The Education Of The Educational System

“School trains children to be employees and consumers; teach your own to be leaders and adventurers.  School trains children to obey reflexively; teach your own to think critically and independently” (Gatto 670).  In the present day school system, students are becoming more of products of an institutionalized school system

As mentioned in the “sociology of education” textbook, the learning of a member of society has both formal, planned components and informal aspects (p31). The family is one of the first influences for most children where by the cognitive development takes place. According to Jean Piaget, young children's play becomes increasingly imaginary and filled with fantasies. As children develop cognitively, their play will move from simple make-believe to plots involving more characters and scenarios, games with sophisticated rules, etc. Through my experience I can remember when my mom would buy new house hold appliances, I was amazed at the size of the box the appliance came in that which became my playful adventure; from being a feared pilot fighting my way through battles against enemies to being trapped in a storm out in the ocean. That box made me imagine and enjoy the value of being a child. If children aren’t able to learn the values from rights and wrongs and the role of expectations of society from their families then the role of the school takes place. Children attending schools will spend most of the day with their teachers, administrations, students and others employed in the institution. Where they may take some

There are many controversies that american public education system does more harm than good. In “Against School” by John Taylor Gatto and “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, explains how school education destructively impacts us. Gatto states his experience as a public school teacher and why he “just can’t do it anymore”. He was tired how the schooling was programmed. He argues how school system are affecting students to be more like “childlike” citizens. Also, Anyon demonstrates her research on how there are many different kind of education depending what “class” you were. She informs us that there is an inequality in “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”. Both authors depicts the reality and truth, that some people are unable to see. As a student, I’ve also experience this and support how school depicts how we are in the future. Moreover, there are many representations that explains why the american public education systems does more harm than good.

With the rapid progress of the society, the social status of many occupations are fluctuating with epochs’ changing. Personally speaking, I always believe that teachers now have less influence on students than they had in the past.

Throughout my life I’ve encountered many educators whether through elementary, middle school, high school, or college level. My involvement with these educators throughout the years would become very instrumental in not only my learning, but also becoming an educator. Educators can range from parents, who become our primary educators of life as a child throughout adolescents, and eventually adulthood. A parent will educate us as youth on what we perceive as home training, family values and morals. Preachers can be educators as they educate you on the bible and the way of life. Teachers who serve as a master educator, serves a vital part of a child’s learning and learning needs.

The school is the secondary agent of socialisation that children introduced to throughout growing up. School socialises children in many different ways. Children in this period of socialisation (The School) learn to become a productive member of the society, formal set of skills and knowledge such as writing, reading and maths, and strength their socials abilities by interacting with colleagues and schoolteachers. But mainly children learn that in society everyone’s equal regardless of how special they’re in their families. (Barkan 2012, p. 127)

Jean Anyon, author of the article “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, spent one year observing a fifth-grade class in a socially middle class elementary school. In this year, she was able to determine that the teachers taught the students by textbook based lessons and would ask questions that would verify if a student had done his or her reading assignments before coming to class. The students would then receive grades based on the amount of right answers they had given. Through her observations she saw that teachers did not bring up concepts that could be considered controversial in fear that parents would become angry. Anyon noted that the students learned by being given directions that often required some decision making,

The manifest function of schools in our society is to socialize children. School grooms young people for the various roles and positions they will hold later in life by teaching them reading, writing, mathematics and the sciences. The various activities and experiences at school help expose children to values that are important in our society such as capitalism, so-called democracy and environmentalism. The text suggests that one of the latent functions of schools is actually producing “passive, non-problematic conformists who will fit into the existing social order (Gracey, 1991). Schools are able to do this by training children to act in specific ways and expect certain things from the authority figures in their lives.

What is Education? Education is more than just a white or black board or a marker or

The United States is considered by many to be a world leader who excels in every arena. In education, however, the U.S. has fallen behind other countries in Europe and Asia, such as China, Korea, and Finland. These countries outperform the United States when it comes to education. In order for the United States to continue to compete in the world economy it has to improve its system of education to compete in changing times. The United States education system is inferior to many foreign countries education system based on how U.S. students score on tests compared to students in foreign countries.

In the two hundred forty-one years since the founding of the United States, few have seriously argued the importance of education to society. Although education was left out of the United States Constitution in the interest of states’ rights, Thomas Jefferson was not alone in believing that “the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people… [which is necessary] for the preservation of freedom and happiness.” (251). Despite a consensus on the necessity of education, its actualization has a storied past, one riddled with intense ideological debates, landmark court cases, petty politics, and, at times, military intervention (e.g. during desegregation). While lawmakers and judges have addressed

Identifying authority as the nucleus of any educational relationships, and the construction of authority as a crisis in modern education (Arendt, 2006), this article is geared towards providing a critical review of the construction of “teacher authority”. The essential nature and notable features of “teacher as an authority”, “teacher in authority” will be scrutinized respectively. What the review unveiled is that neither of them is an emancipatory practice. Firstly, teacher as a legitimate and competent authority” has the potential danger to become authoritarian, and exercise power as a consequence of the unequal intelligence between the teacher and students. Secondly,

Education is perceived by society as a means to achieve high levels of success in all aspects of life. Although steps have been taken to afford individuals the opportunity to obtain an education, there still lies an inequality and therefore, a social problem is created. Using the sociological perspectives of functionalist, conflict, feminist, and interactionist, we can see how each perspective views how this inequality becomes prevalent and how social, as well as economic inequalities of society are inherited through education.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” - Nelson Mandela. Without education, there is simply no telling of what this world would be like. There wouldn’t be doctors, lawyers, businesses etc. Life and everything around us would be fatuous. Schools and education give us a plan in life and help guide us. Throughout the years education has changed tremendously. It had its improvements throughout the decades, and it also has had its falters as well. Education in America is an issue in this country and it definitely needs to be tweaked and improved. Education is what makes us people who we are and what we will be. Nelson Mandela had it right, there is no weapon more powerful than education.

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.