Education Conflict and Functional Theories Assignment | Essay Help Services

Research Paper instructions

Compare and contrast functional and conflict approaches to one of the following:ge

 Education

Length: 5-6 pages (bibliography and cover page not included)
Format: .docx or .doc – Microsoft Word
Font: Times New Roman Size: 12
Line spacing: Double
Margins: 2,5 cm (top, bottom, left, right)
Citation style: APA
Citations: At least two citations from the reading list, and at least of three other books or academic articles

Attached two sources from the reading list and they are from the same book and its reference is:
Tischler, H. L. (2011). Introduction to sociology. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

these are the three external sources:
www.jstor.org/stable/2093761
www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctvrxk389.6
www.jstor.org/stable/44820719

 The topic is purposefully not specific but open-ended to allow for creativity and a variety of research subjects

The Sociological Perspective
Boston Filmworks
3
participants who are already at risk because of poor
home environments, substance abuse, or emotional
problems. Th e report found that there was not a signifi –
cant threat to children from online predators (Palfrey,
Sacco, Boyd, and DeBonnis, 2009).
Sociologist Janis Wolak studied the predator problem
at the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the
University of New Hampshire. She found that “Internetrelated
sex crimes are a pretty small proportion of sex
crimes that adolescents suff er.” Wolak noted that sexual
assaults on teens actually fell 52% between 1993 and
2005.
What about Chris Hansen’s statement that one
out of fi ve children is sexually solicited by a predator?
Th e claim is from a survey that asked teens if they had
received an unwanted sexual solicitation in the past
year. It turns out that most of these solicitations were
from other teens, not from adults. Th e teens did not view
them as serious or threatening. Many of them were the
equivalent of online fl irting or joking.
Th e fear of online predators actually distracts us
from recognizing the real danger to children: parental
abuse and neglect. Th e vast majority of crimes
against children are committed not by predators lurking
in chat rooms but, instead, by the victim’s own
family. Hundreds of thousands of children are abused
and neglected each year by their parents and caregivers,
and about 1,500 American children die from
abuse each year; the majority of the victims are under
four years old. Th e National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children notes the “danger to children is
greater from someone they or their family knows than
from a stranger” (Radford, 2006).
Despite the varying reasons for sexual abuse of children,
no one is denying that this larger issue is a legitimate
social problem with very serious consequences.
Is this sociology? Or, for that matter, is this what sociologists
do when they study society? Th e answer would
have to be no.
We must remind ourselves that news and information
is brought to us by people who make choices. Some
of their choices, inevitably, are better than others and
represent the perceptions of the reporters and editors
who produce the papers or news broadcasts (Murray,
Schwartz, and Lichter, 2001).
Far too seldomly, we realize that people often use
data to persuade and that statistics can be used as part
of a strategy to promote concern about a social problem.
Much of the information we read every day and mistake
for sociology is actually an attempt by one group
or another to infl uence social policy. Other information
mistaken for sociology is actually an attempt to sell a
book or the eff orts of television producers to present
entertaining programs.
With the constant bombardment of information
about social issues, we could come to believe that nearly
everyone is engaged in the study of sociology to some
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, you should be able to do
the following:
◗ Understand the sociological point of view and how it
differs from that of journalists and talk-show hosts
◗ Compare and contrast sociology with the other major
social sciences
◗ Describe the early development of sociology from its
origins in nineteenth-century Europe
◗ Know the contributions of sociology’s pioneers:
Comte, Martineau, Spencer, Marx, Durkheim, and
Weber
◗ Describe the early development of sociology in the
United States
◗ Understand the functionalist, confl ict theory, and
interactionist perspectives
◗ Realize the relationship between theory and practice
Warning!! Dangerous sexual predators are
stalking your children on the Internet.” Th e message is
repeated on television and in the newspapers. Parents
fear that they have no control over this national menace
that threatens their children’s safety. Th ese unseen
villains want to entice children out of their homes. Th ey
lurk in online chat rooms where children and teenagers
congregate.
NBC even had a popular series called To Catch
a Predator, which lured these dangerous people to
locations, ostensibly to meet teens for sex, and were
promptly arrested. Th e host, Chris Hansen, claimed
“the scope of the problem is immense” and “seems to
be getting worse.” Th e host even went so far as to claim
that “one in fi ve children has been sexually solicited by
a predator.”
