The Role of Education and Poverty in Society

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It has been proven again and again that class has a huge impact on children’s success in school and education. The inequalities in our education system start as early as birth and continue through high school and even college. Typically, articles related to class and education fall under two distinct categories. One type says that better education will fix poverty and the other states that in order to fix education we need to fix poverty. The truth of the matter is that one will not fix the other, but rather they need to work together to be effective. In order to promote a democratic society in our public schools, there needs to be major improvements made in both of these categories.
Before this is addressed any further, it is important to have a solid understanding or definition of democracy and what it means to be a democratic society. According to John Dewey, there is a significant distinction between democracy as an institution and the concept or idea of democracy (Dewey, 1946). As an institution, democracy is a form of government founded on the basis that the people rule the nation. A democracy requires that the people have a say in their country’s decisions; however, democracy is more than just the structure and political systems of our government. It is also a way of living. In the forum, Katie Shedd presented a different definition of democracy that I found very accurate and encompassing. She defined democracy “as a system through which everyone benefits from the decisions that are made” (Shedd, 2014). In addition to what Katie said, we need to look at democracy as active participation in the community, but more importantly equal opportunity for all citizens. This is one of the most important aspects of a democratic soci...

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...(2012, December 22). Essential essay #6c: Economic-political ideologies: The liberal coalition. Unpublished manuscript, Miami University, Oxford, OH. Retrieved from course Niihka site.
Reardon, S. F. (2013, April 27). No rich child left behind [web blog entry]. nytimes.com. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/27/no-rich-child-left-behind/
Shedd, K. (2014, April 29). This week in poverty: Time to take on concentrated poverty and education response. [Msg 8]. Message posted to https://niihka.miamioh.edu/portal/site/923af48c-8dd6-41d4-8dc5-c96bf3303c71/page/53bcf7c0-2e7b-4771-a91e-05ea2d2cfdb5
Tuccori, J. (2014, April 28). This week in poverty: Time to take on concentrated poverty and education response. [Msg 4] Message posted to https://niihka.miamioh.edu/portal/site/923af48c-8dd6-41d4-8dc5-c96bf3303c71/page/53bcf7c0-2e7b-4771-a91e-05ea2d2cfdb5

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