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Chapter 13: Education |
The focus of Chapter thirteen is education in America. Schools
serve many functions in our society—they instill self-discipline,
transmit and reproduce culture, perpetuate the socioeconomic
power structure, select talent, and—most obviously—teach
skills. The quality of education available is not the same for
all people in society, however. Practices such as discrimination
and tracking impair the ideal of equal educational opportunity,
and the "ability" of students as measured by IQ tests is often
inaccurate. Parental involvement in schools is an important
factor in a child's educational success, but the degree of parental
involvement differs from middle-upper-class to working-class
parents.
In the last several decades there has been a greater emphasis
placed upon what schools can do to foster equal opportunity
and upon reforming the educational system. Proposals include
better training for teachers, giving parents greater choice
about which schools their children attend, and creating schools
centered around innovative teaching methods. This emphasis
on the importance of education in our society is reflected
in the number of Americans seeking college degrees. A higher
education provides many rewards, which more and more Americans
have the opportunity and desire to achieve.
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