Education

Term Paper Title	Education
# of Words	1341
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	5.36

Education

The United States of America has always been regarded as the land of

opportunity.  Other countries look to us and see how successful and prosperous we

are, realize that this is the place where dreams come true.  The place where a

fantasy can become reality.  Yet this is not the case.  How can place so rich, be so

poor?  How can such a multicultural place be so segregated?  Why is it that you can

hand the world to one child, yet cheat another?  Where did we go wrong?  Does the

future of our children lay solely on the amount of funds available?  Is it that a child

is only as successful as they want to be based on their motivation?  Or does

motivation matter at all, does the child ultimately become a product of their

environment?

     In Jonathan Kozol's book Savage Inequalities, he speaks of children who are

deprived of the right to a descent education.  But how can this be the case.  Is one

school given more money than another?  Funds for public schools come from

property taxes.  In wealthy communities where property values are generally higher

more money is allocated, than in a poor communities with lower property values.

The poorer communities tend to tax themselves higher than wealthy communities,

yet they are still not able to reach the same quality of education.  Most of these poor

communities spend their limited tax money on other costs those wealthy

communities do not, at least not on the same scale.  Such expenditures include the

police and fire department and public health.  Federal and state governments
                                                  M. Medina

dispense funds to the poor communities in order to try and balance this financial

gap.  The funds aren't enough to make the necessary changes.  Because of this

children are subjected to attend inadequate learning facilities.  While on one hand

wealthy children are given the luxury of smaller classrooms consisting of about 15

or 20 children and an abundance in text books.  Children in less affluent

communities are subjected to classrooms consisting of up to 45 children and a

scarcity of textbooks.     Members within the communities also have the

opportunity to contribute money into their schools via fundraisers.  This allows the

schools to give their children the technology and materials needed.  This in turn

allows the school to use funds for other things such as renovations and simple

luxuries like air conditioning and an advance curriculum.  Yet some poor

communities can not even afford to provide a playground or a lunch area for their

students.  The majority of these under privileged schools are attended by Black and

Latino students, although underprivileged white schools do exist they are rare. And

Predominately whites attend the majority of the privileged schools students.  When

people look at this they sometimes look at it as unfair and racist to a certain point.

These schools are for the most part based in urban communities where there

is a high crime rate and a large number of uneducated civilians.  These

neighborhoods are home to many menial workers and unemployment, as well as

welfare recipients.  The lack of education and opportunities provided by the

schools contribute to this cycle.  Kozol describes these neighborhoods as slums,

                                                  M. Medina

where violence and hopelessness is an everyday issue.

C. Wright Mills speaks of the "social imagination" as "how unique historical

circumstances of a particular society affect people and, at the same time how people

affect history" (Henslin, pg. 19).  How can someone live under these conditions and

yet look to a brighter future?  This who they are and what they know.  How can they

be expected to overcome barriers that have been in existence for years?  Children

who are exposed to these conditions hesitate to want more than they already have.

In attending underprivileged establishments, with teachers who have no regards

for t...

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