This essay will attempt to determine whether access to free education for everyone in the United Kingdom has led to the creation of a meritocratic society. A meritocracy is a social system whereby success depends solely on the skills and efforts of a person rather than their social status or gender. It is an ‘extension of a general system of rewarding merit’. (Sen: 2000: 8). Any person, no matter who they are or where they are from can achieve their goals by working hard. In the education system, the rewards are qualifications, these allow a person to advance to further stages of life and so are essentially a vital form of social mobility. Sen (2000: 1) states that ‘[t]he concept of ‘merit’ is deeply contingent on our views of a good society’. Before the Industrial Revolution, the education system was extremely limited. Most children were educated at home or in small church-based schools. The education system in England at this time consisted of ‘haphazard system of parish and private adventure schools’. (Williams, cited in www.educationengland.org.uk/history). They were only educated to a certain level and the primary focus was on the importance of working on a farm and skills needed to do this. Throughout history, a girl’s education ‘if she was lucky enough to have one…consisted of religious instruction, reading, writing and grammar and the occasional home craft such as spinning…[it was] scanty, superficial and incoherent’. (www.educationengland.org.uk/history). Families were extremely self-sufficient and generations of families lived together and all took part in the duties and responsibilities that came with farming, there were no specific gender roles, they were all encompassing. Any type of higher education was reserved f... ... middle of paper ... ...k/history (Accessed: 28/04/2014). Grint, K. (2005) The Sociology of Work, 3rd edn., Cambridge: Polity Press. Livesey, C. Lawson, T (2005) As Sociology for AQA, 2nd edn. England: Hodder Education. MacVeigh, T (2012) 'Can a Meritocratic Education System Deliver Equality?’, Irish Marxist Review, 1.4(), pp. 27-36. Sen, A, (2000) ‘Chapter 1’ in Arrow, K.J. Bowles, S. Darlauf, S.N. (editors), ‘Meritocracy & Economic Inequality’, Chichester: Princetown University Press, pp. 1-16. Stephens, W.B. (1998) Education in Britain 1750-1914, Basingstoke: Macmillan. Taylor, S. (2011) Proper men, proper women: Gender roles in contemporary UK Society, Available at:www.open.edu/openlearn/body-mind/proper-men-proper-women-gender-roles-contemporary-uk-society (Accessed: 28/04/2014). Tomlinson, S. (2005) Education in a post welfare society, England: Open University Press.
A meritocracy is the system in which success comes from hard work and talent. Malcolm Gladwell thinks that Canadian hockey players aren't an example of meritocracy because they're chosen based on their date
Meritocracy, unlike aristocracy, is the system in which talented people are rewarded and promoted to leadership positions based on their merit. According to James Whitehurst, meritocracy “now refers to organizations where the best people and ideas win.” However, as true as it may sound, meritocracy in America is still a myth and is not a certainty. In the article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack,” McIntosh’s disdain of meritocracy when she described as “I must give up the myth of meritocracy.” She mentioned the meritocracy myth because in reality, many people who lack talents and experience can still climb the upward mobility ladder and become wealthier while the rest of
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
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
Jackson, B and Marsden, D (1966) Education and the working classes. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul plc.
Meritocracy is a system of governance where groups are selected on the basis of people's ability, knowledge in a given area, and contributions to society. This form of governm...
We live in a world in which the term “equality” is not actually a thing one can fully confirm or rely on. Social differences do exist in a variety of ways that make individuals dream or think of capabilities and success as involuntary things, instead of earned and rewarded approaches. The differences between individuals, families or groups create a gap in the social structure of a country. Indeed, it is not the different statuses that make people unequal, but the way an individual reach a certain level or position is actually the real matter. Also, inequality is present in nearly all over the world; this affects individuals and societies in ways that create controversy among countries. To illustrate, in a meritocratic system, society would allow individuals to thrive and success according to the abilities, skills and hard work they acquire, such a system would be present in an ideal world; however this is not the issue. Nearly all countries in the world cannot be described as meritocratic. Meritocracy refers to the idea that individuals are given equal chances to pursue and reach their goals without any restrain or obligations based on gender, race or class (Superle, 2014). Individuals’ success in a meritocratic society is not based on one's inherited social class, power or wealth, but on one’s achievements (Superle, 2014). So, in a meritocratic country, one’s success will be fully based on his/her merit. The Canadian society cannot be described as meritocratic for several reasons.
According to an article entitled “What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success” in the The Atlantic magazine: “Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have exactly the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income, or geographic location.” Today I will be discussing to the objection to this argument that it is unfair to wealthy parents to deny them the option of paying more access to better education for their children. The merits of this objection are that it points out areas of unfairness and restricting access to minorities. The weaknesses of this argument are that it does not address the inequalities of the education system and how that
In sum, this short discussion attempts to unpack the contradictions within the ideology of meritocracy and propose some ideas on reworking the discourse. Instead of “material pragmatism” (Wong, 2013, p. 308) the ideology of meritocracy could be revitalized with a moral legitimacy, which Dr. Benjamin Wong has rightfully noted as being “more elitist” since it aspires towards a noble human ideal of governance by the “wise and virtuous” (Wong, 2013, p. 309). More importantly, the moral role model set by the political elites would cascade a different ethos of leadership into our schools - that what is considered “merit” also includes the public spirit to serve the people.
middle of paper ... ... They cooked, cleaned, taught their children everything. If there were no women back then everything would be a disaster because the women did it all. The men took advantage of the good things they had back then.
Nothing mattered back in Victorian Britain, except money and wealth. No one mattered unless you had money and if you didn’t bless your hard working soul, because if you didn’t have enough money to support yourself or family you were already dead. Unfortunately kids worked far faster than adults and most parents didn’t make the kind of money to send their children off to school so the rich factory owners seized the opportunity and tricked many children into working for free and they kept doing it. Education was difficult for most children to get because of the fact that most families could not afford it. During this time if you could afford to go to school they still had lots of rules and high standards, and if they were not followed then
An Oxford mobility study suggests that if more people became middle class in recent years, it may have happened due to the creation of more room in the upper classes rather than an actual improvement of their class. In other words, it is not that the majority of middle class climbed into upper classes or slid into lower ones, instead, what happened was that middle class preserved their position and working-class families or individuals filled certain middle-class spaces that were open due to the restructure of the market. For meritocracy to be, it need an unequal society, in which the best and brightest - normally from the higher classes - are able to climb up the "greasy pole of success" (Sennett 2002) while the rest can be left behind.
One reason why the education system in the Middle Ages and Renaissance did not adequately prepare all children for their future is because education was not appropriate for different genders. According to Theresa Huntley, the author of Women in the Renaissance,girls did not have very many opportunities to attend school. “Girls did not advance far in the education system, and they were not allowed to attend university”
Ianelli, C. & Paterson, L. (2005) Does Education Promote Social Mobility Paper 5, Edinburgh: Centre for educational sociology, University of Edinburgh.
Kerbo, H. R. (2012). Social stratification and inequality: class conflict in historical, comparative, and global perspective (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.