Th e public has certainly accepted the belief that
online predators are a major threat. One survey found
that two-thirds of mothers of teens were more fearful
of online predators than of their teens driving drunk or
experimenting with drugs (McAfee, 2008).
Enough people thought it was a problem that fortynine
state attorneys general created a task force to study
the issue. Th is appears to be a horrifi c, national problem.
Or is it? What scientifi c research data do we have
about the problem?
In 2009, a 278-page report from the Berkman Center
for Internet and Society at Harvard University that
examined scientifi c data about online sexual predators
concluded that children and teenagers were unlikely to
be propositioned by adults online. Teenagers who do
meet adults for sexual encounters appear to be willing
4 PART 1 THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
● SOCIOLOGY AS A POINT OF VIEW
Sociology is the scientifi c study of human society and
social interactions. As sociologists, our main goal is to
understand social situations and look for repeating patterns
in society. We do not use facts selectively to create
a lively talk show, sell newspapers, or support one particular
point of view. Instead, sociologists are engaged in
a rigorous scientifi c endeavor, which requires objectivity
and detachment.
Th e main focus of sociology is the group, not the individual.
Sociologists attempt to understand the forces
that operate throughout society—forces that mold
individuals, shape their behavior, and, thus, determine
social events.
When you walk into an introductory physics class,
you might know very little about the subject and hold
few opinions about the various topics within the fi eld.
On the other hand, when you enter your introductory
sociology class for the fi rst time, you will feel quite familiar
with the subject matter. You have the advantage of
coming to sociology with a substantial amount of information,
which you have gained simply by being a member
of society. Ironically, this knowledge also can leave
you at a disadvantage because these views have not
been gathered in a scientifi c fashion and might not be
accurate.
Over the years and through a variety of experiences,
we develop a set of ideas about the world and how it
operates. Th is point of view infl uences how we look at
the world and guides our attempts to understand the
actions and reactions of others. Even though we accept
the premise that individuals are unique, we tend to categorize
or even stereotype people to interpret and predict
behavior and events.
Is this personalized approach adequate for bringing
about an understanding of ourselves and society?
Although it might serve us quite well in our day-to-day
lives, a sociologist would answer that it does not give us
enough accurate information to develop an understanding
of the broader social picture. Th is picture becomes
clear only when we know something about the society in
which we live, the social processes that aff ect us, and the
patterns of interaction that characterize our lives.
Let us take the issue of domestic violence. Figure 1-1
shows that we could examine the issue in a variety of
ways. If we knew a woman who was the victim of domestic
violence, we would have personal information about
the experience. If she were willing to discuss her experience
with us, we would know more about domestic violence
at a specifi c case level. Although this information
is important, it is not yet sociology and is closer to the
personalized, common-sense approach to understanding
society. Sociology tries to move beyond that level of
understanding.
If we rely on our own experiences, we are like the blind
men of Hindu legend trying to describe an elephant: the
extent and that everyone has not only the right but also
the ability to put forth valid information about society.
Th is is not the case. Some people have no interest in putting
forth true and objective information and are instead
interested in convincing us to support their position or
point of view. On other occasions, the “researchers” do
not have the ability or training to disseminate accurate
information about drug abuse, homelessness, welfare,
high-school dropout rates, white-collar crime, or a host
of other sociological topics.
Sociologists have diff erent goals in mind when they
investigate a problem than do journalists or talk-show
hosts. A television talk-show host needs to make the
program entertaining and maintain high ratings, or the
show might be canceled. A journalist is writing for a
specifi c readership. Th is will certainly limit the choice of
topics as well as the manner in which an issue is investigated.
On the other hand, a sociologist must answer
to the scientifi c community as she or he tries to further
our understanding of a topic. Th is means that the goal
is not high ratings but, rather, an accurate and scientifi c
approach to the issue being studied.
In this book, we ask you to go beyond popular sociology
and investigate society more scientifi cally than you
did before. You will learn to look at major events, as well
as at everyday occurrences, a little diff erently and start
to notice patterns you might have never seen before.
