Roxana Dubon
“concern with the potentialities of man and with the individual’s freedom, happiness and rights . . . [F]reedom here means a real potentiality, a social relationship on whose realization human destiny depends
Education the Road Block to Success
Education opens countless doors and gives you the ability to interact with different people, to learn different perspectives, and to have solid opinions. In this society, do individuals have the power in their own hands to succeed? Education itself is a system that is lead by the government, an institution that individuals believe is the path to success. What happens when that very system is the one detaining people from fully achieving their true potential? Education is that very system which infringes on the future, not of everyone, just those who it determines “unworthy” of being educated in order to succeed. The following is an examination of how education achieves inequality.
Conflict theorists have argued that education maintains social inequality. In the video Waiting for Superman, “tracking” is a system used to sort people into different occupations, it turn supplying society with a workforce. Schools are still sorting our children, schools haven’t changed. Conflict theorists argue that schools work to train the working class to accept their position as a member of the lower class. In addition to [A reading, writing and mathematics, students learn obedience, competition and patriotism subjects that are never declared by the schools. (Basirico,Cashion, and Eshleman p. 373) Education works to maintain and preserve the power of those who already dominate society. Conflict theorists do not see education as a social benefit or as an institution of opportunity.
Studies have shown that the number of years a student goes to school results in an attainment of a better occupation. Employers are selecting their employees by their education; even less skilled jobs are requiring degrees. Employers don’t only hire people based on their degree, but they also prefer to employ a person who has attended an “Ivy League” school, and who has an educational background in those schools considered elite (private and prep schools). When examining this belief it seems evident that there is a connection between education and an individual’s social mobility.
Schools are as segregated as neighborhoods are. Hispanic and African-Americas live in the inner city going to schools that are likely to be predominantly of that race. Hispanic and African-Americans statistically finish fewer years of school compared to other races. Lower-class students do not learn reading and writing as efficiently as those of a higher class background, making those students feel incompetent. Their motivation is lost and they become alienated from society. So when the number of years of education determines success, students who don’t continue school are likely to fail.
The educational institution is failing our children. Schools in different neighborhoods are held to different standards. Some schools are providing students with a good education and others are providing a not-so-good education. Teachers, the very people who educate students can become professionals that are influenced by stereotypes, and their views and behaviors can change towards the student. Tenure has protected these teachers because regardless of their performance, tenure protects them from being fired. Teachers can kick back, fail our children, and still collect a paycheck.
There has to be a reformation in the educational system. Where do we start? How about teachers are taken off tenure and those who do not have a drive to educate and push students forward are fired. Students are the future. Education is not a commodity, it is what as humans keeps the mind working, interaction intact, and helps individual grow not just as individuals but the society. The future doesn’t just depend on one individual or on this generation but it also depends on those who will learn how to make this world better place for the future.