Upperclass Education Essay -- essays research papers fc

Land Of The Free, Home Of The Upper Class   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.† (Lazarus) This incredible, sentimental homage to the American dream brings many to ask, what a wonderful concept- but is this truly the case? Is America truly a land of opportunity and dreams realized, or is it more so a case of realizing we have been dreaming? In a country where image is made and sold like bread in a bakery, it is no wonder the idea of a land of opportunity still exists- it smells so good. In theory, a land of opportunity and self-motivation would be a real chance at success and pure determination and hard work could get a man wherever he desires to be. However, reality poses quite a different story. Everyday hardworking families struggle to get by on food stamps and minimum wage. If theories of equal opportunity held true, ev ery single parent working multiple jobs for their children would be able to send their kids to good schools and not need to worry about how to pay for a trip to dentist or a doctor’s check-up. And while it is easy to point fingers at the poor and say that its all their fault because of the decisions they’ve made or as luck would have it, a gray area develops when taking a look at the working class and realizing that there are boundaries in place that try to keep people in their positions of powerlessness. One of these boundaries is class through education. Through background, cost, and strategic tokenism, the American society has bordered out the same people it claims to embrace.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all, one may point out the arbitrary nature of class. While ideally most people would like to see a country of hard work and payoff, the fact of the matter is that from the moment we are born, before any chance to prove oneself, we are placed into a category that has either great advantages or vast disadvantages. The elite are nearly always born that way, just as those in poverty. Once a child is born into their status, where they live has major impact on how their life will pan out. For most of Middle America suburbs comprised of housing developments and apartment complexes put children into mediocre public schools with mi... ...emselves.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Clearly, the solution to this situation is far more complicated than most people like to admit and in no single action will we find a remedy for it. The inequalities in place must first and foremost be recognized and acknowledged for any sort of change to come about. We can no longer â€Å"accept it as inevitable, [and] something we just have to live with.† (Langston 127) Leveling the playing field does not make a person a socialist or jeopardize upper class status; in fact, chances are that more upward movement would benefit the economy as a whole and not just a single class of people. It is about time that instead of passively accepting the inequalities at hand that something ought to be done about them, one step at a time. After all, we want to live up to the lady who claims to lift her lamp beside the golden door to let people use their opportunities if they so choose. Bibliography Domhoff, G. William. Mapping The Social Landscape, Susan J. Ferguson. McGraw-Hill 2005. Page 290 Langston, Donna. â€Å"Tired Of Playing Monopoly,† Race, Class, and Gender. Wadsworth Publishing Company 1998. Pages 127-130 Lazarus, Emma. â€Å"The New Colossus† 1883