Class discussion – synthesize post

High schools are a solution to the desire to better the country each time a new generation leaves the gates of the establishment. They’re meant to provide a universal standard of education, allowing everyone in the country an equal chance at success, and giving everyone the same chances to become fully educated. Unfortunately, there are a few holes in this solution. Minors are only required to go to school, legal adults can’t be forced to continue their education, even though many choose to at least finish high school (ie, it people can choose to not be “educated” at least by government standards). But the larger flaw in the system, not considering it’s bias’s or secret agenda, is the blatant way that it doesn’t provide an equal education for everyone or provides them with the same (or even similar) opportunities. The quality of education vastly differs, and this isn’t the slightly different policies from state to state, but the large differences from neighborhood to neighborhood. Poorer communities receive a lower quality of education than richer ones. This doesn’t level the playing field, but instead further perpetuates the socio-economic status of ones family, and suffocates any chance of any community becoming an up-and-coming neighborhood.

 

My high school wasn’t in the richest community, but it was in the same district as some very wealthy schools, and had a nice handful of upper middle class families. And somewhere around 97% (Need too look it up again, but it was in the 90’s) of graduated students from my high school went on to college. And it’s interesting to hear how goal driven my peers are, as they aren’t going to vocational schools, yet they know exactly what they want to do, and want to be studying that now. Is that not what vocational school is? The option is out there, it’s just not as well advertized. Probably because it doesn’t cost as much.

So keeping in mind that an overwhelming amount of people from my school went on to higher education, many of them four-year schools, one has to ask why. The socio-economic status of the community is probably the largest determining factor. We received a very good education because our community could pay for many art and AP classes, and attracted better teachers. Many of the parents put a lot of pressure on their children to overachieve like they did, creating a school environment where A and B students were so common anything less was looked down upon. And the parents could pay for college, making the community a perfect hunting ground for students. The advertising push for college exists because they need money, not because they want to educate the next generation and better humanity; they’ll be dead by then.