Education in the Community a Major Issue

Education in the Community

A major issue currently effecting culture, population, and demographics is that of wealth inequality. As the global economic downturn continues throughout the world, wealth disparity is increasing rapidly. This affects culture, population, and overall demographics in a litany of ways. First, due primarily to lower wages, families are postponing child birth. The uncertainty surrounding the future creates an atmosphere of fear. Families are now waiting until the economic climate becomes more certain before they have their children. Furthermore, the median income for middle class families has plummeted within the last 3 years. The median income for the average American household was roughly $51,000 in 2008. Now the median income is roughly $48,000. This creates problems as families are less apt to spend money are discretionary activities that form the basis of their culture. Holiday spending, for example has yet to reach its 2007 heights. Families are now more frugal and as a result, certain activities that define a particular culture are being eliminated or postponed. All of this is creating a wealth disparity throughout the world that has never been seen since the great depression. Record levels of debt and unemployment combined with lower wages only contributes to this phenomenon. It is my contention that education is the fundamental cause of this culture and population issue. Proper education can help alleviate and avoid many of the pitfalls that society has subsequently suffered with. Through proper education, the issue of wealth disparity can be solved. Particularly in emerging markets, a growing middle class can help abate the influences of this cultural and demographic problem. I believe the education system within many developed nations is fundamentally flawed, which contributes to our growing problem of wealth inequality. Riots in the Middle East, Occupy Wall Street in America, China's economic slowdown, and Japan's 20-year stagnant growth, have affected both the population and the subsequent culture of those nations. Through proper education, many of these issues can be alleviated.

To begin, the problem of educational inequality has been a conundrum plaguing American society for decades. How is it that our international counterparts in Asia are educating their children in grades K-12 better than us, yet we have the best Universities in the world? Extensive tests reveal that in many subjects (particularly math) many Asian students are outperforming their American equivalents. This is in part due to the fact that Asian countries are collectivistic in nature. The community at large has a vested stake in the education of its younger children. As a result, the community helps in both education and corrective action. America is individualistic however. In many instances, we simply look out for our own constituents irrespective of how that action might affect others. This concept can be applied to American education as we often only care about our own children without regard to how other children will affect the world we like in. Many individuals are simply content with putting individuals in jail as oppose to helping educate them as a community for example.

Experts agree that education is a determining factor to the overall wealth of an individual in any society. As the income disparity between the wealthy and middle class becomes more profound, more education will be subsequently needed (Breaden, 2004). The problem of educational inequality has been a difficult aspect for society in general to overcome. Alarming statistics provide an illuminating perspective in regards to African-American and Latino children. For one, they are lacking behind their Asian and White counterparts in most metrics of academic success (Greene, 2002). This ultimately affects their underlying culture. Many children, especially those within the African-American and Latino do not have access to the same quality educational facilities and teacher as do their white counterparts. Extensive tests reveal that in many subjects many Asian students both abroad and domestically are outperforming their American counterparts ("Department of Education" 2009). This is in part due to the fact that Asian countries are collectivistic in nature. The community at large has a vested stake in the education of its younger children which has a profound impact on their overall achievement levels. This is a direct result of their culture. As a result, the community helps in both education and corrective action in regards to education. This helps to establish a high quality standard for those individuals that are lagging behind their peers. This expectation of success coupled with community involvement in regards to education creates an environment in which children can flourish. Many would not dispute that America is a country based on individualistic values. In many instances, we simply avoid the thought of community involvement and instead elect to provide for our own well-being. There is no dispute as to the merits of providing for ones own well-being. It is my contention however, that some thought must be placed on community endeavors in order for society at large to benefit. This theory can be applied to any country with an education centered on individual merit. As mentioned above these communities often care only for their own children without regard to how the ineptitude of other children will affect the communities in which they interact with one a daily basis. In particular African-American and Latin Americans bare the brunt of our broken education system. In regards to any performance metric, African-Americans and Latinos are near the bottom (George, 2004). For example, not only do these two races have the highest high school drop out rates, they also have the highest prevalence of incarceration rates (Delpit, 2001, p.203-211). This ultimately affects the culture of these two demographics in negative ways. In America's individualistic society, many individuals are simply content with putting individuals in jail as oppose to helping educate them as a community for example. Changes will need to take place in order to keep America more competitive in regards to its students and educational facilities.

To elaborate on this point I will venture back to early Chinese history and in particular, that of farming. In china, the main cultivated crop was that of rice. In fact, rice provided much of the economic prosperity within China and its neighboring countries for many years ( Rice Culture, 2011). Rice farming unlike its western counterpart of corn and wheat is very tedious and time consuming. In addition rice, requires much more attention to detail for the crop to manifest itself in a manner that benefits society. The difference between the amount of water and soil used could be the difference between a great harvest and no harvest at all. If there is no harvest, then many Chinese would simply not eat. In contrast, American farmers didn't necessary need to pay too much attention to every minuscule detail to the extent the Chinese had to (History of American Agriculture, 2011). They simply planted crops. If farmers wanted to be more efficient, they simply bought more equipment to do the necessary job. I'm by no means downplaying the work of early farming pioneers in building the foundation of this nation. I instead applaud their efforts. However, when juxtaposed again the requirements to maintain rice crops, clearly, the Chinese had to conduct more tedious work. Rice fields are etched into mountain sides or painstaking constructed in river plains. Rice agriculture was a family affair. As a result, family coordination within China was deeply needed for success. Cooperation and coordination was needed on all levels for a grand harvest and economic prosperity. Slave labor would not work in China primarily because; you must have a vested stake in the harvest. If not, mistakes will be made that will subsequently ruin and destroy the entire crop. If the crop is destroyed by slave mistakes, the slaves are in no position to lose anything as they were already slaves to begin with. Now in America, slaves were used simply to provide manually labor due primarily because there was no need for coordinated effort on the party of the slave owner with the slave. The slave's duty was simply to provide a service. Once that service was rendered the slave would be either replaced or killed. There was no worry, as a slave could easily be replaced.

