Essay on Diversity and US Education

Paper Type:  Essay
Pages:  5
Wordcount:  1146 Words
Date:  2021-06-17
Categories: 

The ultimate measure of education lies on how or whether it instills students with the necessary competence to compete in the current society. However, the United States schools are failing on this basic test and at the same time wasting millions of brains from all cultures of the community. The actual reality exposes education in the United States as a lottery, based on probabilities with profound consequences. Schools not only teach knowledge and skills, but also is a source of values, mannerism, reflection, aesthetic tastes, and sociability among a host of factors hidden deep within the fabrics of educational curriculums (Spring 34). According to Randall Collins theory of educational stratification, the education students get in the school system seal their future and fate as the current society believes that education prepares one for future jobs (Randall 1006). Collins theory entails competing interests in the present day American society. According to Collins, the social structures within the society make up the very actors partaking in the education system. In Collins theory, employment requirements in many cases reveal the pains of contending positions to monopolize current job opportunities. This paper tries to look into education inequality currently existing in the United States about established scientific theories of Collins Randall.

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Education in America occupies a central place in the countrys analysis of social and stratification mobility. The current job market requires varying technical skills, a component that remains a pipe dream for many learning institutions in the country. The struggle between the competing groups, the privileged and the under-privileged communities in accessing quality education that is based on reasoning abilities, problem-solving, and essential skills necessary for the job market (Spring 56). Students from high poverty stricken communities struggle at great lengths to get the same education as privileged students from well to do families. According to performance, students from weak and underprivileged communities do not get the same education as students from privileged communities. The extent to which education inequality in mathematics continues to widen and disparity continues to place many in a disadvantaged position in the job market.

According to Collin's scientific function theory, the education prerequisite often reveals the need for better skills because of the changing technological changes in the society (Randall 1012). However, looking at the disparity currently experienced in the schools in which inequalities in mathematics reveal a wide variation in poor communities and rich, affluent regions. Students in poor areas are not exposed to rigorous content as compared to a student from wealthy districts. Weak performance in mathematics is prevalent in small socially structured communities, and students do not get an adequate chance to compete for level with students from middle-class and affluent districts (Spring 78). The two students do not, therefore, get equal opportunities in learning mathematics in a focused, in-depth and coherent way as is required. It thus means that the disparity puts them in a disadvantaged position as compared to students from middle-class districts getting focused, consistent, and in-depth mathematics content.

It thus means that the two may never get the equal opportunity for the necessary technical skills required in the job market. Students from underprivileged communities will be ill-equipped to function and give their best in the job market considering the shallow and inadequate education they attained or acquired. While both the affluent student from a middle-class community and the student from the poor community still have an equal footing in the job market, the two may differ in what they offer in their place of work. According to Spring (79), the disadvantaged student may find it difficult to grasp and perform some of the needed tasks and may consider climbing the corporate ladder a challenge due to limited technical know-how as compared to the modern student. The situation will thus reflect Collins conflict theory in which the wealthy and well-to-do students from affluent schools will dominate and influence the jobs they hold with their cultural standards and ways of life.

Such a scenario will lack in the dispensation of the country's values such as equal opportunity for all and equality in the job market. To address the many facets of America's demographics, equal opportunity and, especially, instructional content on subjects such as mathematics plays a critical role in a multicultural education setting in the classroom while at the same time improving on the country's fundamental values that enhance and promote ethical and intrinsic significance. Disparity and an inadequate instructional content in mathematics spell a disaster for a majority of students both in the technical aspects of producing an ill-equipped student and a danger to the future of the country's technological aspect (Ballantine 19). While considering the goals and objectives of multicultural education, such as promoting critical thinking, making cultural consciousness stronger, encouraging global awareness issues, and supporting intercultural awareness, an ill-equipped instructional teaching content may spell doom for the above objectives. It thus means that the poor student acquiring below standard mathematical content may not be in a position to help promote the aims and goals of multicultural education. To help promote multicultural education, schools need to enhance the instructional content of mathematics and tailor the curriculum to promote cultural awareness and improve on global issues by incorporating aspects of other cultures into the school curriculum. While the current curriculum addresses many facets of multicultural education, it lacks in addressing how to bridge the gap between the teaching content in privileged communities and underprivileged communities (Ballantine 8).

Collins conflict theory and the theory of educational stratification among other scientific theories help expose the differing education content while at the same time points to the many issues that may be lacking in the school system. For example, scientific theories help in bridging the gap between education requirements and employment necessities. Scientific theories go beyond the standard instructional content in schools to accommodate and analyze the impact and role the content play in the job environment while at the same time, reviewing the relevance of the education content (Spring 89). Scientific theories serve the purpose of analyzing the environment in accordance with the basic needs of the society in addition to comparing the relevance of the contents to laid down intrinsic values of the society.

A school that is committed to human rights and aspects of social justice need to emphasize more on a multi-facet educational curriculum that accommodates other aspects various cultures. At the same time, schools need to focus on incorporating new study concepts that emphasize on different means and ways of learning. For example, schools need not restrict themselves to a particular way of learning and curriculum only but need to embrace other theories of learning that pay greater attention to enhancing student involvement in cultural activities and values.

Works Cited

Ballantine, Jeanne H., and Joan Z. Spade. Schools and society: A sociological approach to education. Pine Forge Press, 2011.

Collins, Randall. "Functional and conflict theories of educational stratification." American sociological review (1971): 1002-1019.

Spring, Joel. American education. Routledge, 2015.

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Essay on Diversity and US Education. (2021, Jun 17). Retrieved from https://midtermguru.com/essays/essay-on-diversity-and-us-education

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