Primary Education

The second category, personal growth, stems from one of the founding principles of America—upward mobility. At the very core of nearly every citizen is an entrenched belief that through hard work and persistence, one ought to be able to improve their situation. This objective of schooling embodies the premise that people are able to improve themselves and their situation. Through schooling, children can learn how to critically think, generate ideas, and acquire new skills—these lessons allow students to expand beyond their current horizons and drive forward into a more promising future. It allows the lowest to be elevated.

In many ways the premise of education embodies the ability for individuals to rise up from their situation—improving themselves and their way of life. Therefore, educators and the education system as a whole is bestowed with the responsibility to make this dream of upward mobility a possibility. Inherently, this role of education is most prevalent for disparished individuals and communities; however, currently these very same communities suffer as they are left with poorly funded, often neglected, school districts. Today, we will discuss why it is most critical for impoverished communities to have strong schools, how this issue compounds, why there is currently a disparity, and how this can be addressed.

Although we reside in the richest country in the world and therefore reap benefits from such wealth, there exists communities that seem to have been left out. Often times in undesirable parts of large cities or small towns who primary employer relocated, these communities that suffer from rampant joblessness and widespread poverty also lack accessibility to quality public education.

Youth, eager to have an opportunity to go beyond their current situation, are left in classrooms with little equipment, chipping paint, and often unqualified teachers. Their escape from an undesirable life does little to empower or educate. Research indicates that it is not uncommon for the average reading level for poorly performing schools (which almost exclusively are located in poor neighborhoods) is several years below what is commonly seen in an average American School. Performance on other metrics of achievement such as the SAT’s and Military Entrance Exam are similarly below par.

Because these schools within impoverished schools underperform, students who are most desperate for upward mobility, are less able to achieve this feat. Poor schools lead to kids having a more difficult time leaving the community that they grew up in and become steadily and gainfully employed. This creates an unhindered cycle of poverty that perpetuates itself.

It is evident that there is a strong corelation between the amount of funding a school receives and the quality of education that they are able to provide. A fair question to ask is why is more money not going to inner city and empoverished rural school districts. The answer lies in how schools receive their money.

In most states including Pennsylvania, schools are funded primarily though state and local funding. The cause of the differentiation between highly funded and poorly funded schools is a result of local funding. Local finding comes most significanly from property taxes which comprise both private and corporate property. This means that when there are more expensive homes in an area, that district receives greater funding. When there are large companies nearby, the districts similarly receive higher funding.

This creates a situation where communities that are more well off and have less desperation for a quality school have the highest quality education. Empowering their children to future success. Inversely communities with inexpensive housing and little or no businesses have significantly lower school funding and thereby lower quality education. This has the opposite effect on the aforementioned children—the cycle of poverty is perpetuated.

One proposed solution to solving this issue is by centralizing education funding—essentially using taxes from wealthy areas to pay for schools in poorer ones. This Robinhood esc plan would even the opportunities for school age children in terms of education; however, it is not without controversy. Those in wealthier areas commonly insist that it is inappropriate and egregious to reallocate wealth to other communities. They natural desire for their kids to have the best education as possible (a completely relatable aspiration). The question to be answered is how to balance the desires or each community, the overall success of society, and our moral values.

 

 

I jump out of bed with a smile on my face as I was reminded that this Saturday would be an exciting one. Penn State Game-day? Close, today is deliberation day. Sharing in my excitement, a friend invites me to her deliberation that begins earlier in the day. Appreciating the irony of deliberating on the presence of Fraternities and Sororities on State Patty’s Day, I eagerly agreed and tagged along with her past parades of green clad day-drinkers. Arriving at Fraser Street Commons where we were met a group of deliberators and moderators standing in the rain waiting for the door to be unlocked.

Although this deliberation had a wet yet humorous delay, it began smoothly with the presentation of the general topic of the deliberation and laying out the ground rules. Expecting the event to run identically to what we had planned for ours in the previous class periods; however, there where some notable differences. First of which is the style in which the approaches were first presented. The moderators presented their respective approach and lead discussion while standing up in front of the group. Although their mini speeches were well prepared and presented well, by standing up, it felt too formal and as though they were giving us deliberators the answers rather than helping us jointly come to a consensus. This was compounded with introductions that may have been too encompassing—leaving too little left on the bone to deliberate about. For this reason, conversations were difficult to start and maintain; however, in many ways this was overcome.

