The conflict theory in this case discusses the lack of resources that are down to nearly nothing and about how the lower classes are having to constantly compete for them. It shows you how the poor are controlled by the rich. The film “Waiting for Superman” takes a closer look into the public school systems around the United States from the poorest of the poor all the way over to the suburbs. The parents of these students are obviously sending their children to school with the high hopes that they are going to excel academically, but the reality of it is that most of the children that are either born into or somehow end up in a position of poverty end up either dropping out rather than graduating. The upper class will place their children into …show more content…
While the lower class students in public school are failing and dropping out, the upper class students are too busy bettering their future. Our country states that “every child has a dream”, and that “no child will be left behind”. How true is that claim exactly? Yes, it is true that every child has a dream, but how many children are being left behind because they are stuck in poverty? There was one scene in the movie where the charter schools had to draw numbers just to give a child a chance at a better education. That is highly disturbing that a child has to suffer through something as humiliating as that. Our public system does not encourage academic growth, it hampers it. Over the years a lot of money has been put into trying to fix our public school systems, but there has not been any improvement. Our public school system is dysfunctional and …show more content…
In other words, is it meeting the needs of the people? No. How can our students from the United States fall so far behind in common core subjects compared to other countries, yet we rank pretty high in confidence? Why? It is because the educational experience is no longer about the child. It doesn’t exactly serve our society anymore, nor is it about giving our children the skills that they need to better themselves in an educational perspective to further on to bigger and better things. It has now become just a place of employment for teachers and administrators. Instead of meeting the needs of the children, it is meeting the needs of the adults. It was something else to watch the group of people most likely that have children of their own turn down a proposal to allow teachers to earn almost double the salaries that they have now by giving up time in office and allowing for performance reviews to be held. The film showed us the lives of those living in poverty attempting to desperately get their children into the best schools out there. The availability for the students are scarce and the price of these schools are high so they are having to simply hope they get chosen for the slot in the school. Sure as we get older we go through this again trying to get accepted in college, but how do we as a nation get to choose who gets to walk down a path of good and who does not? People are waiting for
This film is one that has faults, but is also very credible and a major wake-up call for those currently in power to make a change and help improve the schools of America, securing a better future for all.
“It was if there was a social moat that divided these two New Yorks.” This quote from the movie The Central Park Five, explains the divide between the poor part of New York, such as Harlem, and the upper class areas. This divide was caused by an economic crisis that changed the social dynamics of the city. This change allowed for consequences such as the injustice of the Central Park Five and the causes of this injustice can be explained by three different theoretical perspectives: the Structural Functionalist Perspective, the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective, and the Conflict Perspective.
The conflict perspective/theory involves how “the elite class…. use social control mechanisms …. to perpetuate their own advantageous positions in society.” (p.109). Further they can gain an “unequal access to economical goods …. resulting [in gaining capital versus someone poorer who would
Furthermore it creates a rhetoric that states it is the responsibility of the middle class to change the circumstances of those in need. This makes those in the middle class have a pressure they did not choose, and also those in poverty an expectation that they might not otherwise have had. Other than when Beegle states, “If the teacher had been exposed to Poverty 101, she would have the skills needed to find out what motivators made sense to me (342),” she makes no other suggestions on just how exactly the middle class would end the cycles of
The conflict approach is one that puts an emphasis on inequality and competition between social groups that leads to problems. Throughout the course of the Poor Kids documentary the conflict approach can be implemented to help explain why childhood poverty is caused. Conflict theorist can point to Brittany’s family as an example of how competition between social classes can cause poverty. Brittany’s father was working for a company that decided to scale down in order to better sustain itself during tough economic times. As a result, Brittany’s father lost his job with the company since he did not hold a high position within the company. Brittany’s family when her father had his job was not considered a high class family as far as income and luxury goes. The video did not specifically state what class family they were, but it can be inferred that they were probably a low middle class or low class family. So, because her father was not holding a high position and was not considered of high social importance, he was let go as if he was almost expendable. If he was of high social class and held a higher or more important position within the company than he probably would not have been let go. This refers back to competition between social classes (Turner). The old cliché, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer can be thought relevant in this situation. Also, the conflict approach can be applied to the part of the video in which Brittany’s dad was unsuccessful in finding a job. Her dad went online and submitted an array of applications to a multitude of different companies in hopes to get hired. Unfortunately, he didn’t hear anything back from any of the companies and was not offered a job. His lack of success in finding a job can be explained in various ways. The conflict approach would point to his social status as a key reason in why he was unsuccessful. It can said that because Brittany’s father was not of a high social class or group he wasn’t given as
Conflict Theory is a theoretical orientation emphasizing the opposition among individuals, groups, or social structures. In the movie, the conflict theory was the black community verses the white community. For example, in the movie, Vernon Johns decided to enter a restaurant that was labeled whites only. As a black man by law he was not allowed to enter. At his own risk, he went inside anyways. As he entered, the white people inside suddenly stopped what they were doing. They all stared him down with an unwelcoming look. They shouted racial slurs at him as he sat down at the counter. There was a conflict between the two communities all because of the color of their skin
First, with all the money that is being put into public education, it needs to be distributed evenly. If public schools had similar resources and capabilities, students wouldn’t need to travel far to get a good education and this would solve many problems. An example of this from the film is when a Mother is speaking about her child’s experience at an open discussion. She talks about how her student loves music and music is taught at a one public school and not the other. Money is being distributed unequally and kids are being taken of opportunities that they could have a passion for. Another aspect that I agree with is that for things to change for the better in the future, everyone needs to get involved. Kids in these unfortunate situations can only do so much to speak up for themselves but it will only get them so far. Most of the students aren’t even able to vote yet so it is important the country as a whole is aware of these problems and learn about how to help. Students from everywhere need to feel that they are valued so they have the chance to
Are children really being sent to school to get a rigorous education? This is a tough question. Children in America are being sent through a public education system that reeks of political and corporate manipulation. This design attempts to force every child into the same mold, which does not let the individual child express themselves, be recognized for their personal strengths, or get support for that with which they struggle. There are many things that continue to contribute to the degradation of education in America, and some of these are private investments in charter schools, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and an overemphasis on standardized testing.