After you are equipped with the tools of sociology, you
should be able to evaluate critically popular presentations
of sociology. You will see that sociology represents
both a body of knowledge and a scientifi c approach to
the study of social issues.
Sociology studies the interactions among different social
groups.
David Lees/Stone+/Getty Images
CHAPTER 1 THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE 5
marry for love, sociologists remind us that the decision
to marry—or not to marry—is infl uenced by a variety of
social values taught to us since early childhood.
Th at is, we select our mates based on the social values
we internalize from family, peers, neighbors, community
leaders, and even our movie heroes. Th erefore, we
are less likely to marry someone from a diff erent socioeconomic
class, from a diff erent race or religion, or from
a markedly diff erent educational background. Th us, as
we pair off , we follow somewhat predictable patterns. In
most cases, the man is older, earns more money, and has
a higher occupational status than the woman.
Th ese patterns might not be evident to the two people
who are in love with each other; indeed, they might
not be aware that anything other than romance played
a role in their choice of a mate. As sociologists, however,
we begin to discern marriage patterns.
We might note that marriage rates vary in diff erent
parts of the country, that the average age of marriage
is related to educational level, and that social class is
related to marital stability. Th ese patterns (discussed in
Chapter 12) show us that forces are at work that infl uence
marriage but might not be evident to the individuals
who fall in love and marry.
C. Wright Mills (1959) described the diff erent levels
on which social events can be perceived and interpreted.
He used the term the sociological imagination to refer
to this relationship between individual experiences and
forces in the larger society that shape our actions Th e
sociological imagination is the process of looking at all
types of human behavior patterns and fi nding previously
unseen connections among them. We see similarities
among individuals with no direct knowledge of one
another, and we fi nd that subtle forces mold people’s
actions. Like a museum-patron who draws back from
a painting in order to see how the separate strokes and
colors form subtly shaded images, sociologists stand
back from individual events in order to see why and how
they occurred. In so doing, they discover patterns that
govern our social existence.
Th e sociological imagination focuses on every aspect
of society and every relationship among individuals. It
studies the behavior of crowds at sports events; shifts in
styles of dress and popular music; changing patterns of
fi rst man, feeling its trunk, asserts, “It is like a snake”; the
second, trying to reach around the beast’s leg, argues,
“No, it is like a tree”; and the third, feeling its solid side,
disagrees, saying, “It is more like a wall.” In a small way,
each person is right, but not one of them is able to understand
or describe the whole elephant.
If we were to look for recurring patterns in domestic
violence, we would now be doing what sociologists do.
A sociologist examining the issue might be interested in
the age, socioeconomic level, and ethnic characteristics
of the victims of domestic violence. A sociologist might
compare these characteristics with the characteristics
of victims of other types of violence: “Are there diff erences?”
they ask. “If so, what kinds and why?”
While studying sociology, you will be asked to look
at the world a little diff erently from the way you usually
do. Because you will be looking at the world through
other people’s eyes—using new points of view—you
will start to notice things you might never have noticed
before. When you look at life in a middle-class suburb,
for instance, what do you see? How does your view differ
from that of a poor, inner-city resident? How does
the suburb appear to a recent immigrant from Mexico,
China, or India? How does it appear to a burglar? Finally,
what does the sociologist see?
Sociology asks you to broaden your perspective on
the world. You will start to see that people act in markedly
diff erent ways not because one person is sane and
another is crazy. Rather, it is because they all have diff erent
ways of making sense out of what is going on in the
world around them.
Th ese unique perceptions of reality produce varying
lifestyles, which in turn produce diff erent perceptions of
reality. To understand other people, we must stop looking
at the world from a perspective based solely on our
own individual experiences.
The Sociological Imagination
Although most people interpret social events on the basis
of their individual experiences, sociologists step back
and view society more as an outsider than as a personally
involved and possibly biased participant. For example,
although we assume that most people in the United States
Personalized approach Sociological approach
I know a woman
who was the
victim of domestic
violence.
I hear about laws
passed in Texas to
punish perpetrators
of domestic violence.
I read about the
causes of domestic
violence.
I do research on the
social characteristics
of perpetrators of
domestic violence.
