Lack Of Education In The South

Andrew Simmons published his article for The Atlantic, “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility” on January 16, 2014, which raises his concerns that higher education is only being promoted as an opportunity to increase their economic status, when it should be an opportunity to experience an education (Simmons). Through the use of students such as Isabella, Simmons disagrees with the way students now look at higher education and blames the educators through the students’ lives for this view. Instead, Simmons views education as an intellectual opportunity rather than a way to elevate ones economic class which is all people see when they see “higher education.” He believes that education, ambition and work ethic is how you have a satisfying life, not with how much you make. He makes the point that when economics becomes the main goal of education it’s all children begin to think about and they might not pursue something that they are truly passionate about or what they want to learn about, which then does not create an intellectually awakening experience (Simmons).

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the importance of college education. Students are asking if it’s worth the debt to attend a four year university or community college. Some are thinking what are the benefits of a degree is in the workforce. With college tuition increasing and state fundings lowering, low income students are struggling to attain a higher education. College institutions should have a role to provide students higher education and equal opportunity to students to increase social mobility yet intergenerational reproduction of privilege has produced inequality in education.

College is the next stepping stone to better or advance ones social standing in life, whether it is moving from a blue collar lifestyle to white collar, or to continue to further their career path. However, it comes with an “unavoidable result.” Alfred Lubrano discusses this “unavoidable result” in his text “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts.” Lubrano discusses the topic of how furthering ones education opens more possibilities but at the same time distances those held most dearly. He explains that the more knowledge gained, the bigger the gap caused between friends and family due to differences in levels of knowledge. That distance is greatly increase if one comes from a poorer region where blue collar workers are the social

However, when a student wants to attend college after high school, the chances of going to any school of his or her choice can seem unfair and have unequal opportunity to other peers. Unfortunately the idea of being limited to attending certain schools has a big influence in chances of becoming successful. Even though higher educations seems to have a direct path for high wages, the access to college can have reverse effects on intergenerational mobility. By limiting access from someone in a bottom percentile to have the possibility to attend a good college harms their upward mobility. In efforts to help breakdown an understanding of how education affects intergenerational mobility, a study called Mobility reports cards show significant findings. Mobility reports cards were conducted by collecting administrative data from more then thirty million college students in the years of 1999-2013. “We obtain rosters of attendance at all Title-IV accredited institutions of higher education in the U.S using de-identified data from federal income tax returns combined with data from the National Student Loan Data System. We obtain information on students’ earnings in early adulthood and their parents’ incomes from tax records.”

2. The promise of the New South originally, the town’s people, workers, labors and families, instinctively thought the promise of wealth, jobs, and economic growth would encompass their lives by moving to the mining and mill villages. Their views engulfed hope in the economical shifting agricultural social order to encircle the state of the art industrial New South civilization. labor reformers, thought they were doing the best for labors, by recruiting them to move to camps and move for jobs to better their way of less, unfortunately to come to the demise of being taken advantage of.

In “The Dangers of Telling Poor Kids That College Is the Key to Social Mobility”, Andrew Simmons, a high school teacher who teaches in a poor area of Los Angeles, argues that higher education’s educational opportunities should be the main promotion for students to attend college. The author’s purpose is to inform and persuade his readers to accept his view on what he sees as a problem of the education system. According to Simmons, teachers focus on the economic advantages that higher education could bring instead of the actual education these institutions offer. Because of this promotion, students in poorer areas focus on their potential wealth instead of their future education while students in wealthier areas focus on their future careers

Education is today more critical than ever. College has become virtually a precondition for upward mobility. Men with only a high school diploma earn about a fifth less than they did 35 years ago. The gap between the earnings of students with a college degree and those without one is bigger than ever.

