Abstract: In a mature society, is it really difficult to culture an outstanding son from a poor family? What class situation will our children face in the future? If there really is so-called class solidification, how can we educate our children now? How much time do we have left?
Key words: class solidification;
1 Introduction
Robert D. Putnam, a professor at Harvard University, has used numerous interviews and data to illustrate the state of education in the United States and the widening class gap in American society over the past half century. You may ask: what does the state of education and society in the United States have to do with us? If there is a decades-long lag between the United States and China, Putnam's vision of America could be the future for us and our children.
2 The possibility of classes-crossing for Chinese and American students
After interviewing 107 families and sifting through the statistics of American society in recent decades, Putnam and his team came to a stark conclusion: in America, class mobility has come to a standstill, and the poor are hopeless. How serious is the situation? We can see from one side.
The Putnam team once interviewed a poor firefighter. Unexpectedly, the fireman not only showed up for the appointment by himself, but also almost brought a large family with him. “I want the kids to see what a woman looks like with a real college degree and a real job.” he says sheepishly. Isn't that a little weird? In China, for most families, getting into a university is not particularly difficult as long as the scores are enough, and the gaokao remains an effective way for ordinary people to change their fate. But in America, you can't really go to a good university if you want to.
Tuition fees alone would put the vast majority of the poor out of bounds. A very limited economic level restricts the development of individuals, and even more terrible, the poor are difficult to change their lives through education, because of the invisible burden they bear.
3 Why it is difficult for students from poor and humble families to become outstanding
In the course of his research, Putnam discovered two amazing high schools. They are not far off, the governments’ costs and the faculty equipments are about the same. But study methods are different: There is A class in school A, with 15 students getting A perfect score of 2400 on the SAT. Half of those who scored 2,200 were shamed into applying for a repeat. B school, on the other hand, is a paradise for low-achieving students: fights, bullying, even drugs and pregnancy are common.
Why are two schools with similar qualifications so different?
The reason is simple: although the two schools are not far apart, school A is in A rich area and school B is in A poor area. In the United States, there is a social phenomenon - class segregation. In other words, the rich play with the rich, and the poor play with themselves. We live in the same city, but not on the same block, not at the same school. In his book, Putnam hits the nail on the head:
The reason school A is so different from school B is not how much government support the school receives or how many teachers it has, but how many resources it has outside the school.
Teachers at A school can clearly feel the pressure from rich families. These rich dads pass on the pressure to succeed, pushing teachers to teach them, because college is never an option for them.However, in school B, parents are absent, teachers ignore, school discipline is lax, and children are hard to have a positive impact on each other.
To put it bluntly, different grades of schools result from different levels of parents. Because of this difference, ambitious poor people will try to squeeze into the rich areas for the sake of the next generation. Those left in the poor areas struggle in a chaotic environment. So poor americans have cars and meat on the surface, but they have no hope of climbing the ladder. For these families, the process of class segregation is an inescapable vicious circle.
4 How far are we from class solidification
We're running out of time. After the reform and opening up, China has also entered a period of stable development, our parents are the first generation to enjoy the dividends of the era, we are the second generation, then our children's generation, the upward social channel may be closed. What happens in distant America can happen to our children in minutes.
Chinese society has just appeared stratification of wealth, social stratification has not been formed, education stratification is in bud, so everyone still have a chance by enhancing their cognition to change destiny.