FIGURE 1.1 Levels of Social Understanding: Domestic Violence
6 PART 1 THE STUDY OF SOCIETY
Speaking from this side of the career-decision hurdle,
I can say that being a sociologist has opened many
doors for me. It gave me the credentials to teach at
the college level and to become an author of a widely
used sociology text. It also enabled me to be a newspaper
columnist and a talk-show host. Would I recommend
this fi eld to anyone else? I would, but not
blindly. Realize before you begin that sociology can
be an extremely demanding discipline and, at times,
an extremely frustrating one.
As in many other fi elds, the competition for jobs in
sociology can be fi erce. If you really want this work,
do not let the herd stop you. Anyone with motivation,
talent, and a determined approach to fi nding a job will
do well. However, be prepared for the long haul: To get
ahead in many areas, you will need to spend more than
four years in college. Consider your bachelor’s degree
as just the beginning.
Jobs which involve advanced research or teaching
at the college level often require a PhD, which means
at least four to six years of school beyond the BA.
Now for the job possibilities. As you read through
these careers, remember that right now your exposure
to sociology is limited (you are only on Chapter 1 in
your fi rst college sociology text), so do not eliminate
any possibilities right at the start. Spend some time
thinking about each one as the semester progresses
and you learn more about this fascinating discipline.
Most people who go into sociology become teachers.
You will need a PhD to teach in college, but often
a master’s degree will open the door for you at the
two-year college or high school level.
Second in popularity to teaching are nonacademic
research jobs in government agencies, private
research institutions, and the research departments of
private corporations. Researchers perform many functions,
including conducting market research, public
opinion surveys, and impact assessments. Evaluation
research, as the last fi eld is known, has become more
popular in recent years because the federal government
now requires environmental impact studies on
all large-scale federal projects. For example, before a
new interstate highway is built, evaluation researchers
attempt to determine the eff ect the highway will have
on communities along the proposed route.
Th is is only one of many opportunities available
in government work. Federal, state, and local governments
in policy-making and administrative functions
also hire sociologists. For example, a sociologist
employed by a community hospital provides needed
data on the population groups being served and on the
health-care needs of the community. Further, sociologists
working in a prison system can devise plans to
deal with the social problems that are inevitable when
people are put behind bars. Here are a few additional
opportunities in government work: community planner,
correction offi cer, environmental analyst, equal
opportunity specialist, probation offi cer, rehabilitation
counselor, resident director, and social worker.
A growing number of opportunities also exist in
corporate America, including market researchers,
pollsters, human resource managers, affirmative
action coordinators, employee assistance program
counselors, labor relations specialists, and public
information offi cers, just to name a few. Th ese jobs
are available in nearly every fi eld from advertising to
banking, from insurance to publishing.
Although your corporate title will not be “sociologist,”
your educational background will give you the
tools you need to do the job and do it well, which, to
corporations, is the bottom line.
Whether you choose government or corporate
work, you will have the best chance of fi nding the job
you want by specializing in a particular fi eld of sociology
while you are still in school. You can become a
crime and corrections specialist or become knowledgeable
in organizational behavior before you enter
the job market. Many demographers, who compile
and analyze population data, have specialized in
urban sociology or population issues. Th ey may then
also be equipped to help a community respond to
neighborhood and environmental concerns. Keep in
mind that many positions require a minor or some
course work in other fi elds such as political science,
psychology, ecology, law, or business. By combining
sociology with these fi elds, you will be well prepared
for the job market.
What next? Be optimistic and start planning. As
the American Sociological Association observed, few
fi elds are as relevant today and as broadly based as
sociology. Yet, ironically, its career potential is just
beginning to be tapped. Start planning by reading the
Occupational Outlook Quarterly (it is available online)
published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as
well as academic journals to keep abreast of career
trends. Th en study hard and choose your specialty.
With this preparation, you will be well prepared when
the time comes to fi nd a job.
HOW SOCIOLOGISTS DO IT
If You Are Thinking About Sociology as a Career, Read This
H
I

the issue of standardized testing.
We all know certain proverbs and might,
in fact, use them when we need to make a decision.
Cervantes called proverbs “short sentences drawn from
long experience.” Consider the proverb, “A bird in the
hand is worth two in the bush.” It tells us not to give
up a sure thing for something that might not happen.
