Not Educated, A Education Is Like A Bird Without Wings

America used to thrive on its education system and that is why it became one of the greatest nations in the world. Education is the backbone of our country, and we must give high priority to improve its current condition. Unfortunately, in the past couple of decades, the education system has been regressing. It has been on the decline and not as effective. The quality of education in a country has an influence on GDP growth, social cohesion and social well being in general. In order to improve the quality of education in the U.S., the following must be taken into consideration: the structure of our education system must be reanalyzed, we must compare and contrast our education system to systems of other countries with higher rankings, and finally, there must be a solution.

Aristotle said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” What does it really mean to be educated? Many people thought that they knew what education meant, even I felt confident in myself to define education. However, the ideas discussed in class really made me question my definition of education. My definition has changed within the past few weeks as I discovered more about education. I am here to present my definition of education; with the lack of resources, one can still become educated by learning the unknown and putting your knowledge to good use.

This country’s education system was built on the back of meritocracy and was created to function as an objective measure of a child’s performance and their intelligence. It was the gateway to the American Dream, and provided everyone with an equal chance of success in America. It was a place of not only intellectual, but also personal growth. In her essay “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Anyon argues that this is no longer the case. Anyon’s study concludes that from the fifth grade, students in poorer communities are groomed to succeed in low-class, blue collar jobs, while children in wealthy communities are prepared for more desirable careers. Anyon analyzes four different types of schools that all varied based on

     Will Durant, a businessman and the founder of General Motors, once said, “Education is the transmission of civilization.” Unfortunately, education is still one of the most deliberated 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 funding while rich districts obtain more, creating an immense gap between the quality of schools in poor and rich areas.

The United States, as many believe, is the land of opportunity, however, when looking at individual states, towns, and cities, this popular slogan may seem false to some. Within each state, all schools, such as middle and high schools, may not receive or offer equity. In an effort to revel inequalities within school systems, I will discuss the differences between schools in my town, the apparent lack of public concern about schooling inequality, and what changes could be made in an effort to reduce schooling inequality.

The public school system of America is the driving force of the nation’s job market. There is a direct correlation between the nation’s job market and the nation’s economic opulence. Despite education being at an all-time high for tax dollars spent, the heightened accessibility of schools across the country, and continuation of schooling after high school more than ever, the public school system of the United States continues to pump out insufficient workers to the work force. For almost two hundred years, the citizens of America have held a belief that going through the school system will be the necessary element to the life one wants to live in America. Over the years, schooling emitted a false hope that made job assurance possible. Fifty

With the many diverse characteristics of the Unites States, perhaps the most troubling is the rising gap in the distribution of wealth. As the wealth gap in the United States rises exponentially, the gap in the quality of public schooling rises with it. For a country that prides itself in prestigious outlets of education, the system of public schooling seems to be miserably failing. Public education, a system that some fight to destroy while others fight to preserve, is perhaps the only source of academic opportunity for many individuals living in this country. The fact that someone can live in a certain area and receive a higher quality of public education than someone else living in a different area in the same country—even in the same state—is a problem that should not trouble a ‘progressive’ democratic society. Unfortunately, areas of lower socioeconomic status receive much less funding than areas of higher socioeconomic status, where property taxes account for 45% of funding in public school districts. Naturally, the impoverished residents of poor neighborhoods pay a harsh price in this situation, sending their children to an underfunded school with little to no resources, where sometimes teachers must supply the classroom from their own pocket. As Rogerson and Fernandez note, “a system that allows the accidents of geography and birth to determine the quality of education received by an individual is inimical to the idea of equal opportunity in the marketplace”

When people think of Texas many might think of a rich and flourishing economy. With that thriving economy in mind, people may associate a great over all public school system in place. Unfortunately for Texans this not the case. In a 2016 report Texas ranks 43rd among the other states national k-12 education rankings (Fechter 2016). The determination of the ranking included 3 variables, chance for success, school finance, and K-12 achievement (Fechter 2016). The news is worse for the Corpus Christi Independent School District. According to Murphy & Daniel (2015), CCISD fell below nearly every statewide standard when it comes to academics. It is understandable that parents might feel that their child may

We are located within miles of the Gulf of Mexico and next to the border with Mexico. The state of Texas many commercial airports, making us one of the leaders of the movement of goods across the country. Many businesses come to Texas for it offers low taxes to corporate income taxes. We also offer 12 million of well-educated work force. Just the valley has 32 independent school districts some who have multiple high schools as well as private school and charters school. Some of this are part time students or full time students, the percentage shows that around 29.9 of the students get an associate’s degree while 11.7 percent of them get a bachelor’s degree, and 5.6 go on and get a master’s degree. The level of education that the residents of the valley get depends on the amount of local wage that many of the resident have. Many of them are

Overall, Beaumont’s demographics display the characteristics of a more traditional small city. Compared to state averages, Beaumont’s average household income falls just short. In terms of race, the town is composed of a majority of blacks, with whites not far behind. Finally, the gender of the town can be viewed as generally balanced. While there are only 117,585 citizens, they all possess unique qualities, backgrounds, and levels of education that contribute to Beaumont’s

“We believe, that is, you and I, that education is not an expense. We believe it is an investment.” Lyndon B. Johnson was referring to education in The United States when he said these words, but they can also refer to the education of a small town. In fact, Hermiston voters will have the chance to decide whether the city should invest in a $104 million school bond that will allow the Hermiston School District to build new schools as well as make improvements to the others that are already standing. It is vital that Hermiston pass the bond because issues that community members have pointed out like overcrowding and student safety will only get worse without it.

Education in America is not as valued nationally as the current culture wants the societies of the world to think. There are occupations that are valued above educators, but our civilization wants to imply that our educational system is well advanced and tries to emphasize that we are a country of well-educated people. Unlike in Leonid Fridman’s “America Needs Its Nerds,” and Benjamin R. Barber’s “America Skips School”. Everywhere in this country we hear the government say how our schools are the future of this country, but if we listen carefully we will hear little in our civilization over education financially and how poverty mixes in with this issue.

In the article “Bring on the Elites!”, Joel Stein shares the widespread view that education is essential to future success. Based on this view, some perceive the population growth in America and resulting increase in the number of students attending public school as positive, since the benefits of education now extend to more people. However, this trend points to a pressing problem in the education system. Without funding for sufficient facilities or teachers to accommodate additional students, administrators repeatedly push schools past capacity to the detriment of both students and staff. In economic terms, there is excess demand in comparison to supply, resulting in disequilibrium for the consumers. The current system is turning education into a commodity meant for mass production.

Moreover, the advancement in technologies causes higher requirements for education and training for potential employees, and the lack of education in the inner cities cause the residents to fall short of these requirements. Wilson speaks about the lack of motivation the teachers have to teach their students will great enthusiasm, the lack of skills the teachers had, and the overcrowding of schools. A woman gave details on how her daughter isn’t going to a public school because since they don’t get the amount of money a private school makes, the teachers do not care and the schools are overcrowded. There are also no schools that give the specific training that particular jobs require from their employers.

John Dewey once said “Education is not preparation for life; Education is life itself." Meaning that learning is an active process that should occur to enhance one 's living and understanding thereof. When one only views education as a temporary thing they miss the big picture , and fail to grasp the what life truly is. Paulo Freire believes in having the opportunity to discover for oneself all that the world has to offer with the slight guidance from a teacher. He also says that “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by recoiling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students.” Freire introduces the idea that we can and should all learn from each other, that no one person is ever higher in the world of education. We all have a unique perspective and take on things, and teachers should allow us to discover and interpret for ourselves.