Unequal Education in America: Urban vs Suburban Education Essay

Unequal Education in America: Urban vs Suburban Education The gap between the nation’s best and worst public schools continues to grow. Our country is based on freedom and equality for all, yet in practice and in the spectrum of education this is rarely the case. We do not even have to step further than our own city and its public school system, which many media outlets have labeled â€Å"dysfunctional† and â€Å"in shambles.† At the same time, Montgomery County, located just northwest of the District in suburban Maryland, stands as one of the top school systems in the country. Within each of these systems, there are schools that excel and there are schools that consistently measure below average. Money alone can not erase this gap. While increased spending may help, the real problem is often rooted in the complex issues of social, cultural, and economic differences. When combined with factors involving the school itself and the institution that supports it, we arrive at what has been widely known as the divide between the suburban and urban schools. Can anything actually be done to reverse this apparent trend of inequality or are the outside factors too powerful to change? The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, â€Å"an education clause, which typically called for a â€Å"thorough and efficient† or â€Å"uniform† system of public schools† (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a â€Å"uniform† system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th... ...omic background when judging students. Money will not solve or make this problem go away, no matter how many social workers are hired. Schools will succeed despite their financial circumstances if they have the basic components of motivated students, parent support, caring teachings, and strong central leadership. While this is the typical model of a suburban school system, Wilson High School proves that it can work anywhere. When ones thinks of urban public schools, overcrowded classes, underpaid teachers, and a lack of resources often come to mind. The fact is these problems can happen anywhere. While the environment at Kennedy could never be compared to the worst DC high school, the assumptions made against these schools are the same. By erasing these notions and confronting the problems one by one, we will be one step closer to reaching equal education for all.

Economic Growth Essay

In any nation, the government policies, institutions, and laws collaborate to create a growth infrastructure which coordinates, enables, and encourages the economic behavior that results in the accumulation of human capital, physical capital, natural resources, and technology. These resources have a role in generating sustained long-run economic growth. Physical capital refers to the tools that are used to leverage the productive ability of an average worker. Physical capital includes transportation equipments, computers, machinery, and factories which facilitate the production of goods and services. They expand the capacity of an economy to produce goods in the future, thereby promoting economic growth. (Jones, 2002) Human capital refers to the numerous abilities that enable an average worker to apply and understand new, productive knowledge. An increase in the stock of human capital is achieved through education and on the job training. This equips workers with the appropriate skills to increase production, and, therefore, increasing economic growth. Natural resources provide the raw materials that are used in the production of goods and services. A nation that is endowed with adequate natural resources and has tools to extract them, can acquire the necessary raw materials for production and improve its economic growth in the long-run. Technological knowledge is used to bring scarce resources together to produce the required services and goods. Technology facilitates the production of better and more output from a given quantity of scarce economic resources, and this is what sustains the economic well-being, and drives economic growth of a nation. (Jones, 2002) The government through its policies and institutions can discourage or contribute to long-run growth. The government can encourage growth by developing power, transport, and other utilities. Growth can also be encouraged by using policies that will result in stable and low inflation. Heavy taxation by the government will discourage economic growth as it will reduce investments in the economy. Reference Jones, I. C. (2002). Introduction to economic growth. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company.

Essay on Descartes Knowledge - 1083 Words

Descartes Knowledge The question of our existence in reality is a question which philosophers have tackled throughout time. This essay will look at the phrase, cogito ergo sum or I think therefore I am, a phrase brought about by Rene Descartes. This phrase is the backbone of Descartes whole philosophy of our existence in reality. As long as we are thinking things, we exist. When we look at this approach to our existence we must first deny that any sensory data that we receive is believable or it is conceivable that it is false. This means that we can’t really know that anything we perceive through our senses is actually an accurate interpretation of reality. After we’ve established that our senses aren’t totally reliable we then have to†¦show more content†¦A thinking thing really has a very vague description and cannot really be applied to us as beings which we perceive. So what is the connection between what we believe to be us and what is us? Descartes would say we have experiences of what we think we are. For example, even though our senses aren’t reliable, when we see things we still have the experience of seeing that thing. Even if in a dream, an apple is still experienced as our definition of an apple. An apple in a dream will still look and smell the same as an apple to us in wakefulness because the experienc e is the same. Because we really don’t definitely know if we are awake or asleep at any time we can only say that the experience of the apple is certain in our minds. So we are thinking things which are constantly having experiences of what we think is reality or the world without. These experiences are what define the outside world, if in fact there is an outside world to us. Descartes says that all of these things aren’t learnt but that we know them a priori or without experience. Descartes gives the example of a ball of wax. When this ball of wax is heated it becomes soft and changes shape. When it is heated more it becomes a liquid and some may even evaporate but we know as it is in us to know that it is the same piece of wax that it was to start with. Even though the description of this wax has changed we still know as an a prioriShow MoreRelatedDescartes: Knowledge is Truth Essay1202 Words   |  5 PagesDescartes: Knowledge is Truth With the emergence of the scientific revolution in the 17th century, views of society and nature were transformed throughout Europe. There were great developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology, and chemistry. The world and its views were changing, and with that change, came a new change in thought, a new change in philosophy. Apart from ancient Greek philosophy, which was centered on finding order in a vast variety of things by searching for a fundamentalRead MoreDescartes And Locke : The Existence Of Knowledge867 Words   |  4 PagesDescartes and Locke; The Existence of Knowledge Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, based his beliefs off of one piece of knowledge that he found to be absolutely certain; â€Å"I now know that even bodies are perceived not by the senses or by imagination but by the intellect alone, not through their being touched or seen but through their being understood; and this helps me to understand that I can perceive my own mind more easily and clearly than I can anything else† (Descartes, 1639Read MoreDescartes s Theory Of Knowledge1778 Words   |  8 PagesDescartes’s theory of knowledge is essentially based in skepticism. He argued that in order to understand the world, first a person has to completely suspend their judgements of the world around them. 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Both philosophers need to define what the human body is composed of in order to determine how we gain knowledge. For Aquinas intellect comes from the soul and the body working in unison. The soul is the substantial form of a living material thing. It is the actuality of a living material substance. Even though the rational soul is what differentiates humans from other living things, it does notRead MoreDescartes s Theory Of Knowledge Essay1435 Words   |  6 PagesDescartes begins his Meditation observing that there have been many occasions in the past when he had thought he was acquiring important knowledge yet subsequently discovering to have been mistaken. Therefore he aims to find a method that will render the research absolutely immune from the very possibility of error. The method of doubt is not only an epistemological method, but successfully fulfills the purpose of Descartes by helping to achieve important metaphysical results. 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A foundationalist is someone who believes that there is an indubitable proposition in which all other knowledge receives justification from. This method of thought is often referred to as The Pyramid, because the