On TV you can always expect a politician to ramble on and on about the importance of education and how they plan to reform education. The promises of equal education and better education for all students are never kept. In doing my research for my paper, I realized just how unequal the education systems in America were.
In the inner city typically the most poverty stricken area of a city education is not equal. Students go to school without the basic necessities that are needed to complete a simple day. Students go to school without running water, hand soap, up to date books and adequate teaching staff. The violence is so bad in these areas that children aren't worried about learning the square root of 100 but more concerned with staying alive.
Testing is another issue that goes along with this notion of equal education. Different states issue state wide tests to measure a students progress and ultimately their intelligence. If students in poverty stricken areas are not getting the same education as students in suburban areas it is impossible to say that they should be testing at the same level. America focuses so much time on other foreign countries and trying to help them build up their educational systems that they forget about the ones at home. Kids should receive the same amount and quality of education no matter where they live.
Is it time for America to switch to socialism? or will promises of equality continue to be broken?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Maybe we should be more focused on providing equality in education input (teachers, schools, materials) rather than measuring outcomes with tests. We KNOW that the input is not equal, so why do we act so surprised when we see discrepancies in the test scores.
ReplyDeleteHere's a quote from an expert on the topic, one you might look up: Alfie Kohn.
"Don't let anyone tell you that standardized tests are not accurate measures. The truth of the matter is they offer a remarkably precise method for gauging the size of the houses near the school where the test was administered."
We need to fix our problems of poverty!
I wonder, does socialism fix poverty? Or, is there just as much poverty with socialism, but more wide spread? Or is it that there is just not as much super wealth in a socialist country, but many more people working for a sustainable wage. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if socialism will be the answer to our problems. But a thing that our government does do which is quite illogical is that they only invest large amounts of money on schools that are performing well acamedically and leave the low performance school to fend for themselves with a very meager amount of money. Instead of splitting the money equally amongst all schools, or giving a little bit more money to schools that have a lower academic performance and need more resources, they just continue to serve the schools that leave the other schools behind
ReplyDelete