“Jack MacFarland couldn’t have come into my life at a better time. My father was dead and I had logged up too many years of scholastic indifference. ”(Rose,page 5)Not everyone has the opportunity to receive an equal education but can strive to become greater .Children from poor families are at a much lower advantage but does not mean that they can’t succeed in what they plan to do they just need someone to believe in them. People do not choose to be poor and instead of getting equal or similar help they are limited by the opportunities allowed or denied them by a social and economic
3, “The liberal arts are particularly irrelevant for low-income and first-generation students” (228). Sanford J. Ungar, President of Goucher College, which is a small liberal arts school, believes the reasoning behind this statement is that they feel like students from low-income families should pursue a major that’s practical rather than attempting to pursue something that maybe is not as guaranteed to get you a good paying job, like literature or physics. He points out that this is prejudice, and that it’s making the insinuation that people in the lower class are merely bodies that carry out the ideas of the wealthier, upper class. Ungar says, “It is condescending to imply that those who have less cannot understand and appreciate the finer elements of knowledge” (228). He proceeds to let the audience know that in his experience, he has found that “people who are the newest to certain ideas and concepts, are usually the people who approach the job with a more open and creative mind”; we should respect what everyone has to offer.
When students are unaware of the history of social class, they begin to believe false information, such as, poor people deserve to be poor. Loewen does a great job of pointing out student’s misunderstanding of social status and strongly believes that it is the high school text books to
Seika McKee Dickens ENGL 1113 1 OCT. 2015 The Hidden Education in the Poor Perhaps one of the most valuable opportunities in life is education. In a conversation between Adam Howard, associate professor of education at Antioch College, and Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College at Columbia University, in “Where Are The Poor Students,” some subjects at hand are the availability or unavailability of opportunities, the missed value of education, and the irrelevant comparison of test scores directed towards the poor students.
1. After watching this video I learned that the first generation college students in the late 1960s struggled so much so we could be in this excellent program so we could succeed. Nobody should ever be neglected an education like those students. We have many opportunities as the result of their actions and sacrifices because they fought so that this program could be as successful as it is. If those courageous students would have not spoken up and fight for their rights I would have not been here right now.
The story” Learning to Read”, by Malcolm X, depicts how the motivation could push people further to achieve their academic goal no matter where you from or who you are. The author himself never made it past the eighth grade because he dropped out from the school. Of course with unemployment he got himself involved in criminal activity and later, be putted into prison. the life in prison makes him revalue his past and trying to stand up for himself in order to beat this circumstance. He taught himself how to read and become literate even all he could rely on is a dictionary, and the limit recourse obtained from the prison school.
However, the most thought provoking concept introduced by Mantsios is his fifth reality. Mantsios asserts, “Class standing has a significant impact on chances for educational achievement.” (Mantsios, p 483). Throughout this portion of his article, Mantsios continues to reference studies that prove lower class citizens achieve significantly less (Mantsios, p 482). Although the media is filled with stories of how different celebrities, such as Oprah, went from rags to riches, these are a merely a select few that escape their predetermined end.
Have you ever witnessed or experienced something that made you feel blessed, but also burdened from what you have learned? Frederick Douglass in “Learning to Read” and Malcolm X in “A Homemade Education”, both experienced the burden and blessing from gaining an education. Douglass was a slave in the 1800s and Malcolm X was a prisoner in the 1940s. Both men went through a great deal of trouble to gain knowledge in reading and writing. The knowledge Douglass and Malcolm X learned caused them great miseries in their hearts, but also gave them the freedom they deserved.
“The Dangerous Consequences of Growing Inequality” was written by author Chuck Collins in 2005. The main thesis of the essay was that a greater amount of inequality causes us to undermine the values of society, along with consequences that affect an indivual’s life. Collins expands on his main point by splitting up the consequences into different categories. To be more specific, he gives different examples on how the growing inequality impacts society, and more specifically, our culture, economy, social order, and democracy. Collins starts off by explaining how homes are affected when there is a change in the economy.
Through his vivid descriptions and carefully selected phrasing, he moves the reader to appreciate the significant chasm between public education for the rich and for the poor. Overall, the variety of examples demonstrate our society's inability to unite
Education Reform There is no doubt that education has revolutionized the world. However, at one point in time, education was seen to be only for the rich and not a necessity to all like it is today. Receiving an education in the early 1800’s was not important in the grand scheme of things because the poor children were expected to work on farms or in factories to provide for their families. Therefore, since many Americans did not believe education was valuable, it took a great reform powered by one man to reveal the significance of schooling; this individual was Horace Mann. Self-taught and self-motivated, Horace Mann desired to gain as much knowledge as he could, and additionally he wished to influence others’ lives in a positive way by creating
Upon beginning my first class at Walden University, it has been difficult to see myself getting through this 8-week course. Furthering my education has been something I have struggled to accomplish for the last 4 years. I almost decided to give up and continue being just a high school teacher. However, being a senior teacher that motivates my students to go above an beyond to reach their goal has pushed me to work hard and start a new journey. Though it is only the beginning of my journey, I can see graduation.
Having educated people is crucial to a community and a society should be more than eager to pay to educate and enlighten them (Wiener,
Ungar’s essay, Charles Murray discusses why a liberal arts degree is unnecessary in his essay, “Are Too Many People Going to College?”. Murray believes that the basics of a liberal education are indeed important, but that students should be provided the basics of liberal arts in elementary and middle school (Murray 223). In this essay, Murray cites E.D. Hirsch Jr.’s book Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.” Hirsch Jr. and Murray believe that there is a “body of core knowledge” that all students should have, and that “this core knowledge is an important part of the glue that holds the culture together” but that this core knowledge should be taught in grades K-8 (Murray 224). Murray discusses how young children are much better at memorizing facts than adults are, to support his position that kids should be memorizing this core knowledge at a younger age (Murray 224).
Being Latino, this course has brought up some points that I have related to their values has changed the ways I think about things and believe that everyone deserves a chance and that our race shouldn’t define us. It is hard that we live in a conservative city that has isolated us in this bubble. Keep them striving and break this stereotype that everyone puts them into. This brought an eye opening of my awareness toward racism. The difficulty that they have to go overcome based on their race.
