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Flaws Of College Education

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As a student just out of high school, due for at least four more years of higher-education, the problems in education addressed during Chapter 8 are especially pertinent to my own life. However, that’s not to say that the problems in the education system aren’t important on a society-wide level as the quality of education is a major indicator for a society’s level of development and by extension the knowledge and to a degree the values of its citizens. The rhetorical question the textbook asks is a good summary of the flaws of the education system, “education is often claimed as a panacea – the cure-all for poverty and prejudice, drugs and violence, war and hatred, and the like. Can one institution, riddled with problems, be a solution for …show more content…

I went in depth into the benefits of a college education in my essay for Assignment #2, also discussing the wage “earnings premium” that’s mentioned in the textbook, but I hadn’t really considered the problems that occur in primary schools and below. The structural-functionalist perspective in regards to education makes a lot of sense to me, especially the part about “sorting individuals into statuses” since it’s true that just the word “’high school graduate,’ ‘Harvard alumna,’ and ‘English major’” seem to attribute intrinsic worth to a person in our minds before we even know anything else about them (Mooney 249). The more educated a person is, the higher other members of society tend to regard and respect them which frankly can lead to arrogance or pompousness within college students and other members of academia. Another aspect of structural-functionalist theory that I found interesting is the idea of socialization, that a primary function of education is to teach students to respect authority which is necessary for the organization of …show more content…

The textbook, rather, opens this discussion optimistically with an image that appears to be 4 children of different races, one Caucasian, one African-American, one Asian, and Hispanic, all holding hands in a symbol of unity. Although this idea is somewhat cliché, I think it’s a nice way to lead into a discussion of such a personal and divisive subject matter. It’s undeniable the prejudice has been present throughout history and I doubt it’s an issue human beings can ever conquer. However, as an example of this hopeful optimism for the future, I always think of Star Trek: The Original Series. Written and aired in the 1960s, it depicts a utopian future in the 2220s where human beings have achieved peace and takes place on a ship consisting of a racially diverse crew. Gene Roddenberry even initially wanted a woman to command the ship originally, though network executives shot this idea down as it was simply too controversial for the time. We’ve come far since then, but Star Trek did still break boundaries when William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols shared one of the first interracial kisses on US television. Although this took place within the context of a fictional television show, it shows how controversial and radical such ideas of diversity and transcending racial

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