Education and America
We we messing up in the education system in America today? The three sociological theories, the functionalist theory, conflict theory, and the interactionism theory have affected the educational system in the United States. Even though the interactionism perspective shows us that, without really realizing what we are doing, we are separating children into different groups at the earliest stages of their lives. We have created a society where the wealthy and intelligent prosper while the economically challenged, whether intelligent or not, have been required to work twice as hard to accomplish the same goals. For society to work together as a whole we need to stop teaching our youth that it is acceptable to treat people of different backgrounds differently. Because the conflict perspective has taught us that the more powerful people in society are more apt to flourish. And the functionalist role has included teaching our youth how to work together for the good of the entire society.
The functionalist perspective has included teaching our youth how to work together for the good of the entire society. Education is one of the most important contributions of molding a person for civilization and introducing them into a society. Children in America generally begin school at the age of five, but there can be some variation, in kindergarten and they begin to acquire the skills needed to get along in society. We teach our children how to read, write, and math, we also teach them how to get along with one another even if they are different in society. Functionalists believe “schooling is essential to society in so that it sorts and sifts above average students from average and below average students. It does this in order to ensure that the more talented students rise to the top of the socio-economic status system”. (Goldsmith,2008) Functionalists see education in a manifest form, which is conveying basic knowledge and skills to the next generation. The founder of functionalist, Durkheim, stated that the latent role of education as one of socializing people into society’s mainstream. “Moral education” helped form a more-cohesive social by bringing together people from different backgrounds. The core values of American education have characteristics that support the political and economic systems that originally fueled education.
The Review on Global Systems Theory
Global systems theory is perhaps one of the many theories related to capitalism and transnational corporations. This paper attempts to look into global systems theory in the context of capitalism by making use of three articles as part of the literature for the research. By outlining the major contentions for each of these three articles, this paper will further juxtapose these main points with ...
The interactionism perspective shows us that, without really realizing what we are doing, we are separating children into different groups at the earliest stages of their lives. The interactionism perspective focuses on the communication between a teacher and student plus the interaction of students and their peers. Teachers tend to communicate with students based on their gender, ethnicity, or economic upbringing. ) “The interactionism perspective focuses on everyday social interaction among individuals rather than on large societal structures such as politics and education.” (Sullivan, 2007) Unfortunately, this can lead to students start to get labels within the school system. Labels tend to stay with the child throughout the years because they continue to get passed on by the teachers year after year. The little rich girl will stay the little rich girl and the boy who is but slower than the other students will remain the boy that is slower than the other students. Also, if we label students they may start to fulfill the label they were given even if they are negative or positive. “The delinquent label, in turn, influences the self-image of the youth, who comes to view himself or herself from the standpoint of others as “delinquent,” which increases the likelihood of future delinquency. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy, in which the process of deviance amplification or secondary deviance creates a disproportionate number of delinquents among the disadvantaged.” (Bartusch & Matsueda, 1996) A child that is labeled smart will receive a bit more attention from the teacher whereas, a child labeled as bad kid will not and act out more to get more attention.
The Term Paper on Importance Of Research In School Society And Teacher
Research is important because it allows us to assess and review the quality of schools and education. It allows us to for improvement and policy change. It is help to find how research affects in your community. It is presents more information for examination. This is allow us for improvements based on better information and study. Education research is a field of inquiry aimed at advancing ...
We have created a society where the wealthy and intelligent prosper while the economically challenged, whether intelligent or not, have been required to work twice as hard to accomplish the same goals. For society to work together as a whole we need to stop teaching our youth that it is acceptable to treat people of different backgrounds differently. Because the conflict perspective has taught us that the more powerful people in society are more apt to flourish. The education system in America is based capitalism and democracy in our society but many conflict theorists note that true capitalism and true democracy are incompatible. We are teaching students to be compliant and work within a schedule that is set by the school. We reward students who do well and the students that are under achievers or poor at learning tend to fall behind and get unrecognized and fall behind. Our system in schools have created, developed, and maintained a system where the powerful stay powerful while others fall in the shadows and are left behind. And the social class levels stay the same. “The conflict perspective is based on the idea that society consists of different groups who struggle with one another to attain the scarce societal resources that are considered valuable, be they money, power, prestige, or the authority to impose one’s values on society.”(Sullivan, 2007) Conflict theorists believe that schools train those in the working classes to be accepting of the lower-class society member. They call this the “hidden curriculum”. Conflict theorists believe that property taxes fund most schools this mean some schools in better districts have more money. These schools are predominantly white, they can afford to pay higher salaries, the schools generally attract better teachers, and they can afford to buy newer texts and updates for the classrooms (such as technology).
The Essay on Easy And Difficult Works In Education
Easy And Difficult Works In Education According to the article "When Does Education Stop?" it stated that a young man interviewed the author, James Michener, and bellyaching about writing a three thousand words paper which is about James book. Because the young man sounded whimpering, James started to talk about his own experience of writing millions words paper. He mentioned that young people ...
These school’s students are primed for better colleges and on track to a higher paying career. However, students in less fortunate neighborhoods that go to schools with fewer advantages are less likely to go to college and if they do go forward in education they mainly attend vocational or technical training. And the less fortunate schools tend to have higher number of minorities. Conflict theorists also believe that not only economics favor the white minorities but so does the school testing. A conflicts theorist sees educations as a means of maintaining power structures and creating a docile work force for capitalism.
So you can see that although the interactionism perspective shows us that, without really realizing what we are doing, we are separating children into different groups at the earliest stages of their lives. We have created a society where the wealthy and intelligent prosper while the economically challenged, whether intelligent or not, have been required to work twice as hard to accomplish the same goals. For society to work together as a whole we need to stop teaching our youth that it is acceptable to treat people of different backgrounds differently. The conflict perspective has taught us that the more powerful people in society are more apt to flourish. But most importantly, the functionalist role has included teaching our youth how to work together for the good of the entire society.
References
Goldsmith, P. Retrieved uwp.edu/~goldsmip/education/Functism.pdf
(October 23, 2008) from UW – Parkside
Sullivan, T. J. (2007).
Sociology Concepts and Applications in a Divers World. Boston: Pearson.
National Center for Education Statistics: http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/homeschool/#sec4
Tyre, P. (2008, January 8).
Getting In Gets Harder. Retrieved October 24, 2008, from Newsweek: www.newsweek.com
