Education and Empowerment

Education and Empowerment

Since it became a country, the United States has made it a priority to educate its citizens in order to allow them to progress. The reason for this is that there is an established connection between education level and the potential for social mobility of Americans, a statistic which has been verified in other countries as well. In the United States, there is a concept of the American Dream which says that anyone who is willing to work hard can become socially mobile. This is an unspoken promise given to the citizens by the founding fathers of the nation. According to this dream, even people born in the poorest communities can, through a strong worth ethic, skill, and dedication to their own bettering, will be able to become millionaires. The thing that allows for people to move along the ranks of the social ladder is education and the opportunities that education presents.

Even from the earliest days of the country's founding, people have tried to support the quest for a greater education in others. Scientists interested in sociology and child psychology have found that the more educated a person is, the better their chances at life. According to Horace Mann, "Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, - the balance wheel of the social machinery" (Colombo 110). More than perhaps any other country, the United States supports the education of its citizens, going so far as to make laws which require children to attend school and receive at least a beginning education. Young people who receive an adequate education will be more likely to get a good job and to pay taxes back into the government, thereby continuing the cycle for future generations.

In the United States, the system of education is failing a great number of its students in the promise made to them by the founding fathers. It is an inescapable and unfortunate truth that there are some school districts which are far more well off financially and can supply their students with an abundance of technology and materials. There are other districts where there are barely enough books to go buy and a budget so tight that there are more than thirty students to a classroom. More and more society is stratifying students so that those who are born into advantageous and wealthier communities have a better chance of becoming successful adults and those that do not find themselves relegated to the margins of their communities. According to Michael Moore, "There are forty-four million Americans who cannot read and write above a fourth-grade level -- in other words, who are functional illiterates…I've also read that only 11% of the American public bothers to read a daily newspaper, beyond the funny pages or the used car ads" (Colombo 116). This is a frightening statistic because it means that even if people complete their education, they are still not intelligent or educated enough to become socially mobile. Students are being categorized by ability based solely on their social or economic place, which is then leading them to a lifetime of disadvantage; if students were given the same resources, regardless of their social setting, then it is likely that there would be more chance for adult success and social mobility.

There are various reasons why students are disadvantaged in this country, either economic or sociological being the primary types of issues. Often there is a blend of the two types involved in the disadvantage of the community. Students who are educated in more advantaged settings and who have a firmer grasp of the lessons learned will ultimately have more success in their adult lives and feel more confident in their pursuit of higher education. Besides socioeconomic interests, there are also different considerations which can affect the way in which students are viewed. Those who have learning disabilities or who come from another country are also looked at with disdain by those from the majority culture. Another factor which has changed the course of education is the involvement of the parents in their child's education. Many parents in the modern period do not put much effort into parenting and are not concerned about their child's schooling. Consequently, students finish school having completed a small percentage of the assignments, having read few of the assigned tests, and being completely unprepared for life outside of school. As the anonymous Professor X declared in his article "In the Basement of the Ivory Tower," "I skip the denoument: the intellectually ambitious scarecrow proudly mangles the Pythagorean theorem and is awarded a questionable diploma in a dreamland far removed from reality. That's art holding up a mirror all too closely to our own poignant scholarly endeavors" (Colombo 238). One of the most important things in the United States is that public education has been set up so that every child has access to education. Unfortunately because of the economic state of the country and the discrepancies that occur when comparing communities, not all children receive the same education and those that are given a quality education often do not take advantage of it.