Rhetorical Analysis: Socioeconomic Status And Education

Democracy has always been threatened by illiteracy. There are a few ways in which democracy has been threatened by illiteracy. These ways are, people forging a vote, not understanding instructions on medication, and traveling out to the streets. These three things are a huge problem for illiterates. In order to prevent illiteracy one must open themselves to the world and learn about democracy. As James Madison stated, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives” (Kozol 114).

Children who grow up in a poor area go to school where there are 50 kids in one class and individual attention is never given, and children of high class families will go to schools that have smaller class sizes and individual attention. Even when a poor child goes to a better schoolteachers will question if the work done is their own and also only expect hard work from the rich kids. “if you are a child of low income parents, the chances are good that you will receive limited and often careless attention from adults in your high school.” Theodore Sizer “Horace’s Compromise,” “If you are the child of upper-middle income parents, the chances are good that you will receive substantial and careful attention.” (203) These quotes from another author showcase that school in America is often times based on the social standing of the parents.

According to Bynner and Joshi (1999) class differences have persisted since the late 1950’s. It can be seen that all studies carried out by various theorist came to the same conclusion that middle class pupils tend to do a lot better than working class in terms of educational achievement. Pupils from middle class backgrounds tend to pass more exams, stay on at school for longer and are five times more likely to go to university. This gap in achievement widens with age as right from nursery school to university, processes like labelling or the self fulfilling prophecy take

Many issues in the 1900’s have been affecting jobs, social classes, and student’s education. In particular, fifth graders are being divided by their parents work level. Because this is happening, students will have unequal fairness on the outcome of the education they will receive. Jean Anyon, the author of “From Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work,” employs important concepts and powerful illustration to prove that the parents work level affects their children’s quality of education.

Also, with most low income students coming from backgrounds of working parents, they are not given the privilege to see all the benefits of obtaining their education to build their life in a great career. As wonderfully stated by Bellin, “At a time when social mobility has stalled and the poorest are still suffering the effects of the last recession, investing in college access for students from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds should be a priority.” (134). When students are shown the importance of education, instead of just hearing about it, they are more likely to understand the benefits and continue on that path and pass their knowledge down to their children. All the lowest socioeconomic class needs is a boost in that positive direction to start the domino effect, so why do we choose to unethically give the cold shoulder to the class that currently has the most need for help and would benefit from it the

People are told that getting an education will make them successful in life. That is not the case. Jean Anyon conducted a study on the four different schools in different social-class. In the article “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” Jean Anyon states, “In the two working-class schools, work is following the steps of a procedure. The teacher rarely explains why the work is being assigned and how it might connect to other assignments” (2). Students are not taught to think for themselves. They are taught to follow their parent’s footsteps into the work force as very low skilled workers. Compared to the students in the capitalist class where they are taught to use their own knowledge and reason to solve problems. The students in the executive elite schools are given a better chance in succeeding in life.

In addition, the students that are being raised in families with less wealth, may not be able to afford the technologically advanced devices, that the way of learning is evolving to. This puts these kids at a disadvantage because they don’t have access to the same resources of the wealthier people in their class. This makes even public education seem more beneficial to those with money, than those that don’t have much. The social ladder, so say is Immobile. Layton expresses, the social status of those at the bottom is not improving, but the status of those at the top

So, what was socioeconomic status? What were the components that constructed socioeconomic status? Socioeconomic status was defined by multiple factors: educational attainment, income, occupational prestige, wealth, and much more. Educational attainment component of socioeconomic status had a long term prevalence on a person’s health. Research shown that children who grew up in low-socioeconomic status households and communities developed academic skills more slowly than other children. Some potential reasons was the lack of literacy in their environment, chronic stress, under resource, inadequate education provided in an area, and much more influenced an individual’s opportunity of learning at an early age (American). The lack of literacy in an environment was attributed

These children are defrauded not just of an education, but also of the ability to be socially mobile. Researchers of the American Psychological Association found that education level directly correlates with socioeconomic status. A lack of education undermines any individual’s true capability, preventing them from surpassing their academic limitations. Potential important figures and world leaders may never come to be if not given the tools to become what they can become. The next generation’s Einsteins and Gandhis will not exemplify their prowesses if never given the rudiments

