Educational Attainment Is Poor And Exclusive Today 's Education System

Throughout decades, education inequality is still one of the most deliberate and controversial issues in the United States. Thus far, the privilege or right to receive education has not attained the level of equality throughout the nation. Poor districts obtain less educational funds while rich districts obtain more, which create an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas. In other words, the education gap is the root of inequality in America. Inequality in education is linked to the major problems in the society. The need for studies to be done to find ways of overcoming these inequalities is very inevitable. The means of mitigating these inequalities are important for the entire world. This is something of great interest due to the fact that children need quality education which is a pillar for a guaranteed future. Generally speaking, the distinctions among races, genders, and classes in the society have caused the educational inequality in America.

Margaret Wente’s Globe and Mail article on the existence and characteristics of the entitlement generation in Canada is both opinionated and thought provoking. The author strongly supports that the entitlement mindset is quite prevalent in Canada’s universities, has been nurtured by its preceding generation and has led to students’ unrealistic work expectations. Although Wente effectively communicates her opinions regarding the entitlement generation, her arguments are compromised by poor use of appeal to authority and a polarized approach to the topic.

Outline and assess the view that the role of education system is to justify and reproduce social inequalities (50)

Students who see themselves as consumers expect to be given high grades. They believe that they deserve good grades because they pay tuition and attend the required classes. They do not presume higher education to involve effort, challenge of negative feedback. Daniel Bruno’s essay titled “Entitlement Education” refers to the book by Peter Sacks, “Generation X Goes to College,” who stated that “Sacks shows how consumerism has invaded education, leading some students to expect good grades for little effort” (252). In other words, student consumers believe that good grades should be awarded merely because of paying their fees and perhaps occasionally attending class. Studying and performing well on exams is no longer seen as a necessary step towards earning high marks. This concept is also part of Simon

Andrew Simmons published his article for The Atlantic, “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility” on January 16, 2014, which raises his concerns that higher education is only being promoted as an opportunity to increase their economic status, when it should be an opportunity to experience an education (Simmons). Through the use of students such as Isabella, Simmons disagrees with the way students now look at higher education and blames the educators through the students’ lives for this view. Instead, Simmons views education as an intellectual opportunity rather than a way to elevate ones economic class which is all people see when they see “higher education.” He believes that education, ambition and work ethic is how you have a satisfying life, not with how much you make. He makes the point that when economics becomes the main goal of education it’s all children begin to think about and they might not pursue something that they are truly passionate about or what they want to learn about, which then does not create an intellectually awakening experience (Simmons).

D. Swan, Rail, and Bushcombe (1995) find that students' sense of entitlement led to complaints that course requirements were too burdensome and often interfered with their social commitments.

John Spayde’s article What Does it Mean to Be Educated (June 1998) offers insight into the world of philosophical questions and studies of our educational system. Spayde shares and responds to the opinions of different novelists, journalists, professors, and colleges that have taken a stance on what it means to be educated. His article briefly covers topics such as; educational decisions, financial division, entitlement, humanities, and technology. Spayde also discusses the importance of being connected and learning from a real-life experience. Spayde believes that having a connection to the world around you allows you to use any experience as a learning mechanism to further your education.

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.

Is higher education an entitlement? As a daughter of immigrants, this question can not be answered by a simple yes or no. Every area of policy is multifaceted. Every idea about policy draws certain boundaries in the realm of politics and in the debate of social and economic legislation. “Ideas tell what or who is included or excluded in a category.”(Stone). The rationale of public policy is taking a complex agenda, situation or idea and attempting to scale it back into main points, arguments and agendas. Furthermore, an issue is “placed on the agenda,” and a problem gets defined…alternative solutions are proposed, analyzed, legitimized, selected and refined. A solution is implemented…” (Stone 10-11). In this instance, reducing any answer to a simple yes or no response fails to capture different points of views and different ideas and the diverse amount of forces at play. Matters of community, loyalty and public interest almost always ignore the school of rationale thought. For this purpose, using the very ambiguous label of “Americans”, we all must reconcile our social perceptions of what was believed to be our American heritage for what it visibly is.

Education is a privilege. This remains true, even as I sit in one of the most grueling lectures of my life and ask myself questions like, "When am I ever going to use this in real life?" or "Can it be lunch already?" We often believe that education is a right. However, when something is not accessible to all, it is a privilege, not a right.

Amongst many social justice issues, educational inequity continues to dramatically affect the nation's youth in the long term. However, for some students the ability to access a quality primary education provided by public schools depends on the students socioeconomic bearing. The insufficient availability of essential resources, opportunities, and funding creates a hurdle to access a higher quality education. This reiterates that a higher education creates a step forward in the education system to close the achievement gap.

The anti-entitlement theory is a school of thought that is a preventative measure aiming to prevent the Snowflake mindset being instilled within the younger generation in society, especially among students in our education systems. The theory begins with the basis of the personal construct system in which individuals construct theory own system of knowledge and interpret their environment and world around them. This concept combined with the core element of the anti-entitlement theory presents a school of thought with a core premise of “old school” values consisting of

In our discussions, we highlighted the importance of understanding our own privilege of being in a university. The privilege of receiving ‘higher education’ is foreign to many marginalized people, like First Nations people,

In the article, “The Education Inequality Struggle” published by The Huffington Post, Marian Wright Edlemen discusses a new act by Congress, The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that serves to replace the No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of the No Child Left Behind Act was to add need federal accountability in regards to the desegregation and equalization of education along with fiscal accountability. However, the No Child Left Behind Act failed to address the scholarly performance of children. ESSA is designed to track student performance by traits known to affect education; race, gender, ethnicity, disability, and language. At the same time, individual states create plans for education that have to be approved federally. Based on these

Education is something often seen as an equalizer in the face of social injustice. The concept of using school and information to put different people on a level playing field is a noble but misguided attempt at social equality. Education undoubtedly affects the position of people in society positively, while creating an outlet to educate the ignorant, it becomes problematic when education is not an equal opportunity for everyone. In Adrienne Rich’s essay, “Taking Women Students Seriously”, she speaks of the inequality mainly affecting women while subtly hinting at the inequality present in education in regards to race and class. Gender, race and class are three characteristics that work together to create either a positive or negative profile for one’s education.