not whether or not you have a degree.
The acute and chronic stress that these children raised in poverty experience leaves a devastating imprint on their lives. For Ayla, the chronic stress of her drug-using mother has a relentless influence on her experience in school. Her mother has poor management skills, and has almost lost custody to Ayla and her sister on two occasions. This kind of stress exerts a devastating influence on children 's physical, psychological, emotional, and cognitive functioning—areas that affect brain development, academic success, and social competence. Students subjected to such stress may lack crucial coping skills and experience significant behavioral and academic problems in school. As such, I can understand Ayla’s lack of interest in class discussions, and her tendency to sleep in class because the disadvantages she must be experiencing at home. The stress she experiences has an evident role in her low self-esteem and lack of dreams or aspirations for
Social Class and Education”. It opens by discussing research conducted in the 1960’s in an effort to identify factors contributing to differences in the academic achievement of Whites and Blacks (Banks & Banks, 2013). Researchers hypothesized that the achievement gaps were mainly the result of disparities in school resources and characteristics, but found that there is a high correlation between achievement and socioeconomic status (SES) (Banks & Banks, 2013). Furthermore, attention is drawn to the class stratification which exists in our educational system and works to maintain inequality through exclusion strategies such as ability grouping and tracking (Banks & Banks, 2013). Evidence of the correlation between social class and education is presented with a glimpse into our higher education system. Despite the significant expansion in the number postsecondary institutions, and an increase in overall enrollment of low-income students, they are more likely to enroll in two-year, rather than four-year institutions, and privileged student attendance in highly selective institutions is increasing (Banks & Banks, 2013). The unintended consequence of the expansion of higher education institutions is an increase in class inequality, rather than a decrease, as more privileged students seek admittance to more selective institutions, locking less privileged students out (Banks & Banks, 2013). Greater access to the best universities helps privileged students maintain their class status, independent of their individual qualities. Consequently, privileged students have greater access to higher quality resources than do less privileged students attending less selective institutions, thereby inhibiting movement up the social class ladde...
There are many opportunities in America that can improve one’s wealth and power, thus leading to the mass amount of immigrants coming to American. Most immigrants that come to American usually are categorized as the lower class immigrants, but they take any opportunities to improve their economic status. In an article by Howard P. Chudacoff, it states “immigrants generally chose upward paths that led from manual labor into small proprietorships” (Chudacoff 1982: 104). This explains the reason why immigrants choose to come and stay in America. They start out small as laborers then over time they will work to own a small business. Even though immigrants gets to grow to move from the lower class to the middle class, the natives will be always
"What has happened in America is that achievement is so important that everyone wants everyone else to know what they have done. . . And in case you don't know, they want to tell you with a lethal combination of houses, cars and diamonds. (Fabrikant 2005))" Inequality in the United States is changing, and for the worse. People who are not wealthy are now competing to have the "status" of wealthy, which causes the wealthy to literally get wealthier while the middle class and upper middle class are going increasingly in debt trying to keep up with the wealthy.
"The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And poof-he was gone" (Usual Suspects). Today's devil is not a physicla being, but a metaphorical one. That of inequality on a worldwide scale. Although people would like to think that social inequality has been all, but destroyed in modern society it is still featured heavily within our media. Social inequality is the process of society limiting or harming a group’s social status. Prejudice can be based on class, race, and gender. It exists in all levels of media and reality. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Hunger Games show classism while The Little Mermaid and Antigone display sexism. Racism can be seen in The Hotel on The Corner of Bitter and Sweet and Black Like Me.
In our culture, money, status, and social power all play a part in how individuals think that others perceive them. There is growing evidence that shows the link between socioeconomic status and unhealthy psychological outcomes in mental health. When looking at higher levels of socioeconomic status for youth it shows a more positive and healthy psychological outcome for youth and their mental health. Studies have shown that there are higher rates of attempted suicide, cigarette smoking and engaging in episodic heavy drinking (“Pardon Our Interruption”). Other studies have shown that lower levels of socioeconomic status have been linked to emotional and behavioral difficulties, like anxiety, depression, attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders (“Pardon Our
This paper explores the way social inequality affects schooling. In a classroom setting, one student can be treated unequally just because of their race, ethnic background or religion. Taking notes from Purcell- Gates and Boykin, A.W. & Noguera, P., the topics of ethnicity and the achievement gap will be discussed in the event that all students should be treated equal. Also bringing in the topic of the “No Child Left Behind Act” introduced by former president George W. Bush in 2001 and was signed into law in 2002. For a long time, social inequality places a negative effect on schools around the country. The common urban verse suburban educational battle has been going on for way to long and there is a fix that needs to be made.
H has discussed a correlation between student success and familial involvement. Based on his students and experience, the students whose parents were visible, active in the school community and assisted the students academically at home performed at higher levels than the students who didn’t have the same support. Additionally, he believed the students with the most support performed with less anxiety and more resilience. Of the four parents I spoke with, three of which admitted to not fully supporting their students’ academic life. They didn’t do it purposefully, however. They discussed the difficulties they experience when attempting to assist their student with work in which they don’t understand or remember from their own schooling. The parents also mentioned how difficult it was to attend every PTA meeting, concert, teacher conference and any other school event because they may have other children to care for or interfering work schedules. These are frequent issues this community faces which properly correlates with the normal occurrences of an economically disadvantaged population. This is an example of how a family characteristic, lack of familial assistance with academics outside the classroom is detrimental to student’s success in the current school model. A parent’s ability or inability to help the student at home, something that isn’t within the students control, can influence their academic success and
Contrary to the common belief, social class consists of more than just the rich and the poor. Rather, social class is comprised of different groups lumped together because they share similar levels of property, power, and prestige. This view, theorized by Max Weber, is the most widely accepted view of social class by sociologists today.
Socioeconomic status can be defined in terms of family wealth and assets as well as educational background. For this reason, many comparisons can be made between socioeconomic status and education. Furthermore, academic achievement and the level of education reached by an individual, is determined by socioeconomic status. Research has shown that environmental circumstances and family issues greatly influence a child's future because the impact of the socioeconomic status depends on the level to which an individual becomes successful in life. Research also shows that family conditions can impact a child’s education and their quality of life. For example, being raised in a high-economic culture increases the chances that a child will attend
What this suggest is that the differences in educational institutions will determine an individual or a groups level of education in society, but one must bear in mind the fact that just because certain individuals and groups who belong to a particular socioeconomic status doesn’t guarantee them a successful career.
Social class has a major influence over the success and experience of young people in education; evidence suggests social class affects educational achievement, treatment by teachers and whether a young person is accepted into higher education. “34.6 per cent of pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieved five or more A*-C grades at GCSE or equivalent including English and mathematics GCSEs, compared to 62.0 per cent of all other pupils” (Attew, 2012). Pupils eligible for FSM are those whose families earn less than £16,000 a year (Shepherd, J. Sedghi, A. and Evans, L. 2012). Thus working-class young people are less likely to obtain good GCSE grades than middle-class and upper-class young people.
The Relationship Between Social Class and Educational Achievement Many sociologists have tried to explore the link between social class and educational achievement, measuring the effects of one element upon the other. In order to maintain a definite correlation between the two, there are a number of views, explanations, social statistics and perspectives which must be taken into account. The initial idea would be to define the key terms which are associated with how "social class" affects "educational achievement." "Social class" is the identity of people, according to the work they do and the community in which they live in. "Educational achievement" is the tendency for some groups to do better or worse in terms of educational success.