Education plays a big role for those that go into the poverty scale or not. When ignoring poverty, you also end up forgetting one of the main cause that leads to it. When a teen gets educated and attends school regularly, they have more of a chance to find a job and earn more than their counterparts who may drop out or don’t regularly. Many people do not realize poverty can cause and be caused by Education. As these two play apart, society has slowly backed away on helping those in school. Many programs have been made like LOOP, a program to help tutor young ones but is also beneficial to a parent who works late and needs someone to watch over their Children (GRPS). Though this program may have started out as a way to help kids to have an easier time in school, this became beneficial in becoming less into the poverty level. Parent become able to work more hours and still be on time to pick up their children safely. Many of this programs don’t get recognition in the benefits that are given to the student and those that are close to the line. As discussed before, if one relates to another, creating a system to flourish one will help the

When thinking about society we are able to see a clear distinction between groups that are clearly more advantaged or disadvantaged than other groups. In modern society, these advantages and disadvantages are not always by design, but they fall back into a deeper more stratified system in which everyone has become part of today. There are some things that happen subconsciously that make someone seem better than another person or ways of thinking that because of the past have forced us to think the way that we do currently. Stratification is everywhere, from our personal life, jobs, networks and even schools. There are a magnitude of factors that play into our life that help us decide what we want to do and factors that decide what we might or might not be able to do. In this paper, I want to focus on how the idea of stratification is alive and well in modern education and futures of those attending secondary education.

In an idealistic world, one’s education would not be determined by their social class or living environment. Instead, those who live in the low class outskirts of an urban industrial population to those who live in ritzy suburban homes and are part of the private school system would be learning the same values and have similar if not equal curricula. However, we as a society have not managed to make this ideal applicable. Instead we find ourselves with an education system that seems to benefit those with favourable living conditions. As discussed in Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, depending on your economic status, you may be taught to just “Follow the steps in a procedure” as per the working class schools or how to independently carry out your creative activities as found in the affluent professional school. These very different extremes have an effect on one’s future by setting you up for a life as a factory worker or as a lawyer. It is this economical and social structure that I had to overcome to get to where I am today.

Social class profoundly affects an individual’s academic achievement in school. In this case, social class shapes the attitudes and values of an individual which further influences their future both academically and professionally. Empirical evidence suggests that individuals/students attending college/university from a lower social class face difficulties when socially integrating into the school system leading to higher dropout rates and poor academic performance (Darnon, Jury, and Aelenei, 2017; Lehmann, 2007, 90). In comparison, a majority of individuals from a higher social class tend to succeed in their academic career (they complete university/college, high academic performance rates, etc.) (Darnon et al., 2017). This further infers that an obvious sociocultural difference continues to persist among individuals who belong to different social classes.

Education is an important structure in society that shapes the most important years of your life, and therefore many theorists have ideas about what is wrong with education, what is right, and what needs to change or develop. Education is confined a lot by social control and social reproduction. Social control is a concept that refers to how social systems control the way we feel, think, behave, and even how we should present ourselves. These can appear openly, shown as rules and laws, or they could be not openly acknowledged and just appear as the “common” thing to do. Social reproduction is the reproduction of inequalities throughout generation-to-generation, one way education does this is how it supplies “wealthy” schools more and “poor” schools less. Michael Apple and Maxine Greene both define Social reproductions and Social Control. Throughout this text, I will explain the theories of Greene and Apple, as well as comparing and contrasting them against one another while applying some of my own experiences of education.

We have all heard the expression that “education is the key to success.”. It makes sense, right? The more education you have, the more successful you will be. In some ways that is true. The education we get prepares us for our future and our future outcomes. After all, there is a direct correlation between education and social economic reward and that people with high education usually live happier, healthier, and wealthier lives. Those individuals who obtain higher education and the skills that they learn will later lead the individual to work in high-status and high-paying jobs. We assume that they make an astonishing amount of money and everyone lives happily ever after right? In our world today the “American Dream” is lost, is just that, a dream. We are taught that if you “play by the rules, work hard, apply yourself and do well in school and that will open doors for you,” and you will be successful and all that other crap we are told in school , TV, news, radio and practically everywhere else. Although everyone deserves the right to education and the “key to success” the truth of the matter is that education inequalities exist and not everyone is getting the same level of education or the same opportunities either. The group in America that obtains the best education is the upper class while the lower class students are left with lower odds of education.