Stratification and Means For Work in Education

A small note for consideration occurred to me when pouring over education-based sociological journals. Research shows that there are roughly 3 levels of distinguishable employment in the education system as a teacher. That may sound strange at first, but there's a rhyme to this sort of thing in sociology.

  We'll start by mentioning that education is a few things(many, but only a few currently worth mentioning for this discussion): it has become a human essential, it is a career, and it is a way to make money. Knowing this, we can already assume 3 standard ascription values to the study of education and becoming a teacher.

• To educate(and this goes many many ways, but here's the main point)
• To have a career(status, and again this splits many ways)
• To make money(fairly linear, but also has variants)

  Starting to grasp the point of my discussion? If not, keep following. Many lead what would be considered a formidable charge in the field of education to do just that-- educate! I would personally agree with this branch of the construct, though I still objectively review it. They study, long and hard nights, to understand how communication and methods of education blend to create this environment for any human of any age, depending on their field. How nice. Moving on, to education perceived as nothing but a career, we have a slightly morphed story. Careers can be just about anything long-term, to be honest, and you don't have to be fanatically interested in your career to have it. Sometimes, people look for careers simply for sustenance. Evidentially, this is a high percentage of people. A significant proportion of students fresh out of high school are considering education careers, and purportedly to make a great effort to educate the future students and their peers. Long-term research is difficult to come by in this category, but what is available shows that an equally significant proportion of those students later report that the 'weeding system' that education courses use in university to get rid of non-teacher material had removed their interest in education; yet still a good number of those students who survived university are not necessarily passionately teaching, but are using their newly established career as just that. While that is admirable, the school systems do not need individuals who are not at least semi-passionately involved in education and it's processes teaching. For university level courses, it proves to be nothing more or less than annoying, and for lower education(e.g. high school) it should be unacceptable.


  Given those points, I move into the final of the three hierarchies of education; money. While the education system (go figure) 'weeds' the greater portion of these morons out of the system before they can even utter a word in a classroom(most are looking for easy money and low stress . . ) there are still a few that inevitably slip in; people who, as terrible influences and not worthy of any sort of status like "teacher" end up with decent pay and contributing a whole heaping helping of bullshit to the community. While not every person who treats education as a simple career with little reprimand is a scumbag, it is notable that there are many. Some teachers are fairly burnt out, or just so droned to the regular routine that they lose any possible passion. Some majored in a science or some field that they can teach in college, and got a community college job that is hardly fulfilling. Those teachers tend to be the ones who don't carefully analyze their social status or role, and really don't grasp the concepts of education, but simply use their education as a career; a way to get by. Who are we to judge?
   Right, well, who precisely are we? We're humans, of course, and our judgment of this situation is based purely on the fact that we are progressive creatures of our own developed sciences. We desire to learn, we're innately curious, and we must see to these biologically beneficial intelligences to quest for greater understanding. Our place in this situation is to dictate who can teach us, why they're teaching, and if they care. Let's all consider this for a while, and see what kind of communication we can establish about these situations in education.

  While my argument isn't a true argument, I fear that the virus inherent in this kind of culture's education system is also inherent in every other culture, and will spread. It is evidenced in most systems, and so a revolutionary aid is sought to fix this educational dilemma. What can we do to improve our search for knowledge and understanding?


 I'll leave you kindly with these thoughts, and perhaps the positive nature of the resilient human mind. We have versatility, and while that is our greatest enemy, we have control enough to decide what it can do for us. Remember that! :)