The first approach was focused on the development of the national Greek Life system. As of now, Greek Life is broken up into several regions. Their proposal was to establish one overarching governing body that each Fraternity and Sorority would report to. This was creating consistency that would encourage higher standards. Through deliberation, it was determined that the general consensus was that this approach may be affective, only if this central governing body would have power to enforce punishments. Also, the concern over the feasibility of getting support from every university and individual fraternity.

The second approach focused on giving the university a stronger role in restricting and monitoring fraternities. The initial solution presented was to move fraternities on to campus like sororities are, this would allow unfettered access by the university to cut down of dangerous behaviors. With limited availability of facilities and land to build new facilities, this idea quickly shifted to universities purchasing existing fraternity properties so that they would have more control. Also deeming this unrealistic, the idea of trading loser controls on number of parties each frat could have for heightened monitoring from police and universities within frat houses was popular.

The final approach initiated a conversation on how to educate fraternities to promote safety. The initial solution was to mandate that fraternity executives would have taken the same class as RAs at Penn State have to take because the essentially have a similar role. Within this conversation it became more popular that fraternities should have many people trained in safety measures such as CPR so that safety wouldn’t be so dependent on a small number of individuals.

Sufficient conversation was encouraged which led to a somewhat widespread conscience that the third approach has the most direct effect and is substantially more feasible compared to the other two. Overall, it was a successful deliberation that ran smoothly and was evidence of a group of student’s hard work.

Plato argued that education is the “training in excellence from youth upward which makes a man passionately desire to be a perfect citizen, and teaches him to rule, and to obey, with justice.” These ancient but relevant words encompass the first of Mortimer Adler’s hypothesized purposes for education: civic development. As it was in ancient Greece, one of the primary functions of public education is to prepare youth to become cohesive citizens within their respective communities.

In each school across the country, the morning bell chime ushers in the invitation for each member of the faculty, staff, and student to stand and join in pledging allegiance to the star-spangled banner and the country that it embodies. In my experience through primary education, civic awareness did not stop after the unison reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. From American History, government, to sociology, many courses, even the ones without an intrinsic national focus are anchored to American ideologies. Content is typically presented in an American-centric approach. Furthermore, although the first classes to come to mind when thinking of high school are often the core math, science, and language courses, over the years in my school and the schools of those that I have spoke to, many courses (often mandatory) were dedicated to specific societal focuses—courses such as the infamous sex ed., to personal finance, home repair, and home economics. Moreover, many courses similar to these are required to be taught by state law in Pennsylvania, and similarly in other states across the country. Since it is evident that schools are putting forth and effort to civically prepare students for their future roles in society, the next question we must ask is how well are schools preforming this function.

 

Studies suggest that when present (and of adequate quality) civic education, in reference to lessons in history, government, and the similar, are substantially successful at providing civic empowerment which leads to political involvement at all levels and higher voting rates. There is a strong causal relationship between quality exposure to these topics and these integral functions of society. This is where the good news ends. Quality in this specific arena is rare, and to an alarming degree more common within wealthy, diversity-absent communities. This inadequacy within economically suffering communities, both rural and urban, is partially cause to a continuation and further striation of the political landscape. Individuals who lack proper civic education are less likely to run for office and to vote which is leading to elected officials who poorly represent the people as a whole, but rather small, more privileged portions of the country. Of course, there are a lot of other factors that lead to this result; nonetheless, education disparity is one that is particularly alarming.

 

Walk into a senior home and it will take two minutes to the half reminiscing complaint, “schooling doesn’t mean anything. In my day, we learnt more before eighth grade than you kids graduate with after 13 years.” To some degree these ‘old-timers’ are right, it is hard to dispute that high school is doing less to prepare students for “the real world.” Forbes contributor, Roy Avik, presented research showing that although students believe that they are prepared to enter the work force, employers overwhelmingly disagree. Additionally, levels of anxiety regarding growing-up are on the rise. Unlike civil education, this problem seems to be pretty wide spread—indiscriminately inadequate across the country. Some suggest that this is less a result of degrading primary education system and more the result of a movement away from the traditional family dynamic. Regardless, it is fair to argue that with such a societal impact, it is necessary for schools to take action to improve their standing in this area.

