I remember wearing my older brother David's suit for my senior pictures. It hung on me like a droopy Halloween king-sized ghost sheet. It was obvious that it was a borrowed suit of clothing.
It is very sad how in school many people are surrounded by wealthy families and are constantly being reminded of their financial situation from constant school traditions.
Christmas was no better. I knew that our teacher would open her gifts in front of everyone. How could my hand-drawn picture of a snowman hold up against Crystal's store-bought sweater or the fancy bottle of perfume from Lois? Sometimes I would be "sick" on the day we had to bring our favorite holiday gift to school for show-and-tell.
Although a magical time of year, Christmas can be very tough for families who are struggling and often brings even more attention to those with less money.
The study first assessed the children shortly after they began kinder-garten, providing a picture of their skills at the starting line of their for-mal schooling. It shows that children from families in the top 20 percent of the income distribution already outscore children from the bottom 20 percent by 106 points in early literacy
This is a huge point in the text as it explains that even from the beginning of ones education those with more wealth learn to read and write better than poorer students.
positive gap shown above th b · d" • t • . ' . e ar, in icates that richer students scored higher than poorer s u dents on this measure _(as_in the case of reading achievement and school engagement). A negative gap, sho~n below the bar, indicates that poorer students scored higher than richer students on this measure (as in the case of antisocial behavior and mental health problems).
The wealthy students have a huge advantage in comparison to those who are poorer as they deal with less mental health issues which leads to little success in the classroom.
With an income of more than $300,000, Alexander's family was able to spend far more money on Alexander's education, lessons, and other enrichment activities than Anthony's parents could devote to their son's needs. Both of Alexander's parents had professional degrees, so they knew all about what Alexander needed to do to prepare himself for college. An-thony's mother completed some classes after graduating from high school, but his father, a high school dropout, struggled even to read. And in con-trast to Anthony, Alexander lived with both of his parents, which not only added to family income but also increased the amount of time available for a parent to spend with Alexander. 23
The upbringing is so important in child development as not only does money provide stability, it also allows for more resources and oftentimes a more stable home life.
It is easy to imagine how the childhood circumstances of these two young men may have shaped their fates. Alexander lived in the suburbs while Anthony lived in the city center. Most of Alexander's suburban neighbors lived in families with incomes above the $125,000 that now sep-arates the richest 20 percent of children from the rest. Anthony Mears's school served pupils from families whose incomes were near or below the $27,000 threshold separating the bottom 20 percent
These childhood circumstances have a huge correlation to their lives as it has the ability to either limit or serve these children for the rest of their lives.
usion, and irrationality in public education. Public schools are essential to make the American dream work, but schools are also the arena in which many Americans first fail.
Public schools are absolutely essential as they not only educate the youth allowing for opportunity later down in life, they also uphold many life lessons that will serve students fair past their time in the classroom.
Americans will not surrender local control without a fight. They simply will not permit distant politicians or experts in a centralized civil service to make educational decisions
This is absolutely true as it is often up to the people in the particular community to maintain their area and serve their schools as best as possible.
Decisions about schooling also take place in a context that makes it hard to change anything and especially difficult to alter the structure of privile.ge. Unlike schooling in every other major industrialized country, public educaoo~ in this country is democratic and deeply local. Despite the rhetoric of presi-d . I d'd . . th 1· . that enua can 1 ates, it 1s not e federal government but states and loca 1oes carry most of the burden of public education.
This is very true as the president can not manage every single city in the country by themselves. The local and state governments play the biggest role in their local schools to uphold high standards for academic achievement.
Quality preschool, indi-vidual reading instruction, small classes in the early grades, and consistently challenging academic courses have been demonstrated to help disadvantaged children achieve, just as they enable middle-class children to achieve.
In my opinion these stages in ones education are by the far the most important as the basics are essentials to master such as reading and writing to later be able to expand upon.
rrational policymaking can be explained by the fact that public official have made their choices at least partly on the basis of claims that pursuing col~ lective goals of the American dream could endanger or has endangered the in-dividual achievement of privileged children.
This a very entraining idea that policy makers may be making decisions to better serve themselves rather than the country as a unit. For one, all people in government are extremely wealthy and could easily make decisions to constantly aid the already wealthy people.
