The view that pupil subcultures are the key to understanding educational under achievement Essays

The view that pupil subcultures are the key to understanding educational under achievement Essays The view that pupil subcultures are the key to understanding educational under achievement Essay The view that pupil subcultures are the key to understanding educational under achievement Essay Essay Topic: Education Race generally refers to the differences in appearance and facial characteristics in particular It promotes the sense of certain characteristics being fixed and unchanging, and serves to justify the differential treatment of various identified races because the supposed differences between them are presented as natural. Race is linked to moral, cultural and intellectual achievements thus ideological justification for stratification, differentiation and oppression. Race tells us very little it terms of sociological understanding. Therefore we tend to use ethnicity as a much more useful benchmark. Ethnicity is another way of categorising groups of people which is primarily concerned with culture. It is a divide between ethnic groups based on cultural differences such as common origin and distinct customs and beliefs. Duncan Mitchell describes ethnicity as a membership of a distinct group of people possessing their own customary ways or culture. Ethnicity is more flexible and sensitive than race-based categories; for example, in black/ white classification, many people of Chinese or Indian origin do not see themselves as black; able to include groups such as Jews and Irish; sub-division of south Asian into Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian reflecting differing countries of origin, religion and culture To answer this question it will be necessary to discuss a variety of different areas. Firstly, discrimination and the ways the school system treat ethnic groups. Secondly, material deprivation will be discussed. It will then be necessary to look at the Swann report, the IQ debate, cultural misunderstanding and beliefs. Some ethnic minority groups, especially East African Asian and Indian, perform better than white British, while others, Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi, perform worse. In recent years, the groups with lower attainments seem to have been closing the gap, though it still remains. All ethnic minority groups are more likely to continue into post-16 education and among Afro-Caribbeans, the attainment of girls is far superior to than of boys. There are numerous explanations to this. Discrimination can be used to explain the under-achievement of ethnic groups in schools. Marxists would support this. They believe that the education system exists to maintain the status quo and provide capitalism with a compliant labour force. Discrimination may come from the teachers through labelling. Because a pupil is black a teacher may think that they are less intelligent or are deliberately opposing them. Indian African Asian minorities may be using educational qualifications to overcome disadvantage caused by racism by making socio-economic progress, while Afro-Caribbean male may react by rejecting all white institutions including education. This leads to some ethnic groups, particularly afro-Caribbean males, getting involved in anti school sub-cultures were they actively oppose the system and will do worse in exams. This is not discrimination. However, one could argue that this was caused by it. Another reason could be cultural misunderstanding. It is a huge disadvantage for anybody who has come from another country and is unable to speak the English language properly. Also our social norms and values are very different from places such as the middle-east. Jenson, a new right theorist, used the bell curve which is a graphic representation of race and intelligence. He showed that blacks are at the bottom of the social class structure and have high amounts of material deprivation because they have a lower intelligence and are less able so they tend to gravitate to the bottom of society. But because some ethnic groups are more successful he said that certain racial groups have more intelligence than others. Jensen found that blacks scored 10 points less on intelligence tests that whites and claimed that they were genetically inferior. But some say that IQ tests are not culturally fair. Others have argued that it is because of environmental factors because blacks in this country are more likely to suffer from poverty and those black children who have been adopted by white parents and live financially secure and do just as well as white children in exams. Also, the beliefs of the different ethnic groups have an effect on how well they respond to the education system. Chinese and other Asians are the highest performing group. This is because it is their culture to value education and Indian, African and Asian families may traditionally have higher expectations of educational attainment, are more likely to speak English as a first language and be more willing to educate girls than other south Asian groups. Also they have a higher social class position and are financially better off because of their long-lasting stay in this country. In addition, many of Indian and African Asian origin come from professional or business backgrounds, where a Bangladeshi background is more likely to be unskilled working class, and