Now looking back on both descriptions of early farming, a quite alarming and realistic picture arises as to our cultural differences in both western and eastern countries. Eastern countries such as China, Japan, Singapore, etc., all have a collectivistic nature. They work together to achieve educational, company and corporate objectives. They are generally concerned with others well-being and will go the extreme lengths to provide that help. It is exactly the same as it was many years earlier with ancient Chinese farmers. In that period, as it is today, a team of individuals will work together as a unit as oppose to individuals. It was used in farming and it is still used today. As a result more individuals have a vested interest in the group's overall goals, thus heightening retention rates

Now in America, emphasis is place on individual achieve, which is often at the expense of society. This too is exactly the same as it was back in the farming period. We use individuals until they provide no further economic benefit. We see this in almost every industry. We see this with veteran basketball players who have spent their entire career with a particular team and are subsequently traded because their stats are declining. We see it with Wall Street executives who took advantage of individual's ignorance and provided subprime loans to individuals who they know would not pay in the future. With these subprime loans, they package them up, and subsequently sold faulty mortgages to the entire world. Now three years after this collapse human capital retention and unemployment are at there highest rates since the great depression. Why, because in America our society is based on individual gain, individual recognition, and individual accolades. Where as in China and other eastern countries, just like the farmers before them, the emphasis is place on community culture and community responsibility. As a result, or education system needs to be much like the Chinese in regards to community effort and work. We simply cannot have one class of people prosper at the expense of another class in regards to education

Further, I believe that the parts of the Asian educations system would have a profound effect on our current educational system. For one, the Asian system is much more transparent. There is an expectation of success within the system, unlike here in America. This is primarily due to the fact that there is an easy pattern that young students can decipher with Chinese numerical characters. For example, take 20 seconds to remember the following number sequence, BY LOOKING AT IT ONCE ONLY: 5, 9, 7, 1, 2, 9, 4, 3. If you are an American English speaker, the likelihood of getting all seven numbers correct is about 50%. However, Asian students get this sequence correct nearly all the time. Why? Not because Asian or American students are any smarter, but because as humans we typically can store digits within a two-second window. As such, Chinese characters allow them to store these characters within a two-second span, unlike American language. For example, 4 is pronounced "si" and 7 is pronounced "qi," which is much easier to remember.

Now, I am not proposing a complete overhaul of the societal numerical system to match that of China. That would be as counterproductive as it would be impractical. However, what I do emphasize is a more practical and prudent approach to learning in regards to reading and writing throughout all cultures. First, as I alluded to earlier, the task of learning should be a community effort. The community should expect ALL children to preform well in reading, writing, and arithmetic at a very young age. A simple expectation of success from the community can go a long way in the development of a young child. For example, take "gifted children" early in their academic career. It is my contention that these children are not "gifted" at all but are instead simply given an expectation of success by the community. At a young age, children are identified as being gifted by a gambit of assessments administered by a particular school. Once they are identified as gifted they then are given special treatment through the use of smaller classrooms, better teachers, more intimate time, and an expectation of success. Meanwhile, those who are not identified are now considered mediocre or ordinary and do not garner the success or admiration of the community. These initial benefits of the gifted class, then compound on themselves much like the concept of compound interest in finance. An initially small advantage then becomes a profound advantage as these "gifted" students reap access to more and more special treatment, while there counterparts do not. Eventually, the gifted children do indeed become successful due in part because of the combination of a better environment and the expectation of success. In essence, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. As such these benefits create an educational gap becomes so profound that we inherit the problem we currently have now. My question is why have a gifted class at all? Can we really as adults identify the talents of a six-year-old that early in life? Could it be that he or she just developed faster? What's to say the child that may develop a little slower should not have access to gifted classes? Even more alarming, the simple act of not putting a child in a gifted class could potentially be more detrimental to society than putting a child within the gifted class. The children not within those classes begin to feel as though they are "not smart enough" or that they don't have the talent when indeed they do. These children begin to do just enough to pass as many in their community expect them to do just that- be mediocre. In essence, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy in the opposite direction! As such, these children do indeed grow up to be mediocre or in some case, criminals.

In addition to having a community expectation of exceptional success for all students, we also need to decrease the quality gap among institutions. In makes no sense for one school to be exceptional in regards to its teaching prowess, while the school 5 miles away is a laggard. I believe institutions such as Teach for America is doing an absolutely wonderful job a bridging this gap, but more should be done in the compensation department. Many of our great math teachers are simply not teaching because more lucrative jobs abound, particularly on Wall Street. The salary discrepancy is so high, that many potential teachers simply elect to go for more lucrative positions elsewhere as oppose to teaching. By raising the salary to a more competitive level, we encourage more teachers of quality to teach in more schools. Again, this will be a community effort as the community will need to pay higher taxes in order to afford such an ambitious salary overhaul. These taxes could come in the form of an increase sales tax, income tax, or the issuance of tax deferred municipal bonds. Either way, the cost will be incurred and born by the community in some respects. The benefits of better teachers, especially within the community will have profound impact on the entire nation.