The researchers wanted to explore the idea that the “American system of higher education is widely regarded as an engine of social mobility that provides equal opportunities to all deserving students, irrespective of their previous background, upbringing, or life circumstances (Stephens, Fryberg, Markus, Johnson & Covarrubias, 2012) and compare it to the reality of the rise of first-generation college students who are from interdependent working class families attending institutions who focus on norms of independence. It has

The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility While reading the text "The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility" it helps the reader to identify many issues on why students want to attend college. Andrew Simmons stated that “Higher education should be promoted to all students as an opportunity to experience an intellectual awakening, not just increase their earning power which I am in favor of. College promotion should be used to motivate students in a critical thinking way instead of a financial advantage. The author’s purpose was to identify the separation between how college can be an educational opportunity instead of a financial opportunity to grow from poverty. The main idea

“Kids who are the first in their families to brave the world of higher education come on campus with little academic know-how and are much more likely than their peers to drop out before graduation” (1). Many people believe that school isn’t for everyone, and whoever goes is privileged for doing so. Countless people in the world today do not attend college, and this is mainly due to an influence of those in their family. Perhaps they are unsupportive of higher education, their parents and family members may view their entry into college as a break in the family system rather than a continuation of their schooling and higher learning. Most of the first-generation students decide to apply to colleges, because they aspire to jobs which require degrees. However, unlike some students whose parents have earned a degree, they often seek out college to bring honor to their families, and to ensure they make a decent amount of money for their future.

The expanding gap between the cost of college education and the growth of household income is also putting a restraint on the higher education ambitions of many American families. Amid 2000 and 2013, the average level of tuition and fees at a four-year public college rose by 87 percent; during that same period, the median earnings for the middle fifth of American households grew only 24 percent. That's a tendency that education researchers predict isn't sustainable. This gaps represents a a variation in the idea of college education from a social to an individual

The year 1941 saw a landmark book published, The Mind of the South, by W. J. Cash. Cash determined to delve into the true mindset of the South. His thesis contends that the South was divided into three minds, or “frontiers:” pre-Civil War, where the white planter class dominated all aspects of society, with little regard to Native Americans, African-Americans, or women; the Reconstruction era, where African-Americans were still not really free and elite whites continued to dominate society; and the beginning of the twentieth century where the old social order of the South charged on, with Confederate soldiers and elite whites assuming the lead roles in all parts of society, thus laying the groundwork for the Civil Rights movement. This is a shocking and almost comical book for modern readers, but remains a landmark book in early-twentieth century Southern scholarship. From his first few lines, Cash assumes his readers are just like him: white, male, and above all else, Southern.

In America, the income level of families can determine whether or not they will continue on to a higher education. Children are taught at a young age that in order to get a decent job, they must attend school for 12 years and pursue a higher education. “The massive structure of the educational system is a reality that determines life chances and choices” (Newman, 2017, p. 250). Children who are raised in middle and upper-class households have the idea of education is valuable in order to be successful. At a very young age, middle and upper-class children have the impression they will, in fact, attend college. Children of working-class parents are taught to abide by the rules and respect higher authority. Although education is not a major focus for low-income families, their prime goal is to finish high school and learn a trade. Cultural tendencies also impact the way children participate in education. (ADD

Recent statistics highlight the strong relationships between parental social class and educational achievement at GCSE level, in addition to the likelihood of pupils eligible for free school meals to be less successful at GCSE level and Level 3 qualifications than those not eligible (DfE, 2011; Lupton & Thompson, 2015; DfE, 2016a). Furthermore, the link between levels of social class and participation in higher education is well documented, with those individuals from lower class backgrounds less likely to access higher education (Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 2015; DfE, 2016b; Bathmaker, et al., 2013). Moreover, research conducted by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (2013) found that 70% of people surveyed agreed that a good education was key to getting a good job, yet almost half thought it remained unlikely for most children from lower income families, with 65% of those surveyed regarding ‘who you know’ as more important than ‘what you know’. In short, the dominant power within an educational setting is held by those in higher social class positions.

The data presented consistently shows that educational ability has very little to do with the background that one comes from, and yet, people that grow up in poverty are still much less likely to complete college, even if they chose to initially attend college (Duncan 101). The research presented suggests that the number one indicator in their data for one’s college success is the income of their family. Though the data in this book provides valuable background information regarding the realities of those who grow up poor and their educational outcomes, it does not provide information on the incomes of college graduates who grew up in poverty. The book, From Parents to Children: The Intergenerational Transmission of Advantage by John Ermisch, Markus Jantti, and Timothy Smeeding concludes that youth in the United States whose families fall in the bottom quintile income distribution are 28% less likely to attend college than those in the top three quintiles (Ermisch 40). This book also illustrates that youth whose parents attended college are much more likely to attend college themselves. This trend can be widely seen in research regarding this topic. Both of these books show the importance of the income of one’s family in their education attainment and achievement. The