Social stratification is seen everywhere within the United States and around the world. As discussed in lecture, there are two types of stratification systems, and both are prominent in the United States. The first type is achievement based, which depends on a person’s wealth and accomplishments (Wadsworth). In the film, “People Like Us,” this system is presented. A teenage boy is embarrassed of his mother and his family’s social status, so he hides is social class from his friends. The second system is ascription-based stratification which has to do with what an individual is born with. The school that was interviewed and observed in “People Like Us,” prove that the family you are born into plays a huge role in popularity, and the group of friends you choose to surround yourself with. Another example in this film was the WASP label. The man they interviewed, explained that you are
Some people may believe that education all over the United States is equal. These people also believe that all students no matter their location, socioeconomic status, and race have the same access and quality of education, but ultimately they are wrong. Throughout history, there has been a huge educational disparity between the wealthy and marginalized communities. The academic essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, an American critical thinker and researcher in education, conveys that depending on the different economic backgrounds students have, they will be taught in a specific way. He reveals that the lower economic background a child has then the lower quality their education will be and the higher their economic background is the higher quality their education is. Anyon’s theory of a social ladder is extremely useful because it sheds light on the
Throughout the years, many aspects of the educational curriculum have been altered and modified as it relates to the material that is being taught within schools worldwide. Some of the changes are due to new laws that are being implemented and “raising the bar” for the education of the upcoming generations. But with all of the changes being made does it level the playing field or does it make it more competitive? Which brings up the questions, “How does social class effect the quality of education and does equal opportunity in education exist in America?” Social class affects the quality of one’s education through power, social status and equality within the educational system.
Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” claims that students from different social classes are treated differently in schools. Anyon’s article is about a study she conducted to show how fifth graders from the working, middle, and upper class are taught differently. In Anyon’s article, she provides information to support the claim that children from different social classes are not given the same opportunities in education. It is clear that students with different socio-economic statuses are treated differently in academic settings. The curriculum in most schools is based on the social class that the students belong to. The work is laid out based on academic professionals’ assumptions of students’ knowledge. Teachers and educational professionals assume a student’s knowledge based on their socio-economic status.
This book acknowledges the inequalities in the education system between low income (mainly minority) students and the “elite students” (children from upper class corporate America and educated professionals). As seen in Student Social Class and Teacher Expectations: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy in Ghetto Education (Rist, 2000) the quality of education varies greatly due to the teacher expectations of the students. These expectations are typically better the higher the SES background of the student (Rist, 2000). Therefore, teachers expect that the higher SES students will achieve more, are smarter, and work harder, than low SES students on average. Students also have very different perspectives of knowledge based on the quality of teaching and resources in the school that they receive (Rist,
The second is the concern over segregation and the effect it has on society. Mr. Kozol provides his own socially conscious and very informative view of the issues facing the children and educators in this poverty ravaged neighborhood. Those forces controlling public schools, Kozol points out, are the same ones perpetuating inequity and suffering elsewhere; pedagogic styles and shapes may change, but the basic parameters and purposes remain the same: desensitization, selective information, predetermined "options," indoctrination. In theory, the decision should have meant the end of school segregation, but in fact its legacy has proven far more muddled. While the principle of affirmative action under the trendy code word ''diversity'' has brought unparalleled integration into higher education, the military and corporate America, the sort of local school districts that Brown supposedly addressed have rarely become meaningfully integrated. In some respects, the black poor are more hopelessly concentrated in failing urban schools than ever, cut off not only from whites but from the flourishing black middle class. Kozol describes schools run almost like factories or prisons in grim detail. According to Kozol, US Schools are quite quickly becoming functionally segregated. Kozol lists the demographics of a slew of public schools in the states, named after prominent civil rights activists, whose classrooms are upwards of 97% black and Hispanic — in some cases despite being in neighborhoods that are predominantly white. It has been over 50 years since Brown vs. Board of Education. It is sad to read about the state of things today.
Kozol, Jonathan. 2005. "Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid." Harper’s Magazine, September 1, pp.1-20. Retrieved (April 12, 2011) www.mindfully.org.
In the study of The Way Schools Work we learned to question the ideals of meritocracy and the American dream. However, Conflict Theories challenge the system of meritocracy, in which people are sorted and selected on the basis of talent and ability. On the contrary, “Conflict Theories, on the other hand, imply a system of inheritance in which people’s life chances are largely determined by their starting point within an existing structure of inequality” (McNamee and Miller Jr. 2014, 11). According to these theorists mentioned in The Way Schools Work (Boudin 1974; Bowles and Gintis 1976; Carnoy 1972; Carnoy and Levin 1985; Persell 1977), they speak about how schools reproduce status in several ways. First, they use formal language, and hold
Over the last 50 years the united states has grown economically, religously, and technology has had a major impact. . All of these things have change the social values in american which have had it’s effect on education. The biggest obstacle that has improve social values in education is the element of race. Before schools where intrigritued black went to school with blacks and whites attended schools with all white kids.” In a key event of the American Civil Rights Movement, nine black students enrolled at formerly all-white Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in September 1957, testing a landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional” (History, 2014, A&E Television Networks, pg.1). This cause a maylay throughout arkansa and places throughout the united states. Going on 60 years later the education system has been improved for minorities but some people feel that white students...
