Education Differences Have Made A Child 's Education

I think everyone can agree that having a free, equal, and exceptional education for all students would be ideal. This has been the goal for centuries. Throughout the history of America, there have been people who believe that this is achievable and others who admit to thinking that this will never happen. Articles in the 1830s Philadelphia Gazette proved to be against the common school. I chose this article to challenge myself and my thinking about the common school. Being a future teacher, I believe that everyone should be able to receive a quality education, and I wanted to better my understanding of the opposite viewpoint in history. The main point of this article was that poor and rich children could never be on the same educational level because there is too much of a difference in their cultures to bridge the gap of education.

The United States has made great innovations in the past century to ensure that all people have the same chances to better themselves. While steps have been taken to bring about equality from Roe v. Wade to legalizing same sex-marriage in every state still more can be done—especially in the field of racial inequality.

How should society handle the perceived differences between races when it comes to education? The goal of both researchers is to narrow the academic gap between white and black students. Both authors attribute the gap between the academic scores of black and white students from opposite sides of racial identity. As Dr. Beverly Daniels Tatum, President of Spelman College and clinical psychologist has written an article entitled “Why are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” Her approach is from the perspective of the student and how they perceive their role and upper limits while maintaining their place in their peer group's expectations of their race. Dr. Diane Ravitch, a research professor of education at New York University, has written an article entitled "The Facts about the Achievement Gap.” Her approach is from the perspective of how schools and society implicitly or explicitly cast students into achievement tracks based on their race. Both approach the same idea about racial identity, but they have different solutions, such as peer groups, the school board, and who is right about the solution.

The United States is a country based on equal opportunity; every citizen is to be given the same chance as another to succeed. This includes the government providing the opportunity of equal education to all children. All children are provided schools to attend. However, the quality of one school compared to another is undoubtedly unfair. Former teacher John Kozol, when being transferred to a new school, said, "The shock from going from one of the poorest schools to one of the wealthiest cannot be overstated (Kozol 2)." The education gap between higher and lower-income schools is obvious: therefore, the United States is making the effort to provide an equal education with questionable results.

Inequality has been present since the beginning of civilization. Education has played into this since schooling began; only boys were allowed to be educated while the girls would stay at home. Minorities, such as blacks, Latinos, etc. were excluded from receiving an education as well. Although education has progressed since then, it is seen in Ann Ferguson’s Bad Boys, Conley’s Education and Kozol’s Still Separate, Still Unequal that inequality within punishment, funding/resources and tracking, especially amongst minorities, is still present and even promoted in the modern education system.

Education was and still is a very important aspect in life, but Jim Crow laws made receiving an equal education an impossible task. “Education: The schools for white children and the schools for Negro children shall be conducted separately” Florida (“Jim Crow Laws”). Although both races did receive an education, they were not equal. Schools for white

Children segregated from other children because of their skin color not only causes them to be more insecure, but it also causes a large knowledge gap between the segregated parties. Children who are separated from others because of their skin color grow to develop their own insecurities and diffidence. “After reviewing psychological studies showing black girls in segregated schools had low racial self-esteem, the Court concluded that separating children on the basis of race creates dangerous inferiority complexes that may adversely affect black children 's ability to learn” (PBS). Races being divided by these social barriers create a disparity between them. It is unequal for children of different races to be separated. Equal education is required in order to give all children an equal chance at success and making differences. “ Public education in the 20th century, said the Court, had become an essential component of a citizen 's public life, forming the basis of democratic

The 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution protects equal rights for everybody. This includes the right to equal opportunity for education for all. Jonathan Kozol, non-fictional writer, is best known for his books on public education in the United States. In his essay “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Educational Apartheid”, he talks about segregation in education and provides examples to prove that segregation is regressing all around the country. Everybody deserves the equal opportunity for education regardless of where they come from or what their situation is. Without an education everything else in life is more difficult and nearly impossible. Parents always tell their children “make sure you get an education” or

Modern day segregation can be seen through the American education system. The more prominent students from suburban areas are expected to graduate from college and the inner-city students are given less of a chance to attend college. This is also reflected through teacher’s salary, which is significantly different. The suburban area teachers were paid higher wages because of the graduation rate of their students which attracted more qualified teachers. Another example of modern day education system failure, is the difference in school equipment and books being made available. The more privileged tend to receive the most up-to-date material whereas in the poorer minority area schools, are getting older books and computers to perform with. This results in the education gap between the rich and poor to broaden because the less fortunate minority students are behind before they even start school.

