Education Past vs. Present

Education Past Vs Present

     Growing up in an urban community, which was full of individuals of all different race and ethnic back grounds. I never  viewed race or ethnicity as a problem or a conflict because I lived in such a vast multiport of people that I never really paid close attention to it.  But in middle school  a even that occurred that introduced me to race differentially was when all of my middle school teachers  decided to go on strike due to the fact of low test scores in the school. Which resulted in teachers not getting there contracts renewed. In the beginning I really didn’t grasp why my teachers was outside protesting in the first place but all I knew was that they was upset about they wanted a change and quick.

     Now that I am older I now understood the main reason why they were protesting. Also that event open my eyes to different ethnicity and the how different the standard of teaching was compared to the urban education system to the suburban system.  The problem that was happening was in the suburban communities which was heavily occupied by Caucasians was undergoing a very rigorous education system  compared to the teaching district of the urban community. Which was heavily populated with people of color? When it can to the state exams the results was catastrophic, the majority of the students in the urban community was failing that state aptitude test, whiles the children who was in the suburban district was passing with flying colors. So as a result of this the state decided to withhold the contracts of the teachers in the urban communities untie the test scores improved .

    The argument that the teachers was giving was that even though they want to teach the children and they are giving them tool to succeed, they cannot take the test for them in order to make them pass. They was not giving up to  date tool in order for the students to gain in depth knowledge of a subject.

    If you look at how race was divided in the olden days to this present day to be honest not much has changed the only thing that has changed was the ability of blacks to integrate white schools system. In the olden days white schools had the upper hand when I can to preparing there student for life and the advantages that goes along with it. The standard of education was high and the facilities and the tools that the students used was in excellent and up to date condition. Whiles the urban school was extremely poor with a very low standers of education which was being provided for the youth. If you look at the school system now not much has changed even though people say that the test scores of the urban school system has increased, it is still no where near where it should be.

social class

   There was a time when I first came to realization which social class I belonged to. When I was younger it never really bothered me too much. About having money or not having money, in order to determine your social class. I started to take notice when I would always travel around town with my parents and would realize how great and privileged my life was.

   Personally I don’t consider myself to be amongst the upper rich part of society, rather I consider myself to be middle class. My family was never poor, but at the same time I didn’t consider myself to be rich beyond belief. I started to take notice of  my social class when homeless people would start coming up to me ask asking for money. I can remember the first time it happened to me. I was about 14 years old, my mother was driving her new Mercedes Benz.  We were on our way to a restaurant that just opened up around the area. When we got out the car there was a homeless person sitting outside of the restaurant  When we first entered the individual didn’t bother to look at us. May be the person was shy or felt intimidated. To be honest I didn’t feel as if I was much more or a person then he was. I didn’t feel that just because I had more money that I was a much better person then the homeless guy. But he gave off the impression of shame and inferiority. After we finished eating we decided to leave the restaurant and to my surprise the homeless person was still there. My parents walked by him not even speaking. I decided to say hello, he finally picked up his head and looked at me and smiled and said “ hello,  was I able to spare some change”, and I dug into my pocket and pulled out three dollars and I told him yes. And I gave to him all that I had, at the time. But the question that I have is that just because at that present moment in time I had more money then he did. Dose that give me the right to say that he is poor and I am in am rich?

   I guess that was the first time that I realized and took notice to the social classes that was out there in the world and I knew that I was not rich but I knew that I was not poor either. So just took the notion that I was in the middle class.

    Have I ever had a feeling that I have experienced false consciousness of my social class, yes.   Im guessing the only time when I may have the impression of false consciousness is when you are in an area where there is a large group of people who may have more money than you do. When you are not able to afford certain things that you may want and your neighbor  can, it may sometimes give you the feeling of being poor. But in all reality you’re not.

Formal Social Control VS Informal Social Controle

     When ever a person tells you to discuss the mechanisms of formal and informal social control, its not an 100% strait answer. And most of the time a lot of individuals gets the two mixed up. Or they have the definition in there minds but they are not able to put it in words.  Hopefully ill be able to shed some specific knowledge of the two distinct yet similar words. Formal social control  is basically carried out by authorized agents such as police officers, judges, school administrators, employees military officers, and managers or movie theaters. It can be served as a last resort when socialization and informal encouraging people to violate social norms. As for informal social control people use it to enforce norms. Take for example as stated in the book a lot of parents and guardians would use spanking of a child or hitting as a form of informal social control.  Whiles on the other hand child behavioral specialists, has stated time and time again, that if you result to violence on a child that child will grow up and have a vast amount of anger issues. The one think that they also stated that caught my attention was the fact that children who do get spanked would always try and solve their problems through anger and violence. Which is conclusion my lead to a life of failure and destruction.

      One of the most evident formal social controls that goes on in my every day life, is at the work place. I have a boss who is a pretty good guy. He uses his experience to guide his workers, into completing tasks that keep to be done through out the work day. I decided to use him as my personal example of formal social control because he has been given the authority to supervise all of  so he uses is authority to maintain order in the work place.  I also defiantly can state that it is a definite  social environment  of formal control.

       Which of the two is more effective in controlling a society, this is not a strait forward answer because, every individual handles being under manage differently. No two personalities are ever the same. But when you ask a question like which a form or social control is more frequently used in our society I would have to go with Formal Social Control. Because in the world we live in there are much more examples of people exhibiting  formal social control then informal social control. Why do I think this is. People are scared of change when you have a person who tries to introduce a new form of control over a society  people would start to panic and would question the effectiveness of that informal control.  Like the example I used earlier. Some people would like to use a physical bodily punishment in order to train a child. But in the long run that would only show that child only to become more aggressive in solving his or her problems that they may come across.

     Deviance is a constant misjudged word. A lot of people get deviance and deviant mistaken for one another. But as for the mater at hand. Deviance is an exhibiting behavior that violates the standards of conduct or expectations of a group or society.

     I great example that came to mind which best explained the word deviance, is a mother breast feeding a child in a public area.  That is an intimate act that a mother and her newborn would experience together in the private area.  That is how our society views breast feeding an child. But in all reality it is only looked down upon when a mother breast-feeds her child out in the open. It is not considered a crime but it is not a part of our every day behavior so that is my personal opinion why that act is looked as an act of Deviance.