Loewen "The Land of Opportunity"

Loewen begins “The Land of Opportunity” by saying that “High school students hae teenagers eyes and ears, and television sets, so they know a lot about relative privilege in America.” (Loewen para. 1) He believes that, because of this teenager and adults are comparing their own social status against that of their peers and then the community against other

In the article, "Class in America", Gregory Mantsios (Myths and Realities 2000) shows us how what class a person is in affects his or hers life more than they think. This article is written sufficiently well however, it does have some weak spots. I will prove my thesis by examining his use of examples and showing factual data and statistics, but also show how this article could have been better.

America’s school system and student population remains segregated, by race and class. The inequalities that exist in schools today result from more than just poorly managed schools; they reflect the racial and socioeconomic inequities of society as a whole. Most of the problems of schools boil down to either racism in and outside the school or financial disparity between wealthy and poor school districts. Because schools receive funding through local property taxes, low-income communities start at an economic disadvantage. Less funding means fewer resources, lower quality instruction and curricula, and little to no community involvement. Even when low-income schools manage to find adequate funding, the money doesn’t solve all the school’s

Last class we watched an informative documentary named “People like Us, Social Class in America”. America is known to be a country defined by class. Throughout the movie it showed different opinions on what class was based on by different people and the answers varied from looks, house size, career choice, race, manners, upbringing, and education. As we move through life, most times we remove ourselves from different people not in our class to then live amongst those who share similar backgrounds and who we are most comfortable with. As stated, “if there is class, there is an inequality one cannot explain and it perpetuates itself”. Revealing class can expose hope, fears, prejudice and a myriad of different emotions that we may not all be comfortable speaking about. I feel as if part two and part three were most applicable to myself because they are something that I have experienced both directly and indirectly.

In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of several of America's public schools. Kozol visited schools in neighborhoods and found that there was a wide disparity in the conditions between the schools in the poorest inner-city communities and schools in the wealthier suburban communities. How can there be such huge differences within the public school system of a country, which claims to provide equal opportunity for all? It becomes obvious to Kozol that many poor children begin their young lives with an education that is far inferior to that of the children who grow up in wealthier communities. Savage Inequalities provides strong evidence of the national

In his excerpt entitled The Land of Opportunity author James Loewen highlights the invisible struggles of the middle class. Loewen’s chief complaint is that the segregation and exploitation of the working class has been marginalized by the American social elite and all but erased from high school history books. Mr. Loewen posits that the authors of our children’s textbooks “construe labor history as something that happened long ago, like slavery, and that like slavery, was corrected long ago” (Loewen). While it may be seen as insensitive to compare the labor movement to slavery, Mr. Loewen is joined by other authors and activists who argue against rewriting or marginalizing our history in order to preserve our “national identity”. In order for our nation to continue to excel, we must learn from our mistakes not hide them. American history has been tumultuous and rife with conflict; which has led to a shift in ideals, and thus aided in the elevation of the people as a whole – this struggle is necessary and must continue.

In the 1997 article, “Public Goods, Private Goods: The American Struggle over Educational Goals” by David Labaree, Labaree describes three goals that have been at the core of educational conflicts over the years. The first goal mentioned is democratic equality, which is meant to create good citizens and enable educational access to all. The second goal is social efficiency, which creates workers and is viewed by taxpayers and employers as a goal to prepare students for market roles. Lastly is the third goal of social mobility, where individual success for attractive market roles is the main purpose. This primary goal of education has been ever fluctuating. The argument of this essay is that social mobility has now triumphed over democratic equality and social efficiency as the primary goal of education due to parents. This view of social mobility by parents is negative to due its numerous consequences, significantly the growing disparity between the wealthy and the underprivileged, and additionally, the health of children, their behavior, and the degree to which they learn educational material are all affected.

