American public education + hard work = American Dream

An equation, in a mathematical context, is generally understood to mean a mathematical statement that asserts the equality of two expressions.

a simple equation like;

x + 2 = 4

is easily understood.

If one knows how to add, then its easy to substitute “2” for x.

Or in other words, to solve the equation with the answer x = 2.

This blog is about a seemingly simple equation;

American public education + hard work = American Dream

What makes it less simple than x + 2 = 4 is defining the terms.

American Public education: lets define that as kindergarten through high school in a free school where the major costs of attendance to parents are incurred through their state,federal, and local taxes.

Hard work: lets define this as the student trying their best, giving 100% effort, in every grade, on every day, in every class, and utilizing all their resources in order to achieve the goals established by the schools they attend.

American Dream: this concept, is perhaps, more difficult to define. In future postings we will explore how people have and continue to define this important American yearning. My doctoral dissertation in 2001 at the University of California, Santa Barbara explored opportunities for learning among students working on an online project called America Dreams which was constructed for the Library of Congress. The students and families studied in my research described the dream in ways similar to their historical antecedents.

Back in 2001, these students and their families considered the following elements as part and parcel of the American Dream;

Freedom

A good job

A home

Safety and Security

Family

and the list continues…..

So why discuss, post, think abut the American Dream on a school District web page? Well, because I think, like many things in America, we often take too many things for granted and we reflect too little on the things that are really important in our lives and in the lives of our community. In my mind, the American Dream is a living and breathing and changing, and varied idea among a diversity of people who live in the USA and clearly, American public schools play a key role in this equation.

In earlier postings I have offered some examples of opinion and research that talked about “social mobility” as a key element of the American dream. That is, the ability of a child to achieve a better economic and social life than their parents were able to achieve. These past postings and their data, from a wide political spectrum, have suggested that America and Americans are not as socially mobile as we think we are, and not as socially mobile as comparatively wealthy nations such as Canada or nations in Europe. These same studies suggest that the key for social mobility for children from low-income families is their educational attainment; more specifically, the completion of a college degree.

Surely, there are many factors that surround the issue of getting into college, paying for it, and the end result once you graduate in today’s challenging economy, but nonetheless, when you do the statistical analysis, the way up to the top from the bottom, on average, is through the public schools.