Afro- Caribbean skilled working class. The large number of matrifocal, single parent families among Afro-Caribbeans may partly explain lower attainment overall. A further explanation is material factors. How much money one has plays a vital role in educational achievement. If a family is considerably poor they will not be able to afford effects that richer families have which gives them a major disadvantage after all it is the rich that can buy a privileged Education. We know this to be true has research has shown that ethnic groups such as the Chinese do well at school compared with other groups such as afro-Caribbeans. This is because that Chinese and Pakistani families have been in England for a much longer time a have been able to establish themselves further. Ethnic minorities have diverse patterns of housing tenure but quality tends to be low: terraced rather than semi-detached; overcrowded; concentrated in inner-city areas. This is often referred to as the ghetto. Immigrants initially are dependent on the privately-rented sector, because of waiting lists and other qualifications for public housing; they have a weak economic position so there is usually a low chance of owner-occupation. Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi, with time, will get more qualification for public housing. They are more likely than white British in fact. African Asian, Indian and Pakistani more likely to be owner-occupiers than white British this is probably due to rising standard of living and the decline in public housing in the 1980s. There are also problems in terms of work. Afro-Caribbean Bangladeshi/Pakistani ethnic groups more likely to be in manual employment than white British, whereas Indian are less likely (though professional rather than managerial). Non-white workers receive lower wages, do more shift work and are less likely to have supervisory posts and have higher qualifications for posts held. Non-whites are more likely to be unemployed especially young Bangladeshi/Pak. and Afro-Caribbean males. However, Afro-Caribbean women have higher earnings and qualifications than their white equivalents. There are explanations for differences in work. Problems of ethnic adjustment (Liberal) suggests that factors such as language, educational and cultural differences in the first and second generations of immigrants explains much disadvantage, which will be reduced as ethnic minorities become assimilated into the host community. The Swann report was carried out during conservative administration which had strong views on race. The Swann report was to see attainment in individual terms and reject things like social class and social groups. Many of the problems of Swanns report still exist today. Many of these problems could have been addressed if Swanns report had been implemented. In closing, discrimination is undoubtedly a large factor in educational under achievement because of diversity within and between ethnic groups but material deprivation is much bigger. Without the proper resources or appropriate home working conditions children cannot be expected to do as well whatever their race or culture. Class is far more important than ethnicity.

48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids

48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids 48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids 48 Writing Prompts for Middle School Kids By Ali Hale Are you stuck for something to write about? Or are you looking for prompts to use in the classroom? These prompts are aimed at middle school students (roughly age 11 – 14) – but younger or older writers might enjoy trying them as well. I’ve split them into different types of prompts – imaginative prompts, non-fiction/essay prompts, short story prompts and journaling prompts – but feel free to use them in any way you like. For instance, you might choose one of the imaginative prompts and use it as the basis for a story. A few of these prompts are taken from other people’s lists of writing ideas; for each of those, I’ve given you a link to the original source so you can check out the whole list if you want even more prompts. Twelve Imaginative Prompts If you found a treasure chest buried in your garden, what would you most like to discover inside? Invent an imaginary sport. What are the rules? How does the scoring work? Who typically plays it? If you had three wishes, what would you use them for and what might go wrong? Imagine that you woke up tomorrow as a member of the opposite sex. What would be different about your life? Where would you go, if you could go anywhere in the world? Who would you want to go there with? Imagine inventing a new holiday or celebration. What would you call it? When would it be celebrated? (Would it be the same date every year, like Christmas and Valentines Day, or would it move, like Thanksgiving and Easter?) What would people do during that holiday? If you were invisible for a day, where would you go and what would you do? Think of someone you dislike, or someone whose views and values are very different from your own. Now write a diary entry from their perspective, exploring why they see things this way. â€Å"  Imagine a future in which we each have a personalized robot servant. What would yours be like? What would it do? What features would it have?†(from smallworldathome.blogspot.com) â€Å"If you could live inside any video game, which would you choose?   