Preview

Our Kids By Robert Putnam

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1807 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Our Kids By Robert Putnam
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. Erin is a 16-year-old student at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas. The stories told by these two individuals show that the wealth gap is still playing a major role in determining the quality of education and opportunities for students.
Josh has lived his entire life in Prairie Village, Kansas. Currently, Josh lives in a 4-bedroom home with his parents and his sister, Jamie. Both of Josh’s parents are from Prairie Village and earned degrees from the University of Kansas. After earning their degrees, his parents moved back to Prairie …show more content…
While this may be true, students who are forced to work to help support their families suffer a variety of struggles and miss out on a number of opportunities. In addition, these individuals are often under high stress, because they are trying to balance work and school. Erin is very familiar with this stressful struggle of balancing work and school. Because she spends so much time at work after school, she has a very difficult time completing her homework assignments. When she returns from work, she goes to bed almost immediately, since she is so tired. She does most of her homework on the bus to school. Although Erin is still passing all of her classes, her new job has definitely taken a toll on her learning and her GPA, in addition to decreasing her involvement in school
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    Qbt1 - Research Paper - Funding of Public Schools Through Property Taxes
    • 2306 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Qbt1 - Research Paper - Funding of Public Schools Through Property Taxes

    Lack of Equality in Technology Studies are being conducted to determine the impact of economic inequality on the educational services to children in the United States. Research suggests that the funding of public schools through property taxes contributes to economical and scholastic inequalities in the school system, such as lack of technology, inferior quality of instructors, and lower grades and levels of academic competency. Since the passing of Proposition 13 large companies have been able to utilize those loopholes to avoid paying property taxes, and residents are feeling the pain as their educational systems are largely funded by these taxes and it has created a definite change. Education should be designed to ensure that all pupils have a chance to excel in life and in their educational endeavors. Student’s success in school now determines how successful they will become as adults in college and how much they will be paid in the profession they are able to choose.…

    • 2306 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Boy Who Owned The School By Gary Paulsen
    • 215 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Boy Who Owned The School By Gary Paulsen

    I have mixed feelings about the book, The Boy Who Owned the School by Gary Paulsen. Even though the book has a happy ending, the story is very dark. Jacob the protagonist thinks he is ugly, he is bullied at school, he tries to becomes the phantom student that roams from class to class, he has no friends, his parents are alcoholics and they pay no attention to him, and his sister hates him. If that were not enough, Jacob sleeps in a dark, dingy basement on a cot, while the rest of his family sleeps upstairs. His room is more like a dungeon than a bedroom. Although the book ends with Jacob and Maria going out and with his mother paying more attention to him, I expected Jacob to change and stop hiding from everyone, but the book does not give…

    • 215 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer
    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A Child Called It By Dave Pelzer

    A Child Called “It” is a very tragic book that tells an amazingly true story about a real life little boy in California. Written by Dave Pelzer, the story reveals an extreme case of child abuse, one of the worst ever report in California history. A Child Called “It” tells the unbearable story of a boy who gets beaten day after day by his alcoholic mother. This story is an autobiography communicating very informative information of the severity of child abuse and how important school officials are in spotting this epidemic. Dave came from a typically good family. Dave’s parents loved him deeply, especially on holidays and special trips into town while his father was working a twenty-four hour shift. However, things began to change drastically in a negative way. A Child Called “It” focuses mainly on abuse in…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Craig Kielburger's Free The Children
    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Craig Kielburger's Free The Children

    There are many organizations in the world that have had a great amount of impact on…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Savage Inequalities
    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Savage Inequalities

    Savage Inequalities, written by Jonathan Kozol, shows his two-year investigation into the neighborhoods and schools of the privileged and disadvantaged. Kozol shows disparities in educational expenditures between suburban and urban schools. He also shows how this matter affects children that have few or no books at all and are located in bad neighborhoods. You can draw conclusions about the urban schools in comparison to the suburban ones and it would be completely correct. The differences between a quality education and different races are analyzed. Kozol even goes as far as suggesting that suburban schools have better use for their money because the children's futures are more secure in a suburban setting. He thinks that each child should receive as much as they need in order to be equal with everyone else. If children in Detroit have greater needs than a student in Ann Arbor, then the students in Detroit should receive a greater amount of money.…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Does Wealth Affect Children's Success?
    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Does Wealth Affect Children's Success?