Th is proverb seems to apply to so many situations that
it can be found in many languages. In Sweden, people
say, “Rather one bird in the hand than ten in the woods.”
In Spain, we fi nd people saying, “A bird in the hand is
better than a hundred fl ying birds.” Poles are likely to
say, “A sparrow in your hand is better than a pigeon on
the roof.” People in Russia will say, “Better a titmouse
in the hand than a crane in the sky.” Other variations
exist in Italy, Romania, Germany, and Iceland. Th is proverb
might even go back 2,500 years; because in one of
Aesop’s fables, we fi nd a hawk who has captured a nightingale.
Th e nightingale pleads that it should be released
because it is too small to be much of a meal for a hawk.
Th e hawk answers, “I would be foolish to release the bird
I have in my hand for a bird that is not in sight.” Proverbs
help educate us about simple truths that we can apply to
life (Heath and Heath, 2007).
Herbert Spencer would have agreed that proverbs are
an important form of education. Spencer believed the
purpose of education was “to prepare us for complete
living.” Every study must be judged by whether it had
“practical value.” Th e most important knowledge helped
us live our lives or fi nd a job or trade. Spencer believed
all subjects had to be judged by how useful they would
be in later life. Spencer’s emphasis on practical education
was applauded by a population that doubted the
value of book learning.
Lester Frank Ward, the fi rst president of the American
Sociological Society, did not agree with Spencer. He
322 PART 4 INSTITUTIONS
country and what could be done to educate them about
American cultural values.
Now they come in droves. . . . Few of their children in the
country learn English; they import many books from
Germany; and of the six printing houses in the Province,
two are entirely German, two half German half English,
and two entirely English. (Franklin, 1753)
It became clear that schools needed to be the means
of cultural transmission. Th e view emerged that for a
society to hold together, there must be certain core values
and goals—some common traits of culture—that
the diff erent groups share to a greater or lesser degree
(see Chapter 3, “Culture”).
Th is core culture can also be open to change. A
school’s curriculum often refl ects the ability of organized
groups of concerned citizens to impose their views
on an educational system, whether local, statewide, or
nationwide. Th us, it was a political process that caused
African-American history to be introduced into elementary,
high school, and college curricula during the
1960s. Similarly, political activism caused the creation of
women’s studies programs in many colleges. Moreover,
even though the concept of evolution is a cornerstone
of modern scientifi c knowledge, political pressure ( from
Christian fundamentalists) causes some textbooks to
refer to it as the “theory” of evolution and prevents it
from being taught in certain counties.
In recent years, bilingual education has become an
educational and political issue. Proponents believe
that it is crucial for children whose primary language
is not English to be given instruction in their native
tongues. Th ey believe that by acknowledging students’
native languages, the school system is helping them
make the transition into the all-English mainstream
and is also helping preserve the diversity of American
culture.
Others see a danger in these programs. Th ey believe
that many bilingual education programs never provide
for the transition into English, leaving many youngsters
without the basic skills needed to earn a living and participate
in our society.
In the end, the debate centers on how closely our
sense of who we are as a nation hinges on the language
our children speak in school. For the time being, the only
agreement between the two sides is that language is the
cornerstone for cultural transmission.
Academic Skills
Another crucial function of the schools is to equip children
with the academic skills they need to function as
adults to hold down a job, to balance a checkbook, to
evaluate political candidates, to read a newspaper, to
analyze the importance of a scientifi c advance, and so
on. Have the schools been successful in this area? Most
experts believe they have not.
almost incidentally, simply by being included in adult
activities.
Traditionally, the family has been the main arena
for socialization. As societies have become more complex,
the family has been unable to fulfi ll all aspects of
its socialization function. Th us, the formal educational
system must extend the socialization process that starts
in the family. Modern industrialized societies draw a
distinction between education and socialization. In
ordinary speech, we diff erentiate between socialization
and education by talking of bringing up and educating
children as separate tasks. In modern society, these two
aspects of socialization are quite compartmentalized.
Whereas rearing children is an informal activity, education
or schooling is formal. Th e role prescriptions that
determine interactions between students and teachers
are clearly defi ned, and the curriculum to be taught is
explicit. Obviously, the educational process goes far
beyond just formalized instruction. In addition, children
learn things in their families and among their peers. In
school, children’s master status (see Chapter 6, “Social
Groups and Organizations”) is that of student, and their
primary task is to learn.