As we can clearly see, socio-economic status and class conflict both affect each character in the story in a different way, but ultimately lead to the same place. Class conflict is a major theme from the beginning of the story. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1). A quote from Nick’s father on the first page of the novel immediately sets the theme of class conflict. Even though this is a piece of advice about humility, it still highlights the economic and power gap between the American upper and lower classes.
The lack of education can lead to poverty and poverty can lead to a lack of education, this is a cycle that is hard to get out of. Author Wes mother was able to go to college and get her degree. She wasn 't the first to go or the first two finished. She was able to overcome the situation poverty and found a way to go to college. This desire for college was something she gave to author Wes. She knew the public school was a bad place to be for her son so she did what she had to have the money to send Wes to Riverdale Country School. Author Wes got the schooling that had more of a focus on attending college as an end goal by attending Riverdale Country School. Since he went to Riverdale Country School he got the desire to get a degree that he probably would have never got in the public school in his neighborhood. The other Wes mother 's life was different and she didn 't put that need to get a degree into her
In the article “The failure of American Schools,” Joel Klein points out that the education system is clearly broken: but the concern to correct the issue is clearly not there. Why would politicians want to correct it when it benefits them financially and politically? He describes how the teachers unions give tremendous support to the politicians; through rallies, going door to door and by also being one of the largest financial contributors to political parties involved with the issue. The unions are clear on what they want and the politicians tend to generally oblige. Politicians have put different programs into place to wedge the gap between low income and high income schools and ethnicities, and each time they have failed miserably. When trying to fix a subpar educational system, trying to focus on one area will not yield the success that the United States needs to become a top tier educational entity
How they don 't provide enough help for students to grow. I was just as shocked as Lazhar when I found out that they were in the same classroom as where their teacher committed suicide. But it Works like that because there is not enough rooms and resources that they are forced to brush it up and continue like it didn 't happen. Looking at a micro perspective you can see how the rules of the macro perspective effect the individuals. In the big education system rules set in place may seem to be for the better, however, in individual cases you can see the effect and drawbacks it has on particular students like Simon. If they wanted to they could have suspended him and thrown him off to another
Conflict theories are perspectives that focus on the inequality of classes and the power struggle for scarce resources. This macro-analysis theory focuses on constant conflict and change in society unlike functionalists. It is comprised of multiple theories involving gender, race, and economic inequalities. These theories support the idea of a ruling elite enforces social order on the weak and poor. The constant conflict and competition between classes cause society to keep changing.
Conflict theory is a theory derived from the works of Karl Marx. It enhances the role of cruelty and power in producing social order. It is the control theory that believes inequality exists because those in control of an unequal share of society’s resources actively defend their advantages. This is social control. Determining that one social class or group is more privileged then another. Control theory generally consists of four points, conflict built into society, one group becomes dominant, agreement is false, and conflict in society is desirable. Control theory suggests that each class is unequal. Lower social classes are considered to have less skill. The theory has the belief that people with high skill level will receive a higher return and people with lower skill level will get less.
The conflict theory explains the social division amongst our society, and amongst our society we have the higher class and lower class. Relatively, social division originated for both groups to create automatic conflict of interest. Because of the conflict theory wouldn’t the simplest thing to do is rise workers- consciousness and awareness of different of oppression. According to the conflict theory those with more resources exercise negative power by the use of power struggle results. Ultimately power struggles can be involved with class, race, and gender. Ideally, the other perspectives deal with the positive aspects of society, whereas, the conflict theory focus on the negative and ever changing