poor quality of education for African Americans
Jobs are not a solution to poverty, as many Americans want to believe. Despite there being low unemployment in the United States, most of the tasks that arise are menial whose wages cannot fully support descent livelihoods among the majority of poor Americans. Most of Americans living in poverty find themselves in this situation due to several factors that are designed by the rich to ensure they do not effectively compete for well-paying jobs. African Americans form the largest population of needy individuals in the U.S. The underpinning cause is the poor quality of education they receive, which limits them from accessing professional jobs.
African Americans, together with other impoverished Americans, are treated as “at-risk” students who only require primary education to enable them to live a meaningful life. This stereotyping is as a result of the belief that poor children cannot perform well in the general curriculum designed for precious American children. Classroom activities in poor student schools have reduced to babysitting centers where teachers no longer engage them in any innovative activities. The inability of the students to perform well in technical subjects has only been theorized to deny them the opportunity to participate in fruitful learning practices that would land them better jobs in the future. African American children develop faster than their peers during their early stages. This reality brings the difficulty of understanding where they retard in their later years.
The administration of poor quality education among the poor in the U.S lies in the belief that they don’t want to work. This presumption is extended throughout their lives, where their poverty is attributed to their laziness and slovenliness. This belief contradicts the fact that much of labor-intensive work is done by the poor. Most of the poor take part in more than one backbreaking jobs which pay far below the minimum wages. Despite working for long hours, their earnings are too minimal to change their quality of life. These unfounded stereotypes promote the notion that the lack of “work ethics” perpetrates poor performance among poor students. This notion contradicts the fact that poor children start to work at tender ages compared to children from affluent backgrounds.
Further, the Americans live by the notion that the poor do not value education, which would help them change their lives. African Americans have strived to the extent of losing lives, pushing for equal rights in education. Unlike the wealthy, poor students perceive learning as the only means to end their poverty. The rich, on the other hand, view schooling as a way of placing themselves in a better place in society. They understand the need for the right schools taught by the right teachers, which will make their children be admitted to the right colleges and take the right courses.
In conclusion, jobs are not a solution to poverty, as a majority of Americans think. The American education system needs to address the quality of education they offer to the poor. Most African Americans study basic courses that pay poor wages. Stereotyping poor students on their abilities and willingness to learn deprive their fundamental rights of getting a quality education, which would land them into better-paying jobs. Although America has a variety of job opportunities, they are mainly menial jobs paying low wages that cannot improve the lives of the disadvantaged population. Therefore, offering employment to the poor will not improve their status quo.