Schools, as formal institutions of education, emerged
as part of the evolution of civilization. However, until
about 200 years ago, education did not help people
become more productive in practical ways; thus, it was
a luxury that very few could aff ord. Th is changed dramatically
with the industrialization of Western culture.
Workers with specialized skills were required for production
jobs, as were professional, well-trained managers.
When the industrial revolution moved workers out of
their homes and into factories, the labor force consisted
not only of adults but also of children. Subsequently,
child labor laws were passed to prohibit children from
working in factories. Public schools eventually emerged
as agencies dedicated to socializing students, teaching
them proper attitudes and behaviors, and encouraging
conformity to the norms of social life and the
workplace.
Cultural Transmission
Th e most obvious goal of education is cultural transmission,
in which major portions of society’s knowledge
are passed from one generation to the next. In relatively
small, homogeneous societies, in which almost all members
share the culture’s norms, values, and perspectives,
cultural transmission is a matter of consensus and
needs few specialized institutions. In a complex, pluralistic
society such as ours, with competition among
ethnic and other minority groups for economic and
political power, the decision about which aspects of the
culture will be transmitted is the outgrowth of a complicated
process.
As early as 1753, Benjamin Franklin was concerned
about the diff erent immigrant ethnic groups in the
CHAPTER 14 EDUCATION 323
Particularly troublesome was student performance
in math and science. According to a study done by the
Nation’s Report Card (1988), an assessment group that
is part of the Educational Testing Service, the math performance
of 17-year-olds is “dismal.” At fault might be
the very back-to-basics movement that was supposed to
rescue our educational system from failure in the early
1980s. Although rote learning has helped improve the
scores of the lowest-level students, it left others totally
unprepared to analyze complex problems. Th e Nation’s
Report Card also found American students’ understanding
of science “distressingly low.”
By 2002, not much had changed. Between 1966 and
2002, the federal government had spent $321 billion (in
today’s dollars) to help educate disadvantaged children.
Yet, despite increased spending:
• Fewer than one-third of U.S. fourth graders could read
profi ciently.
• Reading performance had not improved in more than
15 years.
• Less than 20% of U.S. twelfth graders were profi cient in
math.
• And, among the industrialized nations of the world, U.S.
twelfth graders rank near the bottom in science and math.
In response to these facts in 2002, President George
W. Bush signed into law the No Child Left Behind Act.
Th e assumption behind this act is that setting high
standards and establishing measurable goals will produce
positive learning outcomes. States are required to
develop ways of measuring the basic skills of all students
in certain grades. Th e Act was enforced by the threat of
withholding federal funds for schools. By 2007, funding
for the Act exceeded $50 billion.
Th e Act gave the federal government a role in kindergarten-
through-grade-12 education and contains four
basic education reform principles: stronger accountability
for results, increased fl exibility and local control,
expanded options for parents, and an emphasis on
teaching methods that have been proven to work.
In an eff ort to hold education systems responsible for
children’s education, all states must implement statewide
accountability systems, which will:
• Set academic standards for what students should know
and be able to do in each content area
• Gather specifi c, objective data through tests aligned with
those standards
• Use test data to identify strengths and weaknesses in the
system
• Report school academic achievement to parents and
communities
• Empower parents to take action based on school
information
• Recognize schools that make real progress
Th e law requires real consequences for districts and
schools that fail to make progress. It also enables parents
In 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in
Education issued a report, titled “Nation at Risk,” that
bitterly attacked the eff ectiveness of American education.
Th e message of the report was that the American
education system was drowning in a tide of mediocrity
that was threatening the future of the country. It also
contained this memorable quote, “If an unfriendly foreign
power had attempted to impose on America the
mediocre educational performance that exists today, we
might as well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands,
we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.”
As a result of this report, reforms were instituted in
all 50 states, which stressed the teaching of the “three
Rs” and the elimination of frivolous electives that waste
valuable student and teacher time. In addition, high
school graduation requirements were raised in 40 states
and, in 19 states, students were required to pass minimum
competency tests before they could receive their
high school diplomas. Forty-eight states also required
new teachers to prove their competence by passing a
standardized test.
