What is a school?
In his essay ‘What is school,’ Jacques Barzun gives us several of points. He starts his discussion with teaching. Than he talks about learning process, curriculum, testing, administration, teacher training programs and so on. As for me the main purpose of the school is education.
The way the education system is set up now I think it does empower some people to move beyond their social roots. The opportunity for education is, supposedly, available to everyone equally. In this day and age, an individual almost has to attend college to get a decent career. People who choose to work hard towards that advancement, there are opportunities available for them to get an education and advance. The one issue that may reproduce the inequality is the cost of education. There are ways to fund your education, but then you have massive debt to repay after college. People who come from upper class families who pay for their education can enter the work force and begin building their wealth. The options for funding are complicated and most people decide that it is not worth going into that much debt.
I agree more with the fact that education can empower people. Currently there are many changes that are putting these opportunities at risk. Financial aid is continuing to decrease taking away the opportunity for some to finance an education. Interest rates on student loans are higher than they have ever been and continue to increase. Another issue relating to these issues is that college graduates have the highest debt in history upon graduation. Graduates are spending a massive amount of their income for many of the years they are becoming established in their new careers on paying back these student loans. This phenomenon is keeping graduates from reaching higher social status because of the amount of debt...