Cassie Lane Dr. Lightfoot English 1101 September 22, 2013 Suburban Schools vs. Inner-City Schools Education is an important part of our children’s lives, but all children do not get the same educational opportunities as their counterparts. All across the country, many School districts located in different localities are unequally funded; therefore, not all children get the same quality education. Schools in suburban areas are better than inner-city schools. They have better learning facilities, state of the art technology and better curriculums.
The schools are generally over crowded with few good teachers. When there's a great public school there is not enough space for every child in the neighborhood. Children are stuck in low achieving schools because of how the school districts are divided. A lot of children end up in poor public schools because their parents do not possess the income that it takes to send them to a private school. Since 1971 education cost has increased from $4,300 to more than $9,000 per student.
When all the jobs of the future go to personal service jobs, will American children only know how to test or fail or to invest all their time into schooling for professions that will not pay? Alan S. Blinder an economics professor at Princeton covered this topic very well in his article “Will Your Job Be Exported”. Blinder broke down that in the future most jobs that can’t be completed by machine or technological advances will be
This cut off almost a third of Americans because they had little to no high school education. High school played a big role in getting a career started for women which were considered white collared jobs. “but access to secondary schooling was determined by class and ethnicity.” Therefore, poor people had a low chance of applying and being accepted. The entrance requirements to be a teacher requires 4 years of schooling, a degree, and they also added a minimum grade for the state teachers examination. They had tightened their requirements because careers like doctors, lawyers, and engineers did as well.
Many parents can’t afford to send their kids to school with a lunch, and with the price of lunches going up how can we expect these children get the best education available? 50-100 years ago only middle class and upper class people were educated. Now every social class is attending school, and it is expected that every student obtain a certain level of education. An Increase lower economic levels has strained the educational system. On top of all this, there are students placed into classes that they are not properly prepared.
Personally I agree with both authors but only up to a certain point. I agree with how Gatto describes the United States is falling further behind in education while he provides us with the contradictory thought that education may not be paramount to a person’s success (Gatto). With many of our greatest minds, having gone no further than secondary education, the key is to give our adolescents more chances to “let them manage themselves” (Gatto, 28) while trying to increase the achievements of people who are not born into the upper class. Like many social constructs, the elitist succeed, while others are left behind. Gatto contends that “schools really are laboratories of experimentation on young minds” (Gatto, 28).
Sally Ferrell’s claim that the military targets rural and poor neighborhoods is understandable, unfortunately it is not correct. Recruiters are required to contact all students in their assigned areas. Most assigned areas consist of not only lower class neighborhoods, but also very affluent ones. In the upper class schools, the students usually have more options available to them for higher education directly out of high school. This is due to parents that can easily afford to spend thousands of dollars out of pocket for a four year degree.
New right believe that the incline in family diversity and a decline in the nuclear family is a cause of many social problems. They believe that the increase in family diversity is the reason for economic problems. New right believe that the nuclear family or ‘cereal packet’ family as the most suitable family type. New right believe that the nuclear family is the most suitable family type because, firstly because it allows proper socialisation of children. Secondly they believe it is most important type of family as it stops deviance in children and also reduces crime caused by children.
As a result, this country has fallen far below the international average when it comes to education. For instance, countries around the globe require more from their students when it comes to the amount of homework that a student is mandated to complete on a daily basis. These countries also obligate their students to attend school more hours per day, and more days per year. In essence, it would be in the best interest of the students if our Department of Education received a lesson or two on education from their international colleagues. As much as the public school system is at fault, parental involvement would be a key factor in the success of educating students.
Simple numbers don’t lie and it’s not hard to prove inequality in Americas education system. If your born a shade of color other than pink in this country your chance for a first rate education automatically lessens, even more so if your born poor. I believe its imperative for teachers to leave all their stereotypes at the door of the classroom and try to understand how different social-cultural influences have shaped their students. We don’t all get the same opportunities at home but school should be the great equalizer, where a student’s success isn’t based on factors they can’t control but by the factors they can. Funding for schools in this country is grossly disproportionate to educational needs.