In today’s day and age most people expect the educational system to be equal among all students; people expect these students to grow up and get a good job with the education they have been taught throughout the years. But how can this be achieved when the system is not even close to being equal or fair? In this world, there are schools in poverty and then there are more privileged schools. At the higher class schools, the students are given an amazing education with more supplies and funding, whereas at the schools in poverty it is the complete opposite. In Kandice Sumners TedTalk (2016), How America's public schools keep kids in poverty, she rants about this exact topic. She has seen both worlds of the school controversy. She’s been to a high-class school and learned so much from them as a student, but now she teaches at a school in poverty and only wishes that she could have the same exact supplies and funding for her students. There is obviously a

After reading the first portion of three inspiring books, Finnish Lessons 2.0, 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten American Schools and Jules on Schools, I noticed a common theme. I noticed that each book emphasizes the importance of providing equal academic opportunities for every student no matter their background. The first book 50 Myths and Lies That Threaten American Schools written by Berliner and Glass, explains the disconnect of educational opportunities for all students of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in the United States. Our society has been more concerned with bettering themselves instead of funding public education. Schools are becoming segregated, children of wealth are separated into private or charter schools and children living in poverty or children with special needs separated into public schools, “This continuing trend does little to improve educational opportunities for the middle and low-income students ‘left behind’ in public schools.

In chapter 8 “Educational Inequality”, it is discussed that before the Brown v. Board of Education decision, people of color were systematically prevented from attending white schools under a doctrine called “separate but equal” (Golash-Boza, 2014). Since this 1954 decision, there has been progress to form equality in the schools. For example, there are no longer any all-white universities and colleges are working harder to encourage a diverse college campus, but there is still set-backs from being completely equal. The book “Race & Racisms” states that there is the achievement gap in America’s school systems. The achievement gap is the disparate educational outcomes of whites, Asians, blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans (Golash-Boza, 2014). According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in 2010 there was recorded that 29.3% of white people with their bachelor’s degree or higher and only 17.7% of black people with this achievement. Also stated in the surveys was that the average GPA of a white person was 3.09 and the average GPA of a black person was 2.69. There are multiple explanations on where the racism or inequality occurs in society that causes such a difference between the outcomes of black people versus white people, however it comes down to the same conclusion; there is inequality in the school

“Experts agree that the bulk of poor and minority students will not receive educations comparable to what is available in America’s best suburban schools. Either public or private, until the deeper structured question of funding is revolved.” Education inequality is wrong, all education to people should be equal. “There is an overtone of inequality involved in these disparities since, at least in urban areas, the poor districts tend to be heavily minority and the more affluent are heavily white.” Education inequality wrong, education isn’t provided us much to some races over others.

The problem of educational disparities among various ethno-racial groups that make up the United States has been a long studied topic. Theories have ranged widely in what they consider as the primary factors for these disparities. Biological and individualist perspectives have cited inherent genetic inferiorities as the cause of these disparities. Others have taken into account social forces but have maintained that the cause is due to the creation of a culture of subordination and poverty that does not allow social advancement. Still others have tended to focus on systemic inequalities and on the roles of prejudice and discrimination (Sidanius et al, 1998).

We as a society should be excited for the improvement of the education for kindergarten through college. We she be optimist for the average citizens of minority back ground that have had several educational hardships. Educational improvement will definitely have a better impact on the socioeconomic income-based biases within the United States, even more so than that of the racial-ethnic gap, when discussing achievement/ attainment. If we look at the great achievements that have happened for women over the past few years as a result of furthering education, it is a testament to the fact that education is the key to further establishing oneself in this economy. The more education that one can attain the more likely that is it for those individuals to achieve a comfortable life. This seems to be a well-known truth among several minority communities. Looking back at an article written by Ovink, we see that in a study conducted in a small Latino/a community, education was a main priority but even though they understood being from where they were from post-secondary education was not always attainable so they would settle for two year institutions or delete the thought of college from their minds all together due to what the author calls familism (Ovink, 2013). These outside duties are only one thing that has the ability to hinder a person from achieving higher education.