Education Is Not An Equal Opportunity For Everyone

Education in America is horrible because students are only taught what is tested, not what’s needed in this society. Many people drop out because they don’t see how it can benefit them. I feel as though people lose determination and motivation towards their education and bettering themselves. Kids aren’t prepared the way they should be. Some students get stuck with teachers who don’t really care about them or their education. Teachers make it seem as though if the material isn’t on the test then it doesn’t matter, which isn’t true. For instance, when we take the SAT or ACT, majority of the material isn’t really taught at school. For me I had to study the books for it. I don’t think the information we are taught in middle or high school set

America’s education system is one of the most respectable, reputable and sought after commodities in our society, but it is also the most overcrowded, discriminatory, and controversial system ever established. Most people yearn for a higher education because it 's what 's expected in this society in order to get ahead. It means a better job, more money, power, prestige and a sense of entitlement. But this system has let down the children that are supposed to benefit from it. Education discriminates against minorities, and poorer class students are not expected nor encouraged to attain a higher education. The education system is set up to ensure that every child get a basic

The educational system has been around for thousands of years, and throughout time, there have always existed equality issues. From girls not being able to attend school as far as the boys, to children being separated into different schools because of the color of their skin, equality in education is an issue that has plagued humanity for far too long. Throughout the years, there have been some important decisions made in an effort to afford equality in education. Perhaps, as we move forward in our thinking and beliefs, we may find a way to make education a right that everyone who has the desire to grow through knowledge should be afforded, regardless of circumstance.

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.

Such a movement involved the American women to band together, raising an awareness of protecting women in pay, position, and anti-discrimination laws, which became as powerful as a women elevating herself to the arena of a soap box (Tavaana, “The 1960s-70s American Feminist Movement”). In the brief age of revolution, the nation also began to see the importance of women studies in high education institutions (Elfman, “A ‘Second Wave of Feminism’”). In the text, Rich divulges in her views on civil rights, emphasizing on her bias view on women suffrage in education, but rationalizes it with social currency: “...You, the women students here, and… us, who teach in a women’s college [are two parts of education]. But ultimately those two parts are indivisible… Less than a decade ago, with the rebirth of a feminist movement in this country, women students and teachers in a number of universities began to demand and set up women’s studies courses – to claim a women-directed education (Rich, 220, 221).” Whether it was intentional or not, Rich’s use of the word “indivisible” when describing the bond of female student and teachers (with no gender specific aim), was utterly relevant to say the least. Any US citizen hearing the speech, then and now, could recognize the correlation of the verbiage used in “Claiming an Education” as well as in the official Pledge of Allegiance. Rich was calling attention to not only the participation of national academia

own gender. Rich observes the lack of education for women because she sees it in her

In her speech Rich attempts to change the perspective students have of education. She desires for students to see they don’t receive an education but they have the right to claim it. Her message is simple, women have to take every opportunity in education as rightful owners because they have the same right as men to be educated. Rich claims that students can benefit more from education if they claim it instead of thinking it’s been given to them and take it for granted. Once students learn to declare education as theirs and take full responsibility they will be more successful. Even though the speech’s main audience were female students of Douglass College Rich’s words apply to every student.

In addition to fulfilling the learning objectives that required my proficiency in online and campus services, the growth I attained through our readings and discussions became (although trite) my new educational foundations from which I deconstructed and/or reconstructed a reality aspiring to be bias-free. Starting from Adrienne Rich’s “Claiming an Education” where I became enraged by female oppression and exposed devolusive reality that despite this speech being near 40 years old, it still upholds presently. My dispassion for endemic public discourse continued immensely when reading Jean Anyon’s “ Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum Work” and Jonothan Kozol’s “Other People’s Children” that assisted perfectly with my Urban Youth course’s concurrent analysis and conceptualization of the school-to-prison pipeline. Both Anyon and Kozol, invited me to witness shameless discrimination, negligence and social stratification plaguing U.S education. This ideal of equal opportunity to quality education has exceeded my vain plight grappling with my white privilege by double, which I know will only continue to challenge every fiber of my being as these issues remain neglected ergo persistent. ‘Ed. Found’ reading of Henry Giroux’s interview “The Hope of Radical Education” also meshed with my

Inequality on the basis of race, class, sex/gender, and sexuality is maintained in a variety of ways and contexts in the education system. This institution functions through several strategies to contain these common imbalances in society. The leading issue for this division is on the basis of its individual structure within the system.

Nearly thirteen years into the new millennium and so many of the gaps most noticeable within the education system in the twentieth century have been closed. Attainment and participation in both primary and secondary education is now almost equally open to boys and girls from around the world, and tertiary education is even seeing a bias in women’s attendance over men. However, despite these positive changes, social class, gender and ethnicity still have a major impact on education and intersect with not only attendance, but with personal achievement too.

While gender bias keeps down capable women, the threat of unemployment, poverty, violence, discrimination, and jail time keeps down the minority racial communities of the world, making it harder for non-white, poverty stricken people to rise above their station. To compound the problem, the rich and powerful have a habit of training their children to be rich and powerful, further heightening the already far gone wealth gap between the people in the top and bottom income quintiles. Though some may argue that parents spending money on their children’s education is their right and their choice, when that spending leads to rich children consistently scoring higher on the SATs than their poor counterparts, when that spending leads to children who grow up to go to the best colleges, despite costs a poorer parent would never dare dream of affording, and when these children are given every possible advantage at the expense of the poorer children’s education and welfare, then we have a problem. Money should not be a decider of who is worthy of education, job opportunities, and, ultimately, more money and prestige. (An Hereditary

(Wallington, Petlow, & Mitchell, 2011). By offering accelerated learning opportunities that allow students to achieve college placement, bridge programs can help to correct this trend in higher education (Wallington, Petlow, & Mitchell, 2011).

I think there is more to Adrienne Rich’s essay Claiming an Education. It is directed towards women with hopes of breaking the negative chain of passive behavior. Whether Rich is aware of this, it is applicable to anyone who wishes to be

autism will not meet all of the same successes the same way as a typically

Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work” in her essay reveals the inequality based on a student’s community and socioeconomic status.