Social Class and Education

Ever since the late 18th Century, the term Social Class emerged in the attempt to distinguish the inequality that racked society thus segmenting publics. This was in areas such as authority, wealth, power, education, religion, working and living conditions, culture among others. By early 19th Century, social labeling was common place. The upper class was an evolution of the hereditary aristocracy into a new generation of professionals who enjoyed certain privileges.This group controlled the system, basically, the political process and actively suppressed the middle, working and the under class.

Eventually, this led to the emergence of hostility between the upper class and the rest of the groups (Cody, 2002). The situation has not changes much since then, if recent observations are anything to go by, the situation is even worse and the US reeks of growing inequality. Several factors influence the social class in which we belong to, with the most influencing factor being out background.While nobody can predetermine the social class with in which he is born into, one can work his way into a social class of his choice (Gilbert, 1997).

It is a well known fact that a good education corresponds to a good life because ideally, education is the most crucial demographic and determinant of social class. A person who is educated is better placed to determine his income potential, spending habits and general outlook to life.Education is instrumental in determining our social mobility, that is, the way we move in a social class. Decreased educational achievement s and attainment results in immobility unfortunately, the quality and emphasis placed on education is directly related to our background. People from higher social classes have access to better schools which have good teachers and facilities. These students are therefore statistically advantaged to finish their schooling than their lower social class counterparts.The parents of the upper class student are also aware of the occupational importance of education are therefore supportive and positive as they are more often than not highly educated themselves.

This is a sharp contrast to the middle class who see education as a financial investment while low class parent rather that their children seek employment (Morton, 2005). This illustrates that social class indeed directly influences education.As expected, the upper class students tend to seek further education and specialize, accounting to about 88% of this group, in contrast to the 15% from their low class counterparts (Morton, 2005). This fact can easily be pegged to the higher education costs and the reduced grant funding is not helping the situation. There is no doubt that there is a common link between social class, education and employment. Low cadre jobs are often a reserve for the uneducated or the dropouts; in 2004, a high school dropout’s annual earnings amounted to $18,826 while a high school graduate earned $27, 280.The college educated individuals often land more than 20% of high paying jobs because of their training and had an average of $51, 194, with those with advanced degrees bagging $72, 842.

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12 (Morton, 2005). This is also due to the fact that educated people tend to poses appealing non cognitive traits such as punctuality, responsibility, communication skills among other desirable traits. Education goes a long way into determining many aspects of our lives; it is not just a demographic factor (Morton, 2005).

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