¶ … Schools and Education Relate to Broader Social Structures
This paper provides a critical evaluation of three texts, Education and Social Change by John Rury, Tearing Down the Gates by Peter Sacks and Learning the Hard Way by Edward W. Morris to identify the authors' purpose for writing these texts, the major arguments presented by the authors, the degree to which the views are supported or refuted by the arguments, and the degree to which the text supports their own objectives to understand how schools and education relate to broader social structures, including economic forces, social capital, and changes in the American family and workplace over the past several decades. Finally, a summary of the research concerning these social structures and their respective influence on education and the nation's schools together with important findings concerning these issues are presented in the conclusion.
Review and Discussion
In the United States, the existing arrangement of elite private secondary and postsecondary education has been cited as being responsible for some of these inequities and critics argue that current institutional arrangements ensure that the children of elite parents receive the lion's share of educational opportunities (Sacks, 2007). These disparities in educational access are all the more significant because they exist in a nation where education is widely recognized as the path to economic and personal success. In this regard, in his text, Education and Social Change, Rury (2002) argues for a reevaluation of the priorities in American education and a careful scrutiny of the social structures that sustain existing disparities. Rury reports that national surveys in the U.S. confirm that most Americans consider a free and universal public education as a fundamental right, and that education should serve as a path towards better citizenship (Durkheim, 2012). According to Rury (2000), "Most American continue to believe in the principle of free and universal public education, both as an instrument of assimilation and away of promoting national unity, and as a means of economic advancement, personal and collective" (p. 219). Nevertheless, Rury also emphasizes that there are a number of barriers to securing a high quality education in the United States that involve race, gender and social class. In this regard, Rury emphasizes that, "Race, gender, and social class still produce invidious distinctions within the schools, and across the larger society that sustains them" (2009, p. 219).
Notwithstanding the increasing part being played by the federal government in the delivery and content of educational services in the United States, education continues to be largely localized (Rury). Across the country, there remains a wide disparity between the manner in which educational services are provided as well as in the quality of what curricular offerings are available, even between two places that may be in close geographic proximity (Rury). Besides serving as a means of developing better citizens, the public schools have also been routinely tasked with providing the business community with the types of education that is needed in an increasingly competitive and globalized marketplace. In this regard, Rury emphasizes that, "Education has been linked in various ways to economic activity since the very first schools, but in the past several decades the influence of the labor market has been especially striking" (p. 220). Clearly, America society and a number of economic factors have had a major impact on the public schools, so it is important to take these discrete factors into account when considering their collective impact. In this regard, Rury notes that, "To understand American schools today, one must consider the collective impact of all these elements and decide which of them are most significant at this particular time" (p. 220).
Therefore, an understanding concerning how schools and education relate to broader social structures involves a critical analysis of the prevailing zeitgeist. As Rury points out, "The interrelationship of education and social change is quite complex. Clearly, the schools and educational practices observed throughout history have been shaped by larger social forces, just as have other social institutions and practices" (p. 220). Although there have been other social forces at work in shaping the public schools over the years, most of these forces were economic in nature. In the past, the public schools were the vehicle by which the business community could secure the educated and trained workers it needed during times of technological innovation, and these same forces continue to operate today (Rury). In this regard, Rury advises that, "Many of the major processes of social transformation...
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