Andrew Black 's Schooling The World : The White Man 's Last Burden Essay

Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, Europeans developed a superiority complex when comparing themselves to the people of less-developed nations. During the age of imperialism, many European powers ventured into Asian, African, and South American lands in order to colonize and impose the rules of Western society. Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “The White Man’s Burden”, properly depicted the racist ideals that developed with imperialism, as Europeans believed it was their duty to civilize the people they viewed as savages. Europeans held a racially superior point of view for almost an entire century. In the latter half of the twentieth century, however, waves of immigrants began flooding into various European nations. This caused the perception

The educational system of the united states is not capitalizing on the full potential of its people. Jonathan Kozol in his article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, discusses the drastic difference in the quality of education based on a family’s income. Kozol discusses how economic disparities usually coincide with race, but focuses on the economic gap of education. Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast “Carlos doesn’t remember”, gives a story and a personal touch, to the issues low income students face. Kozol writing and Gladwell’s podcast, both show that the quality of a child’s education is pure chance. A lottery of being born into a high or low income family dictates the outcome and capitalization of a child’s future.

From the beginning when the African slaves first set foot on American soil, the Negro has been perceived as an inferior race. Unfortunately, the effects from slavery still take a hold of the Negro race even today. In this novel, Carter G. Woodson attempts to thoroughly explain why exactly this has come to exist. Although written years ago, the ideals in his book are still seen to be true. Woodson's theory is that because of the way the Negro is treated by the oppressor, he has been brainwashed to believe his inferiority to other races to be the truth. This in turn keeps him from trying to advance in any shape or form because he thinks that he will step out of his place. "When you control a

Education is meant to broaden the minds of incoming generations to the diverse cultures and aspects of the world. While its purpose is meant to open up horizons, it has also held up the task of oppressing opposing thoughts and judgments. Author James Baldwin exposes this truth in his article, “A Talk to Teachers,” as he chastises the education system’s contradicting actions inasmuch as the support of an all-encompassing education while scorning unconventional thinking. Baldwin’s purpose to confront the antithetical activity to hopefully change the system’s ways is attempted by persuading teachers who “deal with the minds and hearts of young people” that a paradox of education occurs when students develop a conscience--they become “at war” with society--is valid in that education should allow development for individual thoughts and varied opinions to challenge for the reconstruction of society’s oppressive nature.

Education gives common people the means to turning dreams into reality. Education allows common people to open up their minds to various possibilities, that will arise from becoming educated. But, yet there are times where our education systems do not uphold student/learners to a high norm. Although, problems with education systems rarely occur, inadequate performance in school can be feasible if there are issues within the child’s household. Nonetheless, students who face inconsistent dilemmas, fail since they attempt to solve both problems.

One of the many aspects of life which were a difficulty in the 1930s was school. In the 1930s, schools were separate, but supposedly still equal. Unfortunately, this idea did not match the reality of life at the time. Though schools weren’t incredible for white students, the black students had it far worse (“The 1930s: Education Overview”). White schools had more funding and could afford better teachers, as well as better school buildings, and more learning opportunities. Along with these, the learning environment was generally better, as people generally cared more about the education of white children than that of colored children. “Two hundred thirty southern counties did not have a single high school for black students in 1932—even though

Education has always been valued in the African American community. During slavery freed slaves and those held captive, organized to educate themselves. After emancipation the value of education became even more important to ex-slaves, as it was their emblem of freedom and a means to full participation in American Society (Newby & Tyack, 1971). During this time many schools for African Americans were both founded and maintained by African Americans. African Americans continued to provide education throughout their own communities well into the 1930’s (Green, McIntosh, Cook-Morales, & Robinson-Zanartu, 2005). The atmosphere of these schools resembled a family. The

“I don’t mind if I have to sit on the floor at school. All I want is an education,” said Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani activist for female education. In today's society, many people don’t realize how grateful they should be for the education they receive. Even the slightest education is much more than people were receiving just three centuries ago, and even more than people in countries besides the United States of America. In specifics, women and African Americans were once unable to pursue any form of education in the United States, along with many other ethnicities.

Education is an important necessity in every human being’s life. For some, school is just a dreadful constitution that people must sit in for 8 hours a day, eagerly waiting to get a diploma and move on in their next stage in life, however, for others it is life-saving and both Richard Rodriguez and Sherman Alexie can say this is their case. Education has made a great influence on both Alexie and Rodriguez’s life. Although both authors faced alienation due to their ethnic background, Alexie continuously keeps in touch with his Indian roots and family while Rodriguez has lost any contact that he has attained with his family and Mexican origins.

As young African-Americans, they tend to be misread based on their past history. They are being judged by their race, ethnicity, appearance, dressing, religion and how they speak.

All aspects of life in the 1930s became difficult when the Great Depression began. One of these aspects was school. In the 1930s, schools were separate, but supposedly still equal. Unfortunately, this idea did not match the reality of life at the time. Though the school wasn’t especially great for white children, it was definitely far worse for black students (“The 1930s: Education Overview”). White schools had more funding and could afford better teachers, better school buildings, and more learning opportunities. Along with these, the learning environment was generally better, as some people cared more about the education of white children than that of colored children. “Two hundred thirty southern counties did not have a single high school

Prior to African-Americans’ freedom in 1863, their way of life consisted of labor. Majority of the African-Americans in the south were uneducated and unskilled. Washington firmly believed he could provide education for his fellow race. His vision of providing vocational and skill trade education would soon come to past in 1880 when “an act of the Alabama legislature established Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School.” The primary object of the school was to train African-Americans to become teachers and masters of certain skills in the industrial or agricultural field. In return the graduates passed their knowledge to African-Americans who were unable to attend higher level education schools. Washington developed programs that taught

My study displays how people from several categories have differing opinions about racists teaching in the education system. It can help determine peoples’ attitudes toward race in the schools. However, there were some of the limitations to my study. One was that I could not interview and interact with the respondents personally. I was not able to ask in depth questions as to why people felt a certain way about racist teachers. Also, I wanted to know if the respondents surveyed ever had any interaction with a teacher that was deemed to have racist attitudes towards them or a family member. It would have been nice to study the information based on location of the respondents polled. This would further help understand the attitudes people have towards race based off of geographical location. There are some behaviors that people perceive to be racist and talking with people individually would help get all of this information. I ran multiple cross-tabulations to help me in my study on allowing racist teachers in the education system. These were using the independent variable allowing racist to teach and the dependent variables, education, race and sex.

Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 poem “The White Man’s Burden” epitomizes the European man’s view on imperialism, Euro-centrism and social Darwinism. Four centuries before 1899, such ideas were briefly hinted in the letter from Christopher Columbus to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, however by 1899 these attitudes strengthened and developed fully into their complete meaning. The U.S and Europe’s imperialism in the nineteenth century were the most influential ever in the history of human civilization. The immense motive for imperialism came from social factors including religion and Social Darwinism.

When considering the cultural lens of the sociological imagination we pay attention to cultural differences and diversity (Georgeou, 2010). In relation education we look again at the historical view of education as a right and the term considered cultural capital, which has had a strong impact on the social inequalities within education.