Why compulsory education in the USA arose during the nineteenth century
Education facilitates the imparting of skills, norms, values, and knowledge to ensure that members of society are both good and productive. Therefore, this social institution can be formal or informal, whereby formal education is usually offered through schools and is done under trained teachers and other professionals such as principals. On the other hand, informal education can be provided anywhere; however, it is mainly offered at home. The United States was primarily informal during colonial times, whereby the parents were expected to teach their children how to read and write. Get legit paper writing services now!
Only ten percent of the population of children was educated in a formal setting, and most were from wealthy families. Compulsory education in the USA started in the middle of the 19th Century with the attempt to instill patriotism, and religious beliefs and standardize pronunciations and spelling. Furthermore, it ensured that children from all social classes were allowed to get a formal education, unlike the mere males from the upper class.
Furthermore, it facilitated the instilling of negative stereotypes about Native Americans (Gleason et al., 2018). The discriminative nature of education continues to exist today where educational achievement differs along with social class, ethnicity, gender, and race. The main reason why education arose in the 19th Century was the industrial revolution due to the high demand for math skills, reading, and writing, which were not essential during the agricultural economy.
Social class, gender, and racial and ethnic differences in educational attainment
Compulsory education in the USA has become a massive social institution involving billions of dollars and millions of people in the United States. It involves more than 75 million individuals, about a quarter of the total population, at all levels of formal education, with about 20 million learners in college institutions, 16 million in high school, and forty million pre-k to eighth grade. Formal education is organized in such a manner it is quality relative to international standards. However, how far an individual gets in the American education system on their ethnicity and family income, with family income causing the highest disparity.
Learners who come from high-income families are most likely to attempt college institutions. Furthermore, there is a significant relationship between ethnicity and educational attainment, proven by the low probability of Latinos and African Americans getting college degree. This can be attributed to the fact that schools within his communities tend to be underfunded, and there is disproportional poverty relative to the Americans of Caucasian heritage.
Racial discrimination tends to impair education attainment, something that is evident in school performance. Another factor that causes the disparity in educational attainment across ethnicity is the disparity in parental expectations, limiting how much the students learn. Along with gender, female learners are more likely to graduate high school relative to male graduates.
Comparison between the compulsory education in the USA arose during the nineteenth century with that of Finland
The top universities and colleges in the United States rank rope relative to the rest of the world, attracting top teachers and professors. However, according to educational attainment, the United States ranks low relative to other democracies, measured by the percentage of high school graduates relative to the rest of the population (Jackson & Holzman, 2020). One of the democracies that tend to outdo the United States is Finland, which has the best secondary and elementary education systems.
The education system in Finland was below par in the 1970s based on the low score in Science and Mathematics. Additionally, education in urban schools outranks rural schools, with high-income students outperforming low-income learners. This has changed significantly in modern-day Finland, which can be attributed to the increase in educators’ salaries and the requirement for educators to have a three-year master’s degree.
This indicates that educations are more prestigious in Finland than in the United States. Furthermore, Finland has revamped its education curriculum since the 1970s, emphasizing critical thinking skills and reducing the essence of scores obtained through standardized tests, unlike the United States where schools, learners, and educators are ranked. Furthermore, free medical care is provided to all children and their families to ensure good health.
How compulsory education in the USA is both impacted by and helps perpetuate social inequality
One of the most frustrating aspects of the education system in the United States involves the fact that there is a significant disparity in funding and other conditions, which is the basis of educational equality in the United States. One of the bases of educational inequality is that the elementary schools that introduce learners to formal education tend to be young and mostly inexperienced. This causes disparity in the quality of instructions, which can be attributed to the low spending allocated to every learner. This is evident with wealthy schools in suburban parts spending more than twice the amount spent in the inner cities.
The conditions in poorly maintained schools are devastating in that the facilities such as bathrooms and classes are often substandard. The classes are often larger and overcrowded, ubiquitous in public school in the inner cities of the United States.
Therefore the disparity in the quality of compulsory education in the USA is not a surprise there is a disparity between the educational attainment in the suburban areas and the inner cities. Therefore, the American economy’s vast resources should be invested to ensure that the quality of education improves over time. The educational disparity in the United States is not a surprise as it reflects the social inequality that has perpetuated the American culture over the centuries.
The difference between de jure segregation and de facto segregation
Dejure segregation is a form of segregation facilitated by the local laws, while the voluntary neighborhood and associations cause de facto segregation; therefore, de jure segregation is legalized and often affects every aspect of black and white people’s lives in the South. On the other hand, de facto segregation is unintentional and results from the actions of private entities and the state. Concerning the disparity in the quality of compulsory education in the USA, schools in the South of the United States were affected by de jure segregation, where the community and state dictated the schools that African American learners attend.
On the other hand, de facto segregation was evident in the North, where the Legit paper writing services differs along with residential patterns; however, the poorly funded schools were located in predominantly black areas. The well-funded schools were located in areas that were mainly white and mostly black.