Our culture in America puts a huge emphasis on the value of education. However, not all children in America receive the same benefits from school. Jonathan Kozol, author of The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America, explores the feelings of those in lower-income districts and the inequality they feel. Kozol focuses on how younger children, elementary schoolers, look around and see richer schools while their own school is run-down and falling apart. People are very aware of the score gap between rich schools and poor schools. Despite our awareness, we miss the main point by trying to close the “word gap”. This gap will only grow larger as poor school districts are economically disenfranchised repeatedly,

In Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol describes the conditions of several of America's public schools. Kozol visited schools in neighborhoods and found that there was a wide disparity in the conditions between the schools in the poorest inner-city communities and schools in the wealthier suburban communities. How can there be such huge differences within the public school system of a country, which claims to provide equal opportunity for all? It becomes obvious to Kozol that many poor children begin their young lives with an education that is far inferior to that of the children who grow up in wealthier communities. Savage Inequalities provides strong evidence of the national oppression that is endemic in the American system. Focusing

In chapter 7 from “Lies My Teacher Told Me was all about the truth behind social class and the truth of what kind of opportunities we really have in America. But not only that, its also about lies in what we are taught and what people are taught to think. This chapter pointed out why people feel and think the way they do. There was quote form the chapter that I liked because it explains that our books and what we are taught gives us the meanings of not truly understanding the truth. Even today we are blind to what the land of opportunity really stands for. “Since History textbooks present the American past as four hundred years of progress and portray our society as a land of opportunity in which folks get what they deserve and deserve what

Social class describes the different "layers" that exist in society. These "layers," or classes in society, are a division that civilization has been running on ever since the beginning of mankind. In most modern societies, our system of social class division is one of opportunity. We experience a good deal of social mobility, where people through generations or in their own lifetime can move up or down the social scale. By examining the many different perceptions of social class along with S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, it is illustrated that social class has an impact on people while they are growing up, and will usually deny them from rising above adversity.

In this essay I will be analyzing “Class in America--2012” by Gregory Mantsios from Rereading America.The author is getting opinions and using his knowledge to figure out if social or economic classes that people are in mean that they have a disadvantage or an advantage to becoming successful. Do you think that social classes impact the road to success or not?

Reading “Chapter XVI: The life of the peasants” from Harper and Brother’s Life on a Mediaeval Barony lead me to contemplate the work life and attitude toward the education of the less glamorous lifestyle that medieval peasants lived, “Their help is so important that many peasants look on large families as assets of so much unpaid labor, rather than as liabilities… Education is almost unknown” (Davis). I contemplated what this attitude towards education could mean in modern society and how it relates to the lifestyles of urban families of a lower income. In “A Letter to My Nephew” by James Baldwin, Baldwin addresses the socioeconomic education status of the early 20th century to his nephew, “The limits to your ambition were thus expected to be settled. You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity [that]... You were not expected to aspire to excellence”(Baldwin). Baldwin is stating that students of a lower social standing are automatically assumed to not succeed in school due to limitations on resources. I found this to be a very applicable concept in the education system of urban schools because numerous students that attend urban schools are of a low social standing with limited opportunities for success. Students can only take full advantage of their education in respect to the circumstances that they are raised in. According to Torrey Marable, a recent graduate from Phelps High School, many students who attend urban schools have

Race still predominantly plays a role in everyday classism. Discriminatory housing practices traps minorities in the lower class for generations. Moreover, America’s healthcare system unfair to people who have low income. Also, Public transportation does not properly serve the needs of those who use it; as well as, it makes it formidable to secure, and maintain a stable job. Additionally, education for the poor unequal in graduation rates; along with, a social polarization against lower class students. Classism in America is an old, yet consistent problem that, creates an unfair economic divide of

A shocking point that Loewen makes its that only four out of 18 textbooks Loewen looked at addresses or even provided information based upon social class. Class especially in America, and in a capitalist society, plays a major role to things such as union strikes as stated in this chapter. Yet these critical details are kept out of the textbooks and “social class is probably the single most important variable in society” (Loewen, 207). I found this to be information important to me because social class determines how we think and our upbringing. This then determines amongst other factors many potential opportunities. The United States in particular is set up to benefit the wealthy an those belonging to the upper class. This just shows that