 

Given the complex and intricate nature of each of these issues, it is difficult to determine a solution to these complications. One suggestion however, that would go a long way to providing a more equitable quality of education across all disciplines, not just civic education, would to be to revise the method of funding schools on the state level. Speaking to Pennsylvania, the majority of funding for primary education institutes are contingent on the physical location of the school. Therefore, the economic health of the district directly impacts the budget of the district. As a result, wealthier communities are able to provide higher quality education, widening the striation. To conclude, in order to provide a high quality and effective education that meets the needs of society, it is critical that on a national level, primary schools improve in terms of developing students civically.

 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2015/09/21/students-think-theyre-ready-for-the-real-world-employers-not-so-much/#7ef994e311ce

Prepare students to be citizens

Boston Latin School, when it was founded in 1635 became the first school public school in the American Colonies. By the early 1800’s, Massachusetts would pass a law granting access for every child to tuition free primary education. The idea of education for every citizen regardless of their circumstances and ability to pay began to catch on among neighboring states before the union as a whole adopted a policy making education compulsory for every adolescent.  Over the decades and even centuries, many philosophies and ideologies regarding the matter came and went; although the great plurality of Americans value the importance of public education, there has consistently been disagreement regarding the simple question at the very core of this cultural practice–what is the purpose of educating our children?

 

To this day, at the core of most disagreement about how to educate children from kindergarten to twelfth grade is the question, why do we educate? As generally accepted as is possible surrounding this issue, Mortimer Adler, a twentieth century philosopher, put forth his explain of the encompassing objectives of a child’s schooling: civic development, personal growth/improvement, and occupational preparedness. In the next three weeks, I will address each of these ideas, discuss their relevance today, remark on the current day effectiveness, and suggest possible improvements when appropriate. Today, I will detail what each means.

 

The first objective, civic preparedness, in general terms describes how children can be developed into members of society. Considering the importance of a common set of beliefs which is critical to the unity of a democracy, educating children about the history, ideals, and political mechanics of the country they are citizens of is essential. Through an emphasis in this area, democracy is strengthened through greater understanding and acceptance that lead to greater social cohesion. Furthermore, with greater civic education representative democracies tend to embody greater transparency and increased accountability from those in office. Along with the importance to democracy, education has purpose of preparing people to interact effectively within society. An important facet to this is the education of how individuals ought to be act in terms of basic civil and criminal laws. Lastly, to matriculate into society, children must be taught social practices that are critical to the function of a citizen in adulthood (i.e. balancing a checkbook and drafting of a letter). This also encompasses the ever so stressed Three R’s—Reading, wRiting, and aRithmetic.

 

The second category, personal growth, stems from one of the founding principles of America—upward mobility. At the very core of nearly every citizen is an entrenched belief that through hard work and persistence, one ought to be able to improve their situation. This objective of schooling embodies the premise that people are able to improve themselves and their situation. Through schooling, children can learn how to critically think, generate ideas, and acquire knew skills—these lessons allow students to expand beyond their current horizons and drive forward into a more promising future. It allows the lowest to be elevated.

 

Lastly Adler laid out the final objective of schools which is to prepare students for careers. From the early years of public schools, when teachers aimed to train kids in discipline and obedience in order to best prepare students for employment in the local factor, to today, when schools fund departments that teach trades that teach kids skills that can immediately be used after graduation such as machinery and welding. Today, as secondary education becomes more prolific, this same category can be used to describe preparatory education that is designed to ready students for their next stage of education.

 

It is by these three objectives—citizen development, personal growth, and occupation preparation—that schools focus (or ought to focus) their efforts. As we state continue, we will discuss each of these topics individually in regards to their current presence and role.

 

Cites Used

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/13/vintage-slang-terms-drunk_n_4268480.html

 

http://www.purposeofschool.com/philosophical/

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