Essay On Meritocracy And Education

1. From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work by Jean Anyon 2. In the article, “From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work by jean Anyon states that being in different social classes results in different educational experiences. People in higher classes are taught to be more doctors and more elite positions, while working classes are taught to have more particular curriculum to basically keep them in their class.

Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis discuss “Schooling in Capitalist America”. It is an argument about “Educational Reform and the Contradictions of Economic Life”. Their argument is that schooling in America makes and rewards personal characteristics that play into positions in the hierarchy. Bowles and Gintis argue that this is how classes in the economy are made and reinforced. The authors also mention how “unthinkable” the idea is that the social system lets children discover their personalities and characteristics, as well as their aspirations.

“As in the story “Sold”Class defined everything in that happened in their lives. If Lakshmi had been of a higher class,none of the miserable things that happened to her when she was going to go to work in the city,would have happened to her?This happens in the lives of a lot of people” Classism in the world today Classism was and still is a huge issue in the world today. So as demonstrated in the book “Sold” by Patricia McCormick there are other girls and people whose class decides the path that they take in life. The way of being affected by class has given the feeling that “no matter what they do in life they will never be able to succeed and show the others that nothing is impossible”.

There are many issues that affect America today things such as; hunger, poverty, crime, and even cancer. These issues impact the life of millions of Americans. If we educate people there is a high likelihood that they will use this knowledge to correct any of these issues or even solve them in their entirety. If the cost of higher education were lowered to a more affordable level, so many more individuals could take advantage of this resource, therefore, educating the masses and correcting various other problems in America’s society.

Another example of the advantages that the middle class have over the working class is that the middle class would most likely grow up reading or listening to their parents reading a book, which gives them an advantage of the skills needed for reading in the school environment, while the working class might not being able to access such books, resulting in them not being able to have the skills that the middle class has, which will disadvantage them within the school environment. Middle class learning grow up being taught certain values, such as to ask by saying ‘may I’ while working class learners did not. This may seem like something small but within the school environment they focus on the values that the dominate groups possess resulting in the learners being picked on or judge against resulting in them not feeling as if they are capable to do as the middle class learners are and feeling as if they will not succeed. This shows how the schools promote the dominate culture within

Jay MacLeod’s book Ain’t No Making’ It is a treatise on social reproduction theory, that is, the ways in which class inequality is reproduced across generations, and is equally relevant and informative to understanding the cycle of poverty today as it was in 1987 when it was first published. The explanations of the life trajectories of the men studied in this book are especially important in light of the inflamed rhetoric and intense debate that characterize the interactions between the two distinct ideologies that have bifurcated the theorists of educational reform: Economically deterministic theories and the theories emphising the autonomy of the cultural level. Though the attempt of the author is to provide a perspective which allows for the simultaneous existence of the two theories. We will see that neither perspective can be said to be entirely endorsed by the conclusions found in Ain’t No Makin’ It.

Although measures are constantly being taken in order to help fill in the gap between student achievement and socioeconomic status, kids are consistently falling through the system in school after school. Sociologists define social class, or socioeconomic status (SES), in terms of an individual’s income, occupation, education, and prestige in society” (Entwisle, Alexander, & Olson, 2010; Thompson & Hickey, 2008). These different factors are surprisingly closely correlated with one another. A low socioeconomic status family is typically generational.

Anyon article discussed students of different social class background is exposed to different types of educational knowledge. Anyon used four distinctive schools; working class, middle class, affluent and executive, located in New Jersey. The education the students received reflected the social class level. In the working class school, the principle had did not know the history of the school building. The teachers did not motive or believe in their student’s success.

Home assignment #3 Educational system reflect social inequalities. And my analysis include sociological conflict theory like a key. And economical factor that affect educational, professional and social progression. Social conflict theory sees social life as a competition and focuses on the distribution of resources, power, and inequality. Social conflict theory is a macro-oriented paradigm in sociology that views society as an arena of inequality that generates conflict and social change.

Personal Statement I was born and grew up in a rural village in Jiangsu province, China. I am a female, a Chinese and at present also an international student. What do all those identity markers mean for me and how have they shaped my interest in the sociology of culture? Being born as a country dweller means education is probably the only upward ladder. Both of my parents are common peasants with neither much economic capital nor political capital.

Today, social class is a crucial factor in various aspects of everyday life. From the time you are born, into your parent’s social class, to developing into your own, you must decide how it affects you. You can either let it determine who you are as a person, or you can define your wealth with your personality. “Better is the poor who walks in his integrity. Than one perverse in his ways, though he be rich.

Holland Arrowsmith explains Marxism as a term which refers to “a hugely diverse set of social, economic, philosophical, historical and cultural theories”. Several theories such as social, economical, political and critical theories have been derived from Marxism philosophy. Marxism advocates equality amongst the class structure of society. Marxism is divided into two fundamental classes. According to Marx there are only two classes which exist: Bourgeoisie, which means powerful or dominant class and Proletariat, which means the peasant or working classes.

(Campbell, 2011) Health and Illness Assignment: To describe and evaluate the changing nature of the NHS, the main structure of this essay, will be the exploration of how social class, ethnicity and gender determine what defines health and illness, whilst attempting to identify and explain the different models used by epidemiologist to determine the reasons behind the rates of morbidity, mortality, and illness cognitions. To ascertain why Health is defined as the “ability for the individual to function in a way which is acceptable to the group from which they belong”(Browne.2008.453), the registrar general social class scale, first introduced in 1911, will be utilized to explain how social class, ethnicity and

Education is a key element linked with one’s class in the system by which a society ranks categories of people in a hierarchy. Specifically, parents transmit the benefits or disadvantages of their class to their children through the educational system (Young, J, 1990. p.162). The type and level of education a child receives is normally associated with class, region, race and ethnicity, religion and gender. Quoting John Porter, Young, J. 1990, argues that “those who have most access to the greatest rewards of society are thus at the top of the stratification system…is composed of individual with …similar backgrounds” (Young, J 1990.p,.162).

Bourdieu sees in this process a series of methods to depreciate children from middle and working class through methods that differentiates academic diplomas (the best ranked and most exclusive being granted for the upper class members), what the author calls a “scholastic mechanism of reproduction” (1984/2010: 151). The reproduction of these distinction strategies maintain and enhance social inequality and stratification. Breen and Goldthorpe (1997) analysis of education and class differentials, in which two factors are responsible for differentials, the primary effects, the correlation between class of origin and a child’s academic ability; and secondary effects, the factual choices made by children and their family