Consider the following. Respond to the questions at the end with one essay. Your response should be, at the very least – five well-developed paragraphs in length.
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Education was once seen as the great equalizer. It allowed for the opportunity for the achievement of the American Dream, and allowed for opportunity to move beyond the situation(s) we were born into. However, most educational theories dispute this idea. System-Justification Theory legitimizes the myth of meritocracy – “if you just work hard enough,” “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
Social Reproduction Theory (Bourdieu, Bowles & Gintis) argues that we reproduce the social categories we are born into, and education only serves to replicate those same categories. In other words, without financial, social, and cultural capital – there is no opportunity for upward mobility. This is generational. We see examples of students who move from poverty and go on to achieve – but we hear about them because they are outliers – they are not the norm.
Students born into poverty are often zoned for schools with fewer resources, fewer opportunities, less qualified teachers, and a higher rate of teacher attrition (teacher leaving). We now know that this continues into post-secondary education with Black, Hispanic, and low-income students who graduate from high school attending colleges with significantly worse outcomes than white, Asian-American, and foreign students (lower graduation rate, lower earnings potential after graduation, and greater default rate on student loans).
A rural Ohio single mom named Tammy Crabtree lacked financial, social, and cultural capital. Her sons had dreams that they believed they could achieve, that would allow them a life outside of all they had known. Yet, that didn’t happen. Tammy could easily be labeled on-site using some of the derogatory terms– “white trash”- “trailer trash” – and yet, here was a woman who walked five miles every day to her minimum wage job and never lost her dream of becoming a teacher.
Poverty is not only for those who were born into it. After the most recent recession, many families found their financial situations reversed. Solidly middle-class families were thrown into a lower class by a single circumstance – an illness, a lay-off, or an unexpected bill. All those families were living their version of the American Dream until winter (figuratively) came accompanied by constant despair and lack of hope.
So, what happened to the American Dream, and what role does education play in its demise? Tammy Crabtree is solidly stuck in a cycle of despair that many would say is of her own making – that many DO say is of her own making, but is it really? How does today’s educational system contribute to these inequities, and what do you believe can be done to improve our current system so that education, quite possibly for the first time ever, allows the opportunity for upward mobility for all citizens? Do you think about these issues differently than before reading about Tammy, about Social Reproduction Theory/ System Justification Theory? It is fine if you do not – I am not looking for acceptance – but I want to know if thinking critically about these issues as they exist outside of our own lives has informed how you view the world.