Even though de jure segregation was outlawed in the South, defector segregation continues to date, where the Latino and African Americans attend schools that are poorly facilitated. The population is often predominantly populated by people of color. This is the basis of educational inequality in the United States, with the predominant factor being the resources allocated in the different areas.
The three sectors of the economy
The economy is a social institution that tends to shape commodities’ production distribution and consumption in society. This institution is well connected with the government, a social institution that facilitates the distribution and exercise of power in society. Both social institutions are different, with the economy consisting of three key sectors.
The primary sector of the economy facilitates the use of raw materials in their natural environment and involves activities such as mining, forestry, fishing, and agriculture. On the other hand, the secondary sector consists of transforming raw materials into finished commodities and engulfs the manufacturing industry. Lastly, the tertiary sector involves providing services such as healthcare, information technology, teaching, and clerical work.
The level of development of an economy depends on the predominant sector of the economy, with less developed countries depending on the primary sector of the economy. As the country develops, the economy moves towards the secondary and tertiary economy with the wealthiest economies on the planet depending on the tertiary economy, which tends to produce vast resources while importing most commodities produced by the primary and secondary economic sectors. Therefore the three-sector economy is very useful in the distribution in categorization of the economy depending on the size and level of sophistication.
The basic premise of capitalism and socialism
There are two major economic systems in modern society, namely socialism, and capitalism, although no society is purely capitalist socialist or capitalist, and the two systems are usually opposites. The United States is a capitalistic country, but the government regulates various industries to ensure a fair distribution of resources (Kolodko, 2018). Capitalism is an economic system based on private ownership of the factors of production, such as land, labor entrepreneurship, technology, and capital.
The economy grows re the private entities pursue profit and eventually maximize shareholder wealth, which involves improving the quality and quantity of commodities while lowering the price, something that heavily depends on the level of competition in the market and technological advancement. Therefore, the government should let the economy operate freely with minimal control and intervention. This facilitates economic growth, which is incentivized by the competition for greater profits.
However, it promotes inequality in society. Socialism, on the other hand, is an economic system whereby the factors of production in society are collectively owned and under the control of the government. Therefore the pursuit of profit is not the motivation in society, which can be attributed to collective ownership. This system tends to give the people in power an unfair advantage, thus not guaranteeing equality in society.
The premise of democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is an economic system that combines elements of socialism and capitalism in countries referred to as social democracies, which include Sweden and Denmark. In such a system, although the factors of production are privately owned, the government controls key industries such as education and healthcare.
Additionally, the government takes the initiative to help the poor through social programs funded by the high tax rates on the wealthy members of society and other private institutions. The Scandinavian countries, synonymously known as Nordic nations, include Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, and Denmark, which are nations whose citizens enjoy political freedom, with political power being distributed between the legislature, judiciary, and the executive.
The citizens elect representatives to the national parliament, thus making them representative democracies rather than direct democracies. The predominant trait of social democracies is that disparity in income, and wealth. Therefore the quality of life is not tolerated, with the government official’s objective being to eradicate absolute poverty.
Through the commitment to universalism and social welfare, the citizens get universal health care and childcare facilitated through subsidization regardless of socioeconomic status. Very high taxes are imposed on the citizens, something that is predominantly regarded to be necessary and thus acceptable.
Recent trends in jobs and wages
The most significant development that accompanied the industrial revolution in the 19th Century is the rapid rise of the labour unions; the whole goal involves improved working conditions and even wages. During the onset of the industrial revolution, the working conditions were poor, and the workers would be required to provide labour for more than ten hours daily, for at least six days a week. The companies would frustrate the labour union efforts by sharing intelligence on the workers suspected to be part of a labour union, thus ensuring that they would not get employment opportunities.
This was to prevent the common strikes, something that the government opposed through the courts of law. Labour unions have lost their prominence in modern-day society. The labour unions were also blamed for the great depression, while the workers pointed to the companies for the economic plight.
Unemployment is a widespread phenomenon in economies worldwide that occurs when people get fire or voluntarily give up their jobs. This can be attributed to the cycles of economic prosperity but affects different people according to their ethnicity. Underemployment occurs individuals are marginally attached to job opportunities such as getting part-time jobs.
The problems associated with increasing economic inequality
Economic inequality is the disparity between the rich and poor, with scarcity in this case referring to relative poverty. Economic disparity is very high in the United States, which contradicts the perceived “American dream”. One of the most devastating traits of economic disparity involves the fact that it continues to exacerbate, where the rich continue to accumulate wealth. In contrast, the poor continue being deprived of economic resources (Diffenbaugh & Burke, 2019). Therefore the middle class continues to reduce in size, affecting the aggregate purchasing power in the economy.
As economic inequality increases, economic mobility reduces as fewer people get the chance to climb the economic ladder. The reduction in purchasing power on average in the economy is because the wealthy does not spend their wealth, something that causes the economy to slow down. Furthermore, it reduces social cohesion, thus increasing polarization thus worsening mental and physical health consequences such as increased crime and the lowering life expectancy.
