Paul Corrigan’s ‘Schooling the smash street kids’ takes the ever problematic issues of education and youth and provides a glimpse into it from the other side of the street. Impulsive, informal and unorthodox in writing style, Corrigan talks as if you were an old friend, pulling you in and gently nudging your opinions with personal memories. His work was based in the gritty north-east city of Sunderland, studying 14-15 year old boys in two schools with very different levels of facilities but both with undoubtedly working class pupils. This book does not start with a hypothesis and then test it but arranges each chapter around a relevant question, i.e. why do kids muck about in class, and answers that question at the beginning of the chapter using existing theories and another way at the end showing the process of the sociological research that had been completed.…
I believe Stephen Feldman’s argument is very accurate. I think his arguments are eye opening, especially his arguments about religious holidays. Around Thanksgiving time there are a lot of Christmas decorations. For individuals in outgroups it would be difficult living in a world of cultural imperialism where everyone assumes you practice the same religion as them. I also agree with the author’s main argument, the separation of church and state does not equally protect all American’s religious freedoms. I realized this when the author mentioned the case of Thornton v. Caldor Inc. the main argument in the case was to allow employees to not work on their religious Sabbath, which ever day that might be. The Supreme Court approved the Christian…
Carnegie has inspired women and men to use their funds to their communities. Although he advised other wealthy to use their money to benefit the communities and help in the preservation of the political system and America economy. I believe Mr. Carnegie’s argument is persuasive and is still relevant today. The wealthy, as well as small business owners, are the job creators in our society today. Their vision and leadership help to support the lower class in earning a decent living while allowing them to realize their own potential. The lower class today has more opportunities that were not available to them generations ago. While government is there to provide a safety net for those less fortunate, it is the wealthy and job creators that…
Cited: John Taylor Gatto. “Against School.” Copyright 2003 by Harper’s magazine. All rights reserved. Reproduced from the September issue by special permission.…
Tim Wise had a different childhood than most, he was raised by the phrase "Race matters." As a pre-schooler he was sent to a mostly black school and learned to respect black authority figures. This resulted in him being more racially aware while growing up. His main argument was that racial inequality still exists today. As he went through college, he became very involved in a group that advocated for better rights for people in Africa. Several weeks later, he was asked what he had done to address racism in his own city, New Orleans. He then realized he hadn't done anything in his own town. He began working for the next twenty years to advocate for racial equality still exists. The argument is made that white people are blind to their advantages and privileges. According to Wise, white privileges is built into our system and has helped us without us knowing. White people in the US have had many more privileges compared to people of color, it's just built into the foundation of our…
An inside school factor is ‘laddish’ behaviour, and their status among their peers. Anti-school subcultures are developed mostly over working class boys – especially by the ones who are put into lower sets or streams. Hargreaves and Willis suggest boys are fatalistic in accepting their academic failure as inevitable, so they develop coping strategies, by trying to get credibility from their peers. They do this by disrupting lessons and making it look like they don’t care about their education. However, Carolyn Jackson identifies the motivations for laddish behaviour as being both social failure, and academic failure, and…
The scenario at the middle school regarding the dress code for the dance is something that happens in schools all over the United States. Since the public schools allow all students who live within close proximity to the school to enroll there. Students who attend this school can come from all backgrounds and walks of life and therefore result in a lot of conflict between the students. The wealthier students will always have nicer, more expensive things and will show this off to the other students at their school. The three social factors that most impact this scenario are income, wealth, and power.…
As the school year comes to a close, many Australian high school students are taking a well-deserved break and going on ‘schoolies’. Charlotte York contends in her opinion piece titled ‘“Blame the “Toolies”, not the “Schoolies”’ published in The Herald Sun on October 12th 2015, that schoolies is being misrepresented and blackened by childish and immature minorities. This opinion piece appeals to those who read the Herald Sun and/or are parents or graduated high school leavers.…
others to take the easy way out. In Plummers essay he points out ways to treat this syndrome…
Have you ever wondered about those few in your class who just do everything on there own, not caring what everyone else thinks about it? Those who oppose the cliques and those who think the "popular" kids are just a group of followers. If you actually get the time to look at then and get to know them you will find out that they are not just the group of "weirdoes", they live the romantic way of life, they are called the non conformists. Sounds kind of important huh? Well that is just what these kids strive not to be. They do not want to be the big time lawyers and businessmen, they do not want to be voted "best dressed" or "most popular". They just want to be themselves and be happy. You may ask yourself, well isn't that what we all want? If you think about it though, the majority of us also what to be wealthy and pretty and overall, just accepted. Well if you really were a non-conformist you wouldn't care about any of…
One size fits all is a term that we have all heard in our society. This cliché has been applied to clothing, wrist watches, necklaces and bike helmets. This universal fit concept is, unfortunately, the thinking behind most public education today. As we know, one size fits all is anything but. Just as people are physically built differently, we all have diverse learning styles and capabilities. Public high schools in the United States are also built around this idea. I believe that public high school promotes the aim of capitalistic goals, instead of promoting…
Popularity has a very high price tag today. The pressure and importance of fitting in has become a big challenge for the everyday teen-ager. We are taught at an early age that being different from the rest leads to criticism and ridicule from others. America boasts equality and freedom of speech, but the consequences for being different from the majority are huge. Alienation from society causes a devastating effect, especially where children are involved. America would be a much better place to live if people would accept people for what they are instead of criticizing people for what they are not. Many of today's problems can be solved if people can be secure enough to the point where they can accept the fact that people are different, but at the same time equal.…
All around the United States more and more schools and switching to the idea of school uniforms. Schools think that this uniform policy will help bring down crime rates, gangs, improve the schools over all academic achievement, and level out social discriminations among students. Although this theory may become true to someone who wants it to be true, other skeptics looking into this are finding that these positive influences from uniforms are merely misconceptions. Schools’ academic achievements are not influenced by the clothes that students have on their backs. Neither is the crime rate in that school. There were theories that gang members could sneak into schools by wearing that schools uniform and blending in with everyone. Some students are even saying that uniforms will not stop them from discriminating other kids since they still know who is rich and who is poor. Although our society thinks that forcing students to wear uniforms to school will cure all problems, they better think twice. School uniforms should not be allowed in public schools because they are not cost effective, they deprive students’ rights to express themselves, and lastly, they do not increase the status of the school who adopted the uniform policy.…
Why are people so often influenced by the opinions of the majority on controversial social and political issues? What entices people to watch popular television shows, listen to “mainstream” music, or adopt ubiquitous fashion trends? What causes adolescents to succumb to peer pressure? (Rios, Wheeler, & Miller, 2012). These are the same questions that have been questioning the researchers’ mind for quite sometimes now. Among all the things happening in the world, from the natural calamities that people experience to economic fall down of a state in other country, we have been trying to do the things in which the majority made us does. That is the essence of this study. To further dig in to what is known as conformity with a very much specific objective. The experimenter aims to find whether conformity has an effect to the decreasing or increasing of a students’ self-esteem.…
Starks really makes a good point about our society. Everything seems to be who you know and how much money you have. The younger generation really takes social status in high school to the limits. To me it’s important to be open minded and have your own style, not to follow the crowd.…