Although the back-to-basics movement has grown,
its success has been limited. Five years after “A Nation
at Risk” appeared, a follow-up report was issued
titled “American Education: Making It Work” (1988).
According to the report, “the precipitous downward
slide of previous decades has been arrested and we
have begun the long climb back to reasonable standards.”
However, despite this progress, especially
among minority groups, the report condemned the
performance of American schools as unacceptably
low. “Too many students do not graduate from our high
schools, and too many of those who do graduate have
been poorly educated. . . . Our students know little,
and their command of essential skills is too slight,” the
report stated.
An important function of education is to equip children with
the academic skills that they need to function in society.
Ian Shaw/Alamy
324 PART 4 INSTITUTIONS
of legislation. (For more on Jonathan Kozol’s views on
education, see “Sociology in Strange Places: When Race,
Money, and Education Collide.”)
It might be too early to see whether the No Child
Left Behind Act is working, but every three years, the
Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
conducts a worldwide study of 15-year-olds in science
and math literacy. In 2006, 57 countries participated.
U.S. students did not score in the top 20 countries on science
or math literacy or reading literacy. Th e countries
with the top-performing students were Taiwan, Finland,
South Korea, Hong Kong, and Canada (PISA 2006 Science
Competencies for Tomorrow’s World 2007).
with a child enrolled in a failing school to transfer their
child to a better performing public school or public
charter school.
Some educators have criticized the Act for emphasizing
reading, writing, and math and paying less attention
to the arts and foreign languages. Th e American Heart
Association even blamed the Act for increased childhood
obesity by diminishing the importance of physical
education classes (Trickey, 2006).
Education writer Jonathan Kozol was so upset by the
No Child Left Behind Act that he spent more than two
months on a partial hunger strike to protest the harm
done by the Act. He saw it as a racially punitive piece
Jonathan Kozol, author of Th e Shame of the Nation: Th e
Restoration of Apartheid Schooling, believes that after
nearly six decades after the Supreme Court ordered
America to integrate its schools, the country has
established two separate and unequal school systems
divided by class and race, with the gap between them
growing larger each year.
Kozol visited 60 schools in 30 school districts and
found that some children were going to schools that
mimicked conditions in the third world while only
a short bus ride away were beautiful, well-equipped
school campuses. Kozol points out that black and
Hispanic students are now concentrated in schools
where very few white students exist.
Kozol relies on studies by Harvard professor Gary
Orfi eld and his colleagues to show that American public
schools are segregating again with the proportion
of black students in majority white schools at a level
lower than in any year since 1968.
Th ere are several reasons this is happening. Courtordered
desegregation programs no longer exist in
many cities because they do not seem to close the
educational gap between white and minority students.
Often, in large cities, there are not enough white students
to form a basis for integration. Immigration
patterns have also made integration diffi cult as the
number of minorities to be considered for integration
has increased. Finally, some groups oppose integration
because they are afraid it will break up their
community.
A new dilemma that Kozol is concerned with is the
increasing emphasis on testing and the resulting pressure
on teachers and children to pass state-imposed
guidelines imposed by the No Child Left Behind Act.
Th ese high-stakes tests force teachers to devote more
time to test preparation at the expense of subjects
such as music, art, social science, and history.
Kozol believes the real reason for educational inequities
is money. He notes that the gaps in school funding
are so consistent from one metropolitan area to
another—with rich schools in many areas spending
more than twice per pupil as poor schools—that it
suggests a deliberate pattern.
While their children enjoy richer schools, bolstered
by higher property tax bases and federal deductions
for property taxes and mortgage payments, suburban
parents are lulled by politicians who claim that spending
more money on inner-city schools will not make
any diff erence.
Kozol points out that “there is a deep-seated reverence
for fair play in the United States, but this is not
the case in education, health care, or inheritance of
wealth. In these elemental areas we want the game to
be unfair and we have made it so.”
Sources: Jonathan Kozol, Th e Shame of the Nation: Th e Restoration
of Apartheid Schooling in America, New York: Crown
Publishers, 2005; Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities, New
York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
SOCIOLOGY IN STRANGE PLACES:
When Race, Money, and Education Collide
Jonathan Kozol
Steven Senne