Acting Out Culture Analysis

How the education system for youth is constantly debated on and often people fall into two groups, those who have power and those who don’t. This creates a divide in what the a child’s education should be focus on, the good of the society by filling its needs or the individual to help them succeed. Public education has the tough job of having to balance these under financial constraints that make it unrealistic to have a perfect system. Because it requires less financial resources, public schooling has become less focused on each individual and more society’s needs. David Larabee argues that “[schools remain] publicly funded, publicly controlled, and radically decentralized which [focus] more on being accessible than on teaching the curriculum.”

If you were to change something about the education system in the U.S, what would you change? How would you critique the quality of education? Education historian Diane Ravitch answers these questions in her excerpt that was published in 2014, “The Essentials of a Good Education.” In her text Ravitch argues that the education system is flawed and that the vision of a good education is unfair and unequal. Ravitch supports her claim by providing examples of the negative effects of the educational system and using historical context. The author’s purpose is to wake up the policymakers of the educational system in order to raise the standard of the quality of education each child receives regardless of income. Ravitch writes to an audience that are invested in the construction of the educational system and the parents along with other interested readers. Ravitch establishes a formal and professional tone for her audience. In this essay I will be focusing on a particular element Ravitch

Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States founded primarily for the education of African Americans. Prior to the mid-1960s, HBCUs were virtually the only institutions open to African Americans due to the vast majority of predominantly white institutions prohibiting qualified African Americans from acceptance during the time of segregation. As such, they are institutional products of an era of discrimination and socially constructed racism against African Americans (Joseph, 2013). Successfully, millions of students have been educated in spite of limited resources, public contempt, accreditation violations, and legislative issues. The purpose of this research paper is to discuss

There is a doctor, Thomas Armstrong, that focuses on youth development, and he believes that standardized tests don’t help or let anyone, whether it’s teachers or students, improve. He wrote that “Standardized tests don’t provide any feedback on how to perform better. The results aren’t even given back to the teachers and students until months later, and there are no instructions provided by test companies on how to improve these test scores” (Armstrong). Since the test companies of standardized tests don’t give feedback to teachers and students, it is impossible for them to know what they need to work and improve upon. If students can’t improve their scores, they are stuck either staying in the same spot or downgrading in the education system. Students that get advanced scores on tests are able to move ahead and have better opportunities in their schools, but students that don’t score well are left behind, sometimes barely moving from grade to grade. When making changes to the schooling system, Thomas Jefferson said “twenty of the best geniuses will be raked from the rubbish annually” (Congressional Research Service, 269). The president of the United States of America, when setting up a part of the education system, said that only some of the extra-intelligent students would be taken and given amazing opportunities. He himself said that they would be taken from the rubbish,

In “Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education”, Hooks talks about her experience as a southern black woman from a small town rural, Kentucky, at Stanford. As a young girl from Kentucky, hooks was confused when and stressed at the first occasion when she went to Stanford. She took a little time to see the difference in the way of life, language and community. As a southern black, Hooks appreciates her parents and her community after she goes away to school. Additionally, she became an accomplished scholar and assumed her position in the society with her education. Hooks said that we should work to end the gap between various social classes and higher education. She especially, pointed out that African American culture has a strong feeling

“...students of color are showing that they feel disconnected from their respective schools, that implicit yet institutionalized racism creates emotional distance between them and their white peers and faculty. Being a black student on a predominantly white campus certainly, doesn’t guarantee that the student will develop mental-health issues. However, various studies suggest that perceived or actual discrimination can make it hard for students of color to engage with their campus in the way that their white peers do.”

Based on data from the Civil Rights Data Collection in 2012, the United States Department of Education states that “black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than white students” (U.S. Department of Education). This is a problem because if a student has been suspended once, they are far less likely to do well in school and are actually much more likely to drop out, thus contributing further to the issue I discussed in the paragraph above. Schools need to treat all of their students fairly in order to give them the best chance at success in higher education. All of these factors truly go hand in hand to serve as obstacles in the way of minority students’

Today it isn’t difficult for a Chicanx or other minority to get a degree or create a prosperous life for themselves through hard work, but back in the mid-1900s, that was not the case. The American Southwest in the mid-1900s was not the most inviting or friendliest place for Mexicans and Chicanos. Many were born into extreme poverty or already came impoverished, many were degraded and sometimes dehumanized by racism, and many felt like they did not belong in the land of the free. Often times, young Mexicans and Chicanos had no choice. They had to resort to roaming the streets, doing drugs, committing crimes, and joining gangs in order to feel like they belonged and to give meaning to their lives. In his memoir Always Running, Luis Rodriguez tells the story of how he was

