Education Differences Have Made A Child 's Education

In the article “Still separate, still unequal” Jonathan Kozol describes the reality of urban public schools and the segregation in education, which is still a major problem in our educational system. According to the author the main problem for minorities is money. White students can afford a good education before they enter kindergarten, while minority students are limited in what they study. For example, suburban schools, which primarily consist of white students, have better education than urban schools which primarily have African American and Hispanics. If Jonatan Kozol is right that the educational system is still separate and unequal, as I think he is, then we need to reassess the popular assumption that the educational system is the

In the article “Still Separate, Still Unequal: America’s Education Apartheid” author Jonathan Kozol informs us about inequality and segregation in today’s school systems. Kozol talks about schools were minority’s makes up the student body. For example, Kozol refers to John F. Kennedy High School where the majority of the student body is made up by African Americans and Hispanic students, only a third of the students are white. Kozol states that schools like these are typically underprivileged schools that normally have structural issues and also lack behind in technology and resources for students. Kozol also brings up the predominately white schools where on average there is more money spent on students and funding is not a problem, these

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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).

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

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

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

In education, white people have always been at an advantage compared to other races. African-American have had quite a setback in prior years. There was a time when African-American weren’t even allowed to learn how to write or read in our country just because of the color of their skin. There has been quite the improvement from those times in terms of African-Americans obtaining an education. According to Essentials of Sociology, only about 20 percent of African-Americans had a high school diploma in the year of 1960. The number has increased significantly to roughly 82 percent in 2013. That percentage represents a significant change that shows how our nation has progressed throughout the years. However, you are still at a set back if you aren’t white. “Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students” (Hsieh, 2014).

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.