Why?† (from journalbuddies.com) â€Å"If a wizard could tell you anything about your future, what would you most like to know?† (from edutopia.org) If you could meet any character from any book (or TV show or film), who would it be? What would you say to them, and what would they say to you? (based on a prompt from daringtolivefully.com) Twelve Non-Fiction or Essay Prompts What do you see as the biggest problem facing people your age today? Write about the most recent book you read. What was good about it (and what wasnt)? Who would you recommend it to? Who do you admire most in history and why? Whats more important: being healthy or having lots of money? Explain why you think so. How should cyber-bullying be tackled? If you ran your school, how would you change things? Does being fair mean treating everyone exactly the same? (Explain why / why not.) What do you think the world will be like in 50 years time? What will have changed for the better? What will be worse? Do you think humans will ever live on other planets? If yes, how would our society change? If no, how will we deal with problems like over-population and climate change on our own planet? Which scientific discovery or invention has changed the world the most, in your opinion? Explain why. â€Å"Many parents give children a weekly or monthly allowance regardless of their behavior because they believe an allowance teaches children to be financially responsible. Other parents only give children an allowance as a reward for completing chores or when they have behaved properly. Explain what you think parents should do and why.† (from education.depaul.edu)   Should school children wear uniforms? Why – or why not? (based on a prompt from dailyteachingtools.com) Twelve Short Story Prompts A child from the year 2300 travels back to our time. How and why? What do they find surprising (or even horrifying) about our daily lives? Start a story with this line of dialog: I wont do it, and you cant make me! Two friends send secret messages to one another through a hiding place that only they know about. One day, a message in someone elses handwriting appears in the hideout. What does it say? How do the friends react? An argument breaks out at a restaurant, where one person is clearly in the wrong. Do they back down or do they keep arguing? What happens next? A small child loses their favorite toy while on a trip to a park a long way from their home. What is the toy? Do they get it back again – if so, how? Scientists invent a medicine that makes the people who take it immune to colds and the flu but it has a side effect that no-one knows about for twenty years. What is the side effect? What happens as a result? Four young teenagers go wild camping without any adults. Their cell phones cant get a signal. Then one of them gets sick. What do they do? Someone has to face their worst fear in order to prevent something terrible from happening. What are they so afraid of? Why do they have to face it? Two enemies meet in an isolated place, by chance. One of them – who normally comes out best in any conflict – is badly hurt. How does the other person respond? â€Å"What happens when a normal girl  discovers a teleportation device in the park across from her house that only she knows how to use?† (from thejohnfox.com) â€Å"A poor young  boy or girl  comes into an unexpected fortune.  Not all fortunes are good. Sometimes discovering a fortune will destroy your life.  Ã¢â‚¬Å" (from thewritepractice.com) â€Å"Its your characters first day at a new school. He or she wants to get a fresh start, develop a new identity. But in his or her homeroom, your character encounters a kid he or she knows from summer camp† (from creative-writing-now.com) Twelve Journaling Prompts What is the best thing you’ve done this year? Why? Write about a typical (even boring!) weekday. It might seem dull now – but in 20 or 30 years, you might be fascinated to read about the little details of your life. What job or career do you want when you grow up? Why? How does your family celebrate Christmas (or any other holiday of your choice)? Write down the details and your family traditions. What one thing would make your life easier? Is it something you can go about achieving, or do you need to accept you can’t have or do it right now? How could you help someone else this week? Write a list of all your ideas. What would you do if you had a whole weekend free of any other responsibilities (chores, homework, etc)? Write a list – and if you can, choose one or two of these things to do this Write about the people in your family. What are their hopes and ambitions? What are their hobbies and interests? What’s your bedroom like? Big, small, tidy, messy? Describe it in detail. Which season of the year do you like best? Why? â€Å"Write about your favorite childhood toy.† (from dailyteachingtools.com) â€Å"Write about something that you wish you could say to someone else.  Ã‚  What is it, and whom would you like to say it to?  Ã‚  Is there anything stopping you from saying it?† (from journalbuddies.com) I hope these prompts have given you lots of ideas to write about! You might want to pick a regular time each week to tackle a writing prompt (e.g. Sunday afternoons). If you’ve got any prompts of your own to share, why not add them in the comments below? Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! 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