John Taylor Gatto was an educator for years, in his books: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling and Weapons of Mass Instruction: A Schoolteacher's Journey through the Dark World of Compulsory Schooling he talks about the structure of our education system and also how government sponsored schools are used to implement their policy. Although Mr. Gatto does not discuss the race and education directly he does give insight on how students are deprived of true education. In his book Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling John Taylor Gatto breaks it down for us “The world’s narcotic economy is based upon our consumption of this commodity; if we didn’t buy so many powdered dreams, the business would collapse — and schools are an important sales outlet.” (Gatto 21). This excerpt is really worth unpacking because Mr. Gatto refers to schools as a sales outlet and that the things being sold are dreams. Growing up we are told that we can be anything we want but in reality through various government sponsored policies we are just being taught how to obey orders. Mr. Gatto points out a very important part of a capitalistic society, almost everything is driven by big business and as a result people are sorted into social categories. Gatto goes on to say later on in his book “Using school as a sorting mechanism, we appear to be on the way to creating a
In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of several of America's public schools. Kozol visited schools in neighborhoods and found that there was a wide disparity in the conditions between the schools in the poorest inner-city communities and schools in the wealthier suburban communities. How can there be such huge differences within the public school system of a country, which claims to provide equal opportunity for all? It becomes obvious to Kozol that many poor children begin their young lives with an education that is far inferior to that of the children who grow up in wealthier communities. Savage Inequalities provides strong evidence of the national oppression that is endemic in the American system. Focusing on the discrepancy in resources between schools that are predominantly Black or Latino (usually inner city) and schools that are predominantly white (usually suburban), Kozol provides case studies and statistics to show some kids are given every opportunity to succeed while others (oppressed nations) are set up to fail.
The Quality of a child’s education often either limits or opens up a world of opportunities. Those who study the purpose of public education and the way it is distributed throughout society can often identify clear correlations between social class and the type of education a student receives. It is generally known by society that wealthy families obtain the best opportunities money can buy. Education is a tool of intellectual and economical empowerment and since the quality of education is strongly influenced by social class, a smaller portion of the American population obtains the opportunities acquired from a top notch education. Many people believe that educational inequalities are perpetuated from the interests of specific classes, but some researchers like John Gatto believe that there are even stronger social forces in play. In the essay “Against Schools” the author John Gatto presents three arguments: (1) that are educational system is flawed, (2) that the American educational system is purposely designed to create a massive working class that is easy to manipulate, and (3) alternative teaching methods should be applied to teach children to think for themselves. In this essay I will be summarizing and relating each of these arguments to other educational essays. Also, I will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s argument.
Social stratification is a social system where there is chronic unfair treatment directed against certain individuals or social groups this is especially evident in the United States. Those who come to America encounter discrimination, whether it be racism, sexism, or religious and ethnic prejudice. This makes opportunities for success in job and housing markets difficult and sometimes unattainable and hampers individual's chances to gain a stable life. Sometimes blatant and open, a single person or group will voice their opinions loud and clear, but often racism is more subtle, or built into the system, as seen by racial profiling by law enforcement officers and other government officials, and creates a near impossibility for some groups to
In an education journal, Anyon (“Social”) provides the reader with the concept that there are four different types of schools, working class schools, middle-class schools, affluent professional schools, and executive elite schools, after observing five schools. The working class schools are made up of parents with blue-collar jobs, with less than a third of the fathers being skilled, and the majority of them being semiskilled or unskilled. “Approximately 15 percent of the fathers were unemployed… approximately 15 percent of the families in each school are at or below the federal ‘poverty’ level…the incomes of the majority of the families…are typical of 38.6 percent of the families in the United States” (Anyon, “Social”). In a more recent study conducted by Anyon (“What”, 69), she states that,
The great equalizer in America is education, because it provides the surest path to opportunity and social mobility (Golston). Education should be a right not a privilege in order to make the American Dream achievable to all. We do not have a democracy of only the rich are educated. Allan Golston says, “Students deserve an education that will propel them to high school graduation — and success beyond.” Unfortunately, a child’s odds of receiving a great education too often come down to the income of the parents or the color of his or her