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“Land of Opportunity” About Social Class

Updated September 5, 2022
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“Land of Opportunity” About Social Class essay

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The main which is about social classes, the main of which is underscored by the four poems that guide into author James W. Loewen’s explain of how social class is almost certainly the one most important changeable in society.’ It is jurisdiction the state under which people are born, where they stay, the education they presented with, what kind of profession they have, and how long they will be living. Still the past textbooks infrequently refer to social class. When people do, that’s circumstances of the faraway past, for example in the Colonial History. Other than that, Books just tell students the USA has always been a middle-class country. This creation isn’t misfortune, Book publishers tell their Writer to guide away from anything having to do with society, specific the lowest classes. That’s because many gatekeepers, or people who influence the purchase of textbooks such specific as Book buying committees and parents, don’t think examination of social classification is appropriate at college. Loewen says this is certain true in traditional and Republican parts of the country.

Loewen points out that the matter of American heroism that runs throughout the history textbooks doesn’t loan itself to discussions of social class either. Books present the United States as a relating to society that only advance forward. Poverty and social inequity don’t fit within the brave narrative. Loewen argues that when books and teachers keep away from these topics, they are stopping students from understanding the basic construction of American community and how it affects their own lives. Similar to his care about the history of race connections in the United States, Loewen thinks discussion about social class need to be happening inside the classroom. Even if books don’t protect it, teacher can. Most all don’t because they worry about humiliating students, particularly those whose household would be considered under or working class. They think it’s better to give student’s expectation about what could happen if they work solid enough.

That’s why teachers and books tout rags-to-wealth story like those of Joseph Pulitzer and Andrew Carnegie, both of whom scratch their way out of destitution to become amazing rich and strong. Success stories like Pulitzer’s and Carnegie’s are infrequent. As Loewen points out, round about 80 percent of all United States presidents come from higher or upper-middle class backgrounds. Only three—Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama—come from employed class or lower-class backgrounds. Hard jobs alone are not a sign of future success. Professor and textbooks are doing students an unkindness by pretending otherwise.

Loewen does speak about social class in his (college) classroom. In his experience, discussion about class make students in the under classes feel better about their circumstances. As they understand the class system in the U.S, they begin to see that they are not in complete jurisdiction of their fate. Unlike Hellen Keller whose citation at the beginning of the chapter propose an unquestionable sadness upon learning that ‘the power to rise in the world is not within the extend of everyone,’ lower-class students feel grateful. Knowing it is the responsibility of the system, not themselves, ease some of the compulsion and self-loathing felt by people who are struggling to get by regardless of their best attempt. Unfortunately, as designate by the epigraph from former Ghana president Kwame Nkrumah, countries’ histories are ‘too easily written as the history of its presiding classes.’ That is what makes lower-class students feel like lack of success.

Works cited

  1. Loewen, James W. “The Land of Opportunity.” From inquiry to Academic Writing: A Text and Reader, 4th
  2. ed., edited by Stuart Greene and April Lidinsky, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2018, pp. 248.253.
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“Land of Opportunity” About Social Class. (2022, Sep 05). Retrieved from https://sunnypapers.com/land-of-opportunity-about-social-class/