is education or the education system agood relief from poverty if those in greatest need of education are most likely to dropout?The Education System: A Reproduction of the SocialHierarchy?Following the logic of the previous argument
you may have thought
âOkay
so thedisadvantaged are more likely to drop out
but that doesnât necessarily mean that theeducation system isnât the answer to povertyâthe data clearly proves that an educationhas substantial economic benefits.â At face value
this argument seems prettyconvincing
but it overlooks an important factânot all education and not all schools arecreated equal. In fact
many critical scholars contend that the education system
insteadof being an instrument of social mobility
actually reproduces inequality. Critical scholarscontend that socioeconomically advantaged students experience continued advantage(e.g.
new buildings
superior teaching
bounteous resources
etc.) within the educationsystem itself. Similarly
critical scholars argue that socioeconomicallydisadvantagedstudents experience continued disadvantage (e.g.
dilapidated buildings
substandardteaching
few resources
etc.). Within this perspective
the education system is viewedas an obstacle to social mobility because it is believed to reinforce the advantages anddisadvantages of the students that enter.Is there any merit to this contention? Does the education system reproduce the socialhierarchy?There is ample evidence to show that American public schools are not equal. Read thefollowing article to find out more:American Education:Savage InequalitiesDownload American Education: Savage Inequalities. This isthe visual transcriptDownload the visual transcriptof the same article. In this article
Jonathan Kozol examines the differences betweenpublic schools in New York City. Read through the article and then list four to fiveinequalities.
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