Gladwell’s overall claim in this chapter is that the class and family life you come from affects your chance of success. Coming from a lower class, Gladwell says, causes you to be less assertive around authority and less pressured into ambition. Parents of lower class families often do not encourage their kids to fine tune their talents through extra-curricular activities, but in middle to upper class families, kids are able to partake in multiple activities with the support of their parents. Also, in middle to upper class families, children are taught a “sense of entitlement that… is an attitude perfectly suited to succeeding in the modern world” (Gladwell 108). Children in the lower class are not taught this and therefore deprived of the advantage of knowing how to assert themselves.…
In other words, “The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.” Kahn argues this is a problem because if a student explains that they are in an elite institution because of hard work, and fails to mention that it is also due to the fact that their family invested in them and provided them with opportunity, it begins to explain other parts of society inaccurately. For example, this sort of argument would also claim that the reason as to why people are not in college is because they are lazy and unintelligent, which is simply not always true. Many other factors, such as SES, or an individuals position in a stratified social order, may contribute to a lack of upper-level…
Life happens in ways you cannot control. People have hard times to achieve an education due conflicts they have no control over. Many statistics show the many ways of what will most likely happen to people that are born into a certain class. In the articles, “Homeless on Campus” by Eleanor J. Bador, “Fremont High School” by Jonathan Kozol, and “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, show many ways of how society forms one person’s life in a way they cannot control. America displays their citizens as equal, but these reports published by the authors suggest otherwise by explaining the unequal lifestyles of the high, middle, and low class of America.…
Barber’s “America skips school”, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, written by Jean Anyon and “Literacy and the Politics of Education” by C. H. Knoblauch I learned a lot from them. In Barber’s “America Skips School” he describes how America’s schooling system has truly failed our children. Not because we don’t have the teachers who care, but because our politicians and government are not willing to put forth the effort in making any improvements. Barber explains how we should raise our teacher’s salaries and eventually they should be closer to a stock broker’s salary to show that as a society we value education. Another issue I learned, specifically from Ms. Anyon’s essay, is the need to make sure we don’t determine a child’s education based on their social class. Finding a way to educate our children equally will give them a chance to improve their livelihood or financial situation. I read that children raised in an upper class society have a higher percentage of becoming more successful or wealthy because of the education they receive for being from that social class. In my opinion it only keeps the rich getting richer and the poor getting…
“For the most part, class avoidance of class-laden vocabulary crosses class boundaries” (Mantsios 304). There are measurements in salary, physical appearance, and education to determine class. Mantsios studies showed that 34 percent of America’s wealth is held by the one percent, and almost one of every eight people are living below the poverty line ($19,307 dollars for a family of four in 2004). But it is not getting any better, since it has increased approximately $4,000 since then. One of the biggest reasons people are in poverty is because people cannot afford proper education to become well-sustained. It is all dependent on factors beyond our control. Mantsios compared class backgrounds of a life of a white male, whose father is a manufacturer and an industrialist who was enrolled in a prestigious preparatory school, and a black female, whose father a janitor and mother a waitress who lives in the ghetto. Who do you think has more of an advantage in life? The white male, as a result of opportunity handed to…
A social class background has a very powerful influence on a child’s chances of success in the education system. The children that are from a middle class background will normally perform better than the working class.…
Throughout America’s communities today, the quality of schooling varies from school to school. In the book Our Kids the author, Robert Putnam, believes that the increased gap between the wealthy and poor is what causes the differences in school quality and opportunities for the students (Putnam, 2015). Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing two of today’s youth, Josh and Erin. Their names have been changed for the sake of anonymity. Josh is a 17-year-old student at Shawnee Mission East High School, in Prairie Village, Kansas.…
Is it true that wealth has a determining factor on one's success? Is it simply easier for a person with a wealthy background to be more successful? In order to answer these questions, we can analyze children's academic success within different socioeconomic classes. KIPP Academy is a public charter school that is located the South Bronx, one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. What is different about KIPP is its success rate. In Malcom Gladwell's book, the Ouliers, he discusses KIPP's success, claiming that, "by the end of eighth grade, 84 percent of the students are preforming at or above their grade level" (parenthetical citation). KIPP is able to achieve this success through their rigor. Children that attend KIPP spend fifty to sixty percent more time learning than average public school students. KIPP children even spend an extra three months at school during the summer. This shows that with more time and opportunities, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are able to reach high levels of academic success.…