Desegregation enhanced the long-term life chances of many African American students and rarely hurt white students, but the movement to complete or maintain it has largely been over for 2 5 years
This is awful that African Americans are still being ignored especially in comparison to white people in a school system that prioritizes the well being of children.
Hispanics and inner city residents still drop out much more frequently than others, the gap between black and white achievement rose during the 1990s after declining in the previous decade, the achievement gap between students from lower-and higher-class families has barely budged, and poor students in poor urban schools have dramatically lower rates of literacy and arithmetic or scientific competence. Most importantly, life chances depend increasingly on attaining higher education, but class back-ground is as important as ever in determining who attends and finishes a four-year college.
This is absolutely a prevalent issue in the school system as race and communities can be discriminated and many turn a blind eye to these lower income areas, not allowing for equal opportunities and programs for those born into less wealth than others.
Because most Americans now believe that the American dream should be available to all American citizens, public schools in the United States have made real progress toward enabling everyone to pursue success as they understand it. Compared with a few decades ago, dropout rates have fallen, achievement scores have risen, resources are more equally distributed, children with dis-abilities have the right to an appropriate education, and black children are not required by law to attend separate and patently inferior schools
This is a huge piece of the education system as the vast majority of American citizens attend public schools, so it is even more important that public schools are still adequate if not just as good as private schools.
The paradox lies in the fact that schools are supposed to equal-ize opportunities across generations and to create democratic citizens out of each generation, but people naturally wish to give their own children an ad-vantage in attaining wealth or power, and some can do it
This is absolutely true as many people who are wealthy are given unfair advantages due to unlimited resources where those who stem from a low income family will be given less easy opportunity for success. Although this does technically go against true democracy in schools, those with more resources are still held to the same standard for success by their peers when it comes to those without these plentiful resources.
Sustained and serious disagreements over education policy can never be completely resolved because they spring from a fundamental paradox at the heart of the American dream. Most Americans believe that everyone has the right to pursue success but that only some deserve to win, based on their tal-ent, effort, or ambition.
Although this may be controversial, I completely agree with this statement. I do not believe everyone has the right to the American dream as one must earn their dream life through hard work, ambition, and taking the correct steps to attain their goals and lifestyle. With a safety net ensuring success, one would not take the necessary steps in order to achieve their dreams and ultimately appreciate their life.
Because education is so im-portant to the way the American dream works, people care about it intensely and can strongly disagree about definitions, methods, and priorities.
This claim has never struck me, but now after reading I completely understand this point of view. I had never connectedthe dots to all the disputes in the education system to the importance of education escalating emotions.
also to make them good citizens who will maintain the nation's values and · In-stitutions, help them flouri~h, and pass them on to the next generation. The American public widely endorses both of these broad goals, values public ed-ucation, and supports it with an extraordinary level of resources.
The schooling system in place by the US government is a huge staple to the identity of our country as there is a big importance placed upon the youth snd the education of the future voices of our country.
In order to make sure that my children and grandchildren have the same free-dom and opportunities that I do, I have a responsibility to be a good citizen-to respect those whose vision of success is different from my own, to help make sure that everyone has an equal chance to succeed, to participate in the dem-ocratic process, and to teach my children to be proud of this country."
The big point that sticks out to me in this paragraph is the idea of respecting the visions of others. I feel this is a huge point as America as a country has a large growing rate of diversity as well as accepting opinions that may be different form your own.
From the perspective of the individual, the ideology is as compelling as it is simple. "I am an American, so I have the freedom and opportunity to make whatever I want of my life. I can succeed by working hard and using my tal-ents; if I fail, it will be my own fault. Success is honorable, and failure is not.
I believe America offers an amazing opportunity for all to a have prosperity by taking the right steps in order to achieve their goals. I believe many people are bought into the idea that if they work hard enough they can achieve their goals which pushes person growth as well as continuous growth as a nation.
HE AMERICAN DREAM IS A POWERFUL CONCEPT. It encourages each person who lives in the United States to pursue success, and it cre-ates the framework within which everyone can do it. It holds each person responsible for achieving his or her own dreams, while generating shared values and behaviors needed to persuade Americans that they have a real chance to achieve them.
I love this interpretation of the American Dream as this country offers a unique opportunity for people to express their individuality as well as offer equal opportunity for success.