Combating Social Inequalities Through Education Essay Research

Combating Social Inequalities Through Education Essay, Research Paper

Combating Social Inequalities through Education

“Education is, no doubt, valuable in its own right, but it also is enabling in the sense that it serves (however imperfectly) as the gateway for obtaining other social goods, such as desirable employment, adequate income, and political power (Howe, 34).” Only through education does one achieve a social standing as a participating citizen entitled to the benefits of equal rights and say in life. Through education does one uplift one self from poverty, discrimination, “glass-ceiling” jobs, and a realization that many injustices can be accomplished by the knowledge of what is right or not. Yet, education by itself will only accomplish so much in this day and age. Equality of education, equality of superior curriculum, equal treatment and environmental conditions in learning institutions; sense of community and belonging, cultural and language identification and acceptance; as well as the destruction of the social and class barriers that often hold back those who have much to gain. Those are essential tools in the process of enlightenment for students who have no chance in the educational systems they are now exposed to. In order for an America to be composed of citizens who participate in the political arena and contribute to the better good of society an America that has an equal system of education for all is needed.

Aristotle states that for a citizen to act as the title given to him he must have knowledge, age, and wisdom. He must have intelligence to contribute to the “administration of justice.” If that must be true, then what becomes of those citizens who do not have the time or luxury of getting an education. A piece written by Jonathan Kozal speaks of the disadvantage of those who do not have the means to afford a good education and are set behind those who do. In Children of the City Invincible: Camden, New Jersey, he speaks of students who do not even have enough textbooks to go around being set back from mainstream society. How then must a citizen have proficient knowledge if he or she cannot even sit in a classroom that is environmentally safe for them. “Children come into school with rotting teeth,” she says [school nurse]. “They sit in class, leaning on their elbows, in discomfort. Many kids have chronic and untreated illness. I had a child in here yesterday with diabetes. Her blood-sugar level was over 700. Close to coma level…(Kozal 138). With the health conditions as poor as that, how is there any way possible that these student will learn and grow from their experience in schools. There is no money to be given by the parents to help the situation either. “Camden, New Jersey, is the fourth-poorest city of more than 50,000 people in America. In 1985, nearly a quarter of its families had less than $5,000 annual income. Nearly 60 percent of its residents receive public assistance. Its children have the highest rate of poverty in the United States (Kozal 137).” Kozal speaks of poignant situations in which students attend schools that are so horrible “no politician, school board president, or business CEO would dream of working.” The areas in which these children must learn are next to dumpsites, toxic waste sites, and in the worst ghettos of the cities. This is the learning environment in which they are provided. What then, does this tell the children. They are not worth clean rooms, nice books, friendly school environments, anything. Why should these children care about English or science if they don’t even have the books or the equipment. America is only setting these children up to fail and be added to the labor class.

“Unequal schooling reproduces the social division of labor (Bowles 49).” To have children as the highest rate of poverty is only pushing them further from being equal citizens. The unequal schooling these children are subjected to is America’s way of meeting “the needs of capitalist employers for a disciplined and skilled labor force, and to provide a mechanism for social control in the interests of political stability (Kozal 65).” They are bred and instructed for a world of labor and a class society composed of workers. Since these children come from working class parents whose property values are often not very high, their contribution to the taxes for the schools are minimal; leaving them with no choice but a minimal education for their children. “Evidence on the relationship between the level of school inputs and the income of the neighborhoods that the schools serve…indicate[s] that both school expenditures and more direct measures of school quality vary directly with the income levels of the communities in which the school is located (Bowles, 49).” Schools that are located in an influential area have a curriculum that invites creativeness, discussions, and flexibility; while those who are on financial assistance to meet the school’s budget is fixated on “obedience and punctuality (Bowles 50).” “The social-class inequalities in our school system and the role they play in the reproduction of the social division of labor are to evident to be denied (Bowles 51).” There are numerous studies that indicate the future of the child is dependent on the social class that composes the school and the curriculum allowed on the budget maintained by the surrounding community. Class divided schools indicate those with les