Education does play a part in social classes just as much as social class impacts…
Everything in society, not only has an impact but it shapes the individual as well. There are many inequalities that individuals face based on their: race, socioeconomic statuses, beliefs, and because of their lack sufficient knowledge. The way one raises a child has a huge impact; however, social class has a tremendous effect on the child because that is what allows the child to experience opportunities. If the child comes from a middle class, working class or poor family there is already inequality being present unconsciously because they are exposed to different culture, system, and different capital. For instance, In Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race and Family Life, Annette Lareau analyzes how social statuses impacts parenting.…
The schools that are in wealthy communities are better than those that are in the poor communities because they have better teaching methods and resources (Anyon 172). In the essay “ From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, ” by Jean Anyon, he describes the difference between a “ working- class school” and an “ executive elite school”. The working-class school consists of parents that have blue-collar jobs such as, factory workers, pipe welders, and maintance workers (Anyon 170). These jobs do not require much skill other than following orders given by their employers. Students that attend this type of school are taught to follow the steps of procedures without any decision making because they are being tracked to follow the footsteps of their parents (Anyon 169). For example from the essay “ Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios, the profile of Cheryl Mitchell shows that she went to a large public school that was patrolled by security guards in Brooklyn, New York (Mantsois 309). She was taught basic skills and was conveyed the importance of doing everything under someone…
Poverty the lower section of social class means you don’t make a sufficient amount of money, meaning you aren’t able to buy the necessities to be successful. If you are able to you are more likely to succeed. According to Source F, there are two types of inequality in social class that we have in America. But the one type we are most concerned with is called Red Inequality. Red Inequality is between those who have college degrees and those who do not. This affects the middle class, the average people in our society who make up the majority of our society as well. Statistics show that college graduates around the 1980s made about 40% more than those who did not go to college. Today that number has jumped up to 75% more. It also suggests that college grads have more benefits such as, being more likely to get married, less likely to get divorced, less likely to have a child out of wedlock, less likely to smoke, less likely to be obese, be more active in their communities, have more friendships, etc.. Which would also make them more likely to…
Sadly, further research into poverty indicates that “ many children face the prospect of having lower living standards than their parents” (Boffey, 1). As a society, many Americans are disregarding the future that children in the middle class were supposed to have. Since the middle class are receiving lower income, the middle class children will have never have the opportunity to proceed to college without being in debt afterwards. When they graduate, they will be living paycheck to paycheck solely because of the low income their parents received. In order to prevent the death of the middle class, we must provide higher positions in society to those who work harder to secure the future of America’s…
Academic success is very important and almost essential to living. Without academic success there are not very many job opportunities that will lead to living a successful career or stable lifestyle. Likewise this is very essential and can be utilized by each and every individual. Starting now, I will tell you where I am in my academic career, where I have been and where I see myself by the fall of the 2012 semester.…
The first factor that influences human development is a person’s socioeconomic status. This indicates a person’s position in society as determined by income, wealth, occupation, education, and place of residence. As a child, socioeconomic status has a big effect on the way a child is raised and the opportunities available to him/her. Children that come from high socioeconomic status families typically are more successful because they have more resources readily available to their children. They are able to afford high-quality childcare, education, and healthcare. Their children are also typically more involved in recreational sports and extra-curricular activities broadening their children’s horizons and talents. Children that are raised in low socioeconomic families lack the financial, educational, and social support that would make them feel equal to children from higher social standing families. These feelings of unease and not fitting in can lead to low confidence and low motivation. Children have to live with these feelings and the circumstances they were born into until they become adults and can make their own livings. Anyone is capable of overcoming his or her circumstances! When children grow up, they get to decide how far they want to take their education and what type of career field they want to go into as…