Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Opportunities in education
All education until entering the university received was free, well at least for some. In Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Marx states the following, “…the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production…the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it”. While education is available for all the opportunity to quality education is available only to those who can afford so. Those with money can afford to offer their children this opportunity along with more and better resources to continue their education. Do you believe there is an equal opportunity for all to receive education and thus become successful in terms of professionalism and financially? Or is it only limited to “the ruling intellectual force” of society? If so, do you believe only when everyone is given the equal opportunity to become successful will there be any chance of social change?
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With education there is always the aura of equal opportunity. However, if everyone had the same opportunity, especially at the university level, there would be no application process and it wouldn't be so costly. Everyone, no matter their socioeconomic status would be able to go, if they so chose. What then would happen to the quality of education?
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely not equal opportunity for all to receive education and thus become successful in terms of professionalism and financially. School is extremely expensive and there are many people that simply cannot afford to go to school. Those that are located on the top of the stratification latter definitely have a huge advantage and receive better education that in turn promise them success financially. For example, those that can afford Ivy League education primarily end up with a high paying job. Only those with high incomes or strong connections with the upper class are able to access an Ivy League education, so one would need ties to the ruling intellectual force in order to have a good education. The education system does not promote equal opportunity one bit. In the work field employers know that certain colleges are more credible and prestigious so if someone from Harvard applies for a job that a UTEP grad is applying for, chances are the employer will choose the Harvard grad.
ReplyDeleteA great majority of UTEP students would have trouble affording a 4 year college education from Harvard, so since Harvard students can afford their education, they will in turn have an edge on us and get higher paying jobs.
The latter comment equates "good education" with "Harvard" or "Ivy League schools". is this necessary? I think it is more complex.
ReplyDeleteConsider the following not-so-much-rags-to-riches story:
One comes from a lower socioeconomic strata; attends a community college; gets average grades; transfers into a relatively "good" college.
Now, we must be careful not to disregard the tough subtext of the said scenario, namely being malnourished by a lower socio-economic base. Sadly, many fall through the cracks - these voices must have thier say...
That said, I would offer an even lower subtext of the human condition, one that is much deeper and profound than that of the birth pangs of material realities:
the ability to overcome a pervasive and bleak contextual matrix with irony and vision; "imagination". The visceral human spirit if foundational, bolstering even the most weighty and oppressive material conditions with a resilience or intellectual stubbornness. This is where the idiom, THE BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE, comes from..
- For example, Martin Luther King Jr. or Susan B. Anthony, to name a few typical examples. These voices overcame by working within the confines of material reality.
Caveat: but deconstruction sometimes is called-for too, like the prophet Jeremiah, where material realities need to be uprooted and destroyed. But again, this comes from a bedrock human "spirit" or "imagination" that always trumps material or tangible realities.
- oops. My comment is a bit belated.
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