Racial inequality has plagued our society for centuries and has been described as a “black eye” on American history. It wasn’t until the passing of The Civil Rights Act of 1965 that minorities were given equal protection under the law. This was a crucial step on our society’s road to reconciling this injustice. However, the effects of past racial inequality are still visible to this day, and our society still wrestles with how to solve this issue. In 1965, President Lyndon B Johnson said: “You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say you are free to compete with all the others, and still just believe that you have been completely fair. This is the next and more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek not just freedom but opportunity––not legal equity but human ability––not just equality as a right and a theory, but equality as a fact and as a result” (Garrison-Wade & Lewis, 2003). That same year, President Johnson signed an executive order mandating government contractors “take affirmative action” in

Within the public educational system, children interact with all sorts of people. Personally, I went to a public elementary school local to Palm Springs. Vista Del Monte or in English, "View of the Mountain" was a mostly Hispanic school. Even the name is in Spanish. I could count the number of Caucasian people in my class on one hand. Most of my friends were Hispanic. I am still friends with many of the same people I grew up with at Vista Del Monte, including Damian Garcia. One of my fondest memories at that school was the time my group of friends and I were playing tag at ASES. Damian ran down the bumpy slide and took flight only to crash, burn, and become rendered immobile. Afterward, we just laughed it off. Although I would be considered a minority at that school, I never felt inferior because of my racial identity. Although, one African American student tried to challenge me about the rules of basketball. We argued whether the offensive player could dribble the ball again after the defender touches the ball. His logical fallacy was that he knew the rules at basketball better than I did due to his racial identity. He is, however, incorrect about the rules of basketball. For some reason all the teachers at that school were Caucasian. The teachers had mediocre expectations and hardly pushed the students for success. This is very different from Palm Springs High School where the teachers help to push students to

For countless years, there has been deliberate bigotry against people of color all around the world. However, today in America the social prejudice against the African American race has become almost entirely a thing of the past. Researchers argue that the discrimination people of color face has lessened over time and the barriers between whites and blacks have weakened.

American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus by Lisa Wade discusses the truth about hookup culture by observing it on college campus for years, with the help of students sharing their experiences to her. My overall impression of the book is that it is very accurate to college life and the thought process of students and hookup culture. In this essay, I will discuss 3 concepts, corporate campus, racialization in the school system, and conformity, and how these can all relate to life on campus and the book I choose to read, American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus.

One of the more unusual cultural aspects that is discussed in Chinua Achebe’s novel Things Fall Apart is the existence of an ogbanje. According to a study of Igbo culture conducted by researcher Bertram I. N. Osuagwu, an ogbanje is “an evil spirt causing people to die suddenly” (Osuagwu 36). Some believe that the ogbanje are deities that enter the world and become human beings, but because of a promise that they made to the spirit world, they die early in their lives (Osuagwu 36). In Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo’s wife Ekwefi believes that she has been cursed by an ogbanje because of the abnormally high mortality rate of her children. Early in the novel, Achebe describes the hardship that Ekwefi has endured, stating “Ekwefi had suffered a good

Why are some successful? Why do some commit crimes? Society has general laws, offenders who break those laws are known as being deviants. Society views robbery, assault, and murder, as deviant acts. Cultural Deviance Theory is a, “branch of social structure theory that sees strain and social disorganization together resulting in a unique lower-class culture that conflicts with conventional social norms” (Siegel, 2018, P. 581). Acts that are viewed as deviant vary between social orders. Deviance can be said to be socially built; the general public chooses what is degenerate, individuals or an individual can be named as aberrance because of their societal position, race, ethnicity

Education is a huge issue that not only affects kids and their parents, but their community as well. Schools teach young kids to become the next generation of engineers, technicians, and political leaders, working towards creating a better future for their country and their community. Teachers have the unique job of creating the future leaders of the world, and preparing them for both college and life beyond, by putting a special push towards math and science, the so-called “foundation” of our society. The hard truth is, no one can be anything they want to be. Some people are simply not cut out to be engineers, doctors, or psychologists. Modern day schooling forces students to fit a mold only a select few can fill by creating too much structure and having an overbearing emphasis on math and science, when other, less structured extracurricular activities can promote respect, discipline, and teamwork.