Education In America Research Paper

The Role of Education in America Today

Oftentimes, society resorts to mundane repetition simply because we don’t want to rock the boat. The sentiment of Americans seems to be “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. The idea of fundamentally changing institutions is a radical one, especially to the powers that run our country. In the case of education- schools, school resources, school law, school policy- we are talking about one of the most critical aspects of life and one that is paramount to the future of our nation. Unfortunately, the web of politics, economics and education are intertwined and complicated in our country, and we must dig deeply to uncover the roots of this institution to discover what ails our system of education today. We
Nirmala Erevelles writes about the “unruly bodies” that contest the severity and discipline of the educational system, arguing that these approaches and controls reflect those being applied by the prison system today. He highlights the use of strategies, constraints, and activities that were intended to manage those “unruly bodies” and how they are being reflected within schools (Erevelles, 2000). One such approach is that of the routinization of every aspect of the students’ life, as well as the burden of rules and regulations that become the operating model of the institution; schools are designed to be methodically managed in order to ensure order and productivity. Pedro Noguera surmises that schools are also separated into vocational and trade-based schools for lower socio-economically placed immigrants and academic high schools for middle-class students to guarantee the perpetuation of the social order into the workforce. (Noguera, 1995). This reflection between prison and education builds on the notion of an institution whose chief mission is to maintain control over people, “to regiment, control, and discipline the social outcasts” (Noguera,
This results in an overrepresentation of poor African American, immigrant, and Latino children being placed in schools with fewer and insufficient resources, repeating the social order and maintaining the status quo. Jean Anyon of Rutgers University discusses the effects of a hidden curriculum which enables the continuation of social divides. Anyon contends that knowledge and skills leading to social power and achievement (ie. medical, legal and managerial positions) are made available to the advantaged upper class students. In contrast, the focus on these skills is withheld from lower working and middle class children (who are primarily of African American, Latino and first generation immigrant families). A more “practical” and trades-based curriculum is offered, ensuring their placement into manual labor, clerical, and industrial fields thereby continuing their lower status in society. Consequently, a prominent objective of this hidden curriculum within American public schools has been an overriding cultural transmission or instructing students the customs for assimilating in school and society at large. Therefore, hidden curriculum ultimately stands to maintain the status quo, more specifically the prevailing culture and predominant socioeconomic