Sociology define
There seems to be obvious differences in the education system all over America. It caters the upper class majority and it is biased to the ones that serve the lower and middle class minority. There is a strong undercurrent of racial inequality in today’s school systems that negatively affect the quality of education that its students receive. A schools potential to give a proper education often depends on the perspective economic, and social, or perhaps the racial backgrounds of its students.
Some of the best high schools in the nation often are magnet schools, private schools, or suburban schools that serve the upper class. Although there are usually a small number of minority children who are lucky enough to attend such quality schools, the white children defiantly make up the majority of upper class high school populations.
The differences between public schools and private schools are obvious. In comparing the environments of good schools and mediocre ones, private schools are usually clean with air conditioning and are often freshly painted. They have huge libraries and computer labs filled with new computers with large supplies of books. Some private schools even have TV studio, theater, and school newspaper. In a private school, students don’t skip classes or miss days at school. It has few discipline problems and there are few fights, if any. The classes are small, about fifteen to one teacher student ratio, which enables students to receive more one on one attention. Students who attend private school take college prep courses like Spanish, physics, and calculus. Students have higher overall grade point averages and test scores. One hundred percent of the students who graduate from private schools go on to college. The students attending are given every opportunity to succeed and don’t ever have to worry about being assaulted in school by some kid who is there to cause trouble instead of learn.
In contrast, public schools serve the lower class and middle class minorities whom, can’t afford to pay for a better education or are unable to find transportation to suburban schools. Inner city high schools are ranked the lowest in the nation when it comes to the quality of education they offer. The population in these schools is mainly black and African Americans make at least fifty percent of the population, while Latin and Asian students usually help round out the rest of the population.
Unlike private schools, public schools are of the complete opposite. The grounds were filthy and the school has no air conditioning. They are at a severe disadvantage because they don’t have enough books for all of their students. They have a small library that doubles as a classroom during the day. The school doesn’t have computers or a newspaper. Classes are often over crowded. Public school has about a thirty to one student teacher ratio. Sometimes there are nearly forty students packed into one class. The thousand students that go to public schools barely get attention form teachers. Usually children who start high school there who are already behind fall further behind.
Students attending public schools skip classes and often miss days in school. Violence is a common event. News crews and police are constantly up at the school covering a story about guns, drugs, or gangs. Barely fifty percent out of one thousand students go on to a four-year college. The collective grade point average is usually under 3.0. Most graduates would be lucky to find a mediocre factory job. Some students drop out and get a G.E.D or find a trade and others just fall by the wayside.
The combination of inadequate funding, lack of college prep classes and programs, lack of parent involvement, weak administration, teacher student apathy, and an undercurrent of racism almost guarantee the failure of poor and middle class minority students.
Low class schools with the least amount of resources have the greatest number of minority populations. Most educators have given up on the idea that all schools can be free of segregation. Minority families tend to gravitate toward larger cities in search of more blue-collar jobs, therefore lower class and middle class minorities all tend to go to the same schools. That explains why predominately black schools normally tend to be located in major cities. Educators feel that forced school integration would only cause the parents of white children to move their children to other school districts, this is known as white flight.
All over America there are schools that have an unfair disadvantage over others. It seems like the government is either unable to provide every student with an equal opportunity to learn or they just don’t care about lower class and middle class minorities enough to try and make a change. It seems as if the government is not willing to step in and help out minority students. The ultimate responsibility for seeing to it that children receive the best education possible falls on the parents’ economic status.
When it comes to equal opportunity and education, in receiving “quality education”, also directly implies studying in a more “quality environment.” This is why the education system should be more equal to everybody. Regardless of the system of the school rather it is private or public, students from upper or lower class do get the same education, just not the same treatment. Private school produces kids that are more presentable, but in no way they are any smarter than kids going to public schools.
The definition of Sociology is that it is the study of human societies through the synthesis of theoretical analysis and controlled research, focusing on the social patterns and forces that influence humans.
The study of sociology is the issues, concepts, investigations, and more importantly, the systematic study of relationships among people. While the study of sociology focuses on groups, or society as a whole, it should not exclude an emphasis on individuals because individuals forms groups and groups produce individuals. We cannot study and fully understand one without the other nor can we study them as if they were merely in competition with each other. Rather, sociology is a personal encounter with the social force which shape our lives, especially those that affect our awareness and ignorance of how we create, maintain, and change those very social forces.
In speaking of the systematic study of relationships among people of Sociology, the assumption being that behavior is influenced by social, political, occupational and intellectual groupings and by the particular settings in which individuals find themselves. It is the study of human association and group life. It describes and seeks to explain social processes that give rise to, sustain, and change our social world and us. Some topics in Sociology include conformity and deviance, freedom and transcendence in the social order, stratification, power, race, gender, and social change.
