Education

What do you want to be when you grow up? Maybe a doctor, a lawyer or maybe a school teacher these dreams a child has about the future are very important to their future success because it gives them something to hope for. But the essential component to this dream even being able to come true is the availability of education to all children. "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one," he told me, "just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” This quote, taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” really demonstrates the idea that not every American family is given the same opportunities as the next. In the film, “Waiting for ‘Superman’” this idea is presented and the audience follows four different children at various stages in the education process but three are still in elementary school. The film tries to explain why there is such a he education gap between more affluent children versus poor children. In the end the result is the same children with more affluence or more many have the opportunity for better education while children of middle or lower class parents may have to stay with the run of the mill school. While the child is receiving education from this run of the mill school, the education is not top notch and the child may not be really “learning.”

This education gap really shows the differences in the classes and how education or lack of it can perpetrate the poor class. As human we are social creature’s learning from our peers and are closest groups or social institutions. Social institutions are groups that help make a society’s basic needs such as families or peer groups. For example, if a child grows up in the poorest area of a city and learns from watching his older brothers drop out or his friends drop put then he may feel compelled to do the same because that is the norm for his social class. Yet in comparison with a child from a wealthier class will grow up with the understanding that an education is what sets you apart and will make their future better. So here an individual can see how a child from a poorer neighborhood will follow in the footsteps of his predecessors are continue of the cycle of living in a poor close and close to poverty. Education is the key to finding success and with a successful elementary, high school that can happen. (Good meaning the school has a higher test scores and is meeting all state standards.) But with lack of funds or available space a child may not reach the same goals as higher class kids, thus the greater differences in scores and classes.

The graph above although not for elementary school kids drives home the point that more money means better education and their chance to succeed in that education can further perpetuate the difference in social classes.

References:

Paton, Graeme. "Gap Between Rich and Poor Kids Widens." Telegraph. 28 Jan 2010: n. page. Print. .

Waiting for "Superman". Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Bill Strickland, Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee, and Randi Weingarten. Paramount Home Entertainment, 2011. DVD.

"College Access and the Social Class." Chart. Education Sector. Kevin Carey, and Erin Dillion. 2008. Web. 24 Oct 2011. .

Fitzgerald, Scott. The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1925