    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.…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Two boys and a girl by Tobias Wolff
    • 1013 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Two boys and a girl by Tobias Wolff

    In Tobias Wolff's "Two Boy's and a Girl," the main character, Gilbert, envies his friend Rafe, wanting what Rafe has instead of accepting and trying to enjoy his own life. His sarcastic way of coping with this self-made problem develops as he looks after Rafe's girlfriend and convertible while he is away. Although not accepted by Gilbert, the reader learns that even Rafe, whose life seems to be perfect, has problems of his own. For example, Rafe possesses the material things and the girlfriend Gilbert hopes for, but not family love. Not understanding of Rafe's problems and too concerned with his own self, Gilbert is depressed about everything he considers wrong in his life; he is overreacting. Just like him, nobody has everything, but in an effort to solve his loneliness, he wants a girlfriend like Rafe's. Gilbert's resolution to betray his friend by stealing Rafe's girlfriend proves his ruthless self-absorption; he puts his own self-entitled needs before the feelings of his best friend. Despite his determination he does not get the girl and thus is faced with the option of accepting the way things are.…

    • 1013 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Article Critique: For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in Hard Fall
    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Article Critique: For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in Hard Fall

    Education is supposed to be the economic equalizer for people of any economic background to obtain upward mobility. But as The New York Times article describes, the economic gap is dramatically increasing between upper income students and lower income students. It explains several factors why so. The article follows the lives of three young high school intellectual girls from Galveston, Texas: Bianca Gonzalez, Melissa O’Neal, and Angelica Gonzales. All of these girls are academically intelligent but as it turns out all of them fail to complete a four year degree. Mainly due to the “built in head winds” they suffer that make it difficult to complete college.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Balance School Research Paper
    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Balance School Research Paper

    Going to work is the only way to pay off our debts. Not only can school take a toll on a person, but work can too. For some people the stress of things going on at work can take its toll on school and a students grades. Sometimes students grades can begin to drop because they just have too much stress.…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Gifted Student Poverty
    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Gifted Student Poverty

    Money alone does not explain poverty, and the term social economic status does not have a common definition across the literature within the field of GT studies. However, in general terms, poverty and social economic status are usually determined by “…one’s relative standing in regards to income, level of education, employment, health, and access to resources” (Burney & Beike, 2008). In terms of rural and urban populations, there is no standard definition among the statistical analysis of students and families affected by poverty (Burney & Beike, 2008). Even the idea that income level, and not race, produce social inequality is challenging to the established litany on the subject of poverty, social economic status, and the gifted student (Kitano, 2003). The idea of poverty is complex and is represented and experienced differently across geographic, racial, ethnic and cultural lines, as blurry as they may sometime be (Burney & Beike,…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Social Class vs Educational Success
    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Social Class vs Educational Success

    There are exceptions to socioeconomic background determining a student’s educational success. For example, Mike Rose in “I Just Wanna Be Average” and Toni Bambara in “The Lesson” are successful authors who give us examples of going from rags to riches. Both authors benefited from a person who took a personal interest in them. Mike Rose, and at- risk student had a teacher who goes above and beyond and mentors him. Toni Bambara relays a story about a college educated woman living in the ghetto felt responsible for her neighbor’s children wanting them to learn the practical lessons that they would not have been exposed to otherwise.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rich Child Left Behind
    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rich Child Left Behind

    The article “No Rich Child Left Behind” written by Sean Reardon, focuses on the education gap between students of low and high-income families. Throughout the article, Reardon informs his audience on many studies he has conducted and read about that prove the following to be true: the rich children perform better in school, on average, than children from middle-class or poor families, high-income students are more likely to be enrolled in a highly selective college or university and graduate, the rich outperform the middle class by as much as the middle class outperform the poor, and also the rich have higher participation rates in extracurricular activities and school leadership positions. While attending an annual meeting of the American…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Are Curriculum Should Be Harder
    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Why Are Curriculum Should Be Harder

    Rebecca Strauss, associate director for CFR’s Renewing America publications, wrote “The real scourge of the U.S. education system — and its greatest competitive weakness — is the deep and growing achievement gap between socioeconomic groups that begins early and lasts through a student’s academic career, and while America does spend plenty on education, it funnels a disproportionate share into educating wealthier students, worsening that gap,” All this does is allows rich kids to higher education through expensive private schools and forces the middle to lower class people into public schools where the standards of education are low but on the rise. This…

    • 1073 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Education Gap and Social Mobility
    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Education Gap and Social Mobility

    “America may be the land of opportunities, but it is also the land of inequalities”(Lareau, pg3). The American dream is perceived to be obtainable for everyone, not on a rigid class structure, but the rising concern of an educational gap and social mobility presents a new theory that may deviate this notion. Throughout Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, by Annette Lareau, Racial and Ethnic Stratification in Education Achievement and Attainment, by Grace Koa and Jennifer S. Thompson, and the black-white test score gap, by George Farkas, each with its own approach, analyze the pre-exiting relationship between race, ethnicity, social class, and the academic performance and achievement attainment of different counterparts. Essentially, each with its own childrearing practices that could pertain to the level of success an individual is exposed to.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Difference Between Work and School.
    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Difference Between Work and School.

    People are paid in several ways; for example, work pays one way, where school pays another. Work pays weekly, but school pays us daily. Our work time adds up yearly, and our school time adds up quarterly. With yearly working we earn seniority; with yearly schooling we earn a degree. Importantly, our time should be used wisely, regardless of work, school, or home. Work and school can be physically and mentally stressful on people. Both can play a part in the stress we have at home. Even though, people are not sure of what path they will travel; there is a difference in work and school; likewise, they can effect people in the same matter.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics