Punishment vs. Rehabilitation: A Proposal for Revising Sentencing Practices, responce

          Our current day prison system's purpose is to keep society safe. Yes, it may be successful at isolating gang members so that they aren't causing harm to the rest of society, but the problem is not being solved. The lack of rehabilitation is causing the American people to pay taxes on a failing system and the increasing criminal rate. In the article Punishment vs. Rehabilitation: A Proposal for Revising Sentencing Practices the authors describe how and why our current system is failing. Our current system is trying to punish and inflict fear into the gang members, expecting change in behavior. Change can only occur with a change of lifestyle, help, and compassion. Gang members want to belong to something and for them their gangs are their identification/family. Their actions are not necessarily their intentions, but their means of survival. Once they are marked with a criminal record and a bad reputation, killing their opportunity to provide economically for themselves. The sensible response is to make yourself part of a buisness/gang and to sell to a demanding market (drug deal). Our prison system is causing our criminals to put themselves deeper into their gangs. They have nothing when they finish their term, so of course they will return to their only means of belonging. However, rehabilitation is the solution to this problem. Rehabilitation would help the gang member find something positive to do in society, while still providing economically. This change of lifestyle will decrease the crime rate in society and the recidivism rates, but we first need to realize that our current system is flawed and that rehabilitation and hard punishment do not coexist. 

Compassion the key to avoid a tragedy

Compassion gives people happiness and purpose in life. Living selflessly is what causes humans to make connections and experience love. It is so hard to find compassionate people in this era. Most of us are so caught up trying to become successful and materialistically abundant, but by the end of the day the people of our generation find that we are completely alone and unsatisfied with life. Arthur Miller's book, The Death of a Salesman, is the perfect example of selfishness leading to unhappiness. Willy Loman was obsessed with obtaining the "American Dream", as he attempted so desperately to grasp this success with the business world, Willy found himself so unsatisfied that he committed suicide. At the end of the Tragedy Miller illustrated the funeral scene where only his immediate family attended to celebrate Willy's life. Lack of compassion will lead you on a road to a disillusioned life . It is essential that all humans demonstrate compassion. Famous human rights activist Nelson Mandela states, "Our human compassion binds us to one another, not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learned how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future."Just like Willy Loman, many of us are blindly going through life without compassion and our companions are not there joining us through our life's journey because they want to, but because they pity us. We idolize people like Oprah Winfrey, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., and even the police man who gave his shoes to a homeless man in times square last year, all these people demonstrated compassion and chivalry never goes unnoticed or unappreciated, it is always returned whether that is through internal happiness, a "thank you", or a new friend "who will do onto you" as you did to others.

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand447262.html#DTdQ5PcJIHfAcCf6.99

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand447262.html#DTdQ5PcJIHfAcCf6.99

Our human compassion binds us the one to the other - not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/n/nelsonmand447262.html#DTdQ5PcJIHfAcCf6.99

The other side to corporate partnerships

Although corporate sponsorships do have significant disadvantages in the education system, if utilized correctly and ethically, corporate sponsorships can provide schools with much needed funding. We find many public schools are suffering from budget cuts and these corporate partnerships are just the solution for this economic problem. Corporate sponsorships provide schools with much needed cash that taxes do not supply. The Albert Shanker Institute’s article, Does Money Matter, states, “On average, aggregate measures of per-pupil spending are positively associated with improved or higher student outcomes”. These sponsorships can ultimately solve the achievement gap between rich and poor by providing poor districts with equipment and funding for the improvement of the school architecture, gymnasiums, and labs. It can make a poor school in a rural area look like the ones we see in the suburbs. Instead of schools conforming to the needs of corporations, it is essential that corporations provide schools with advertisements of products that promote the goal of the education system. The welfare of the student should be the main concern; this means that there should be no observing of commercials, no advertisements inside the classroom, and all sponsors should protect the mental and physical state of the student.

High schools sports are being threatened by budget cuts. Corporate sponsorship is the perfect solution to keep the essential extra curricular activity. Many baseball and football teams have corporation brand names planted on their scoreboards all to help pay for the many expenses which come along with having these sports. New Balance Shelling Out $500K for High School Stadium Naming Rights by Mark J Miller “New Balance recent submitted a bid for $500,000 (payable over 10 years) to secure the naming rights of Gloucester, MA high school’s Newell Stadium. Newell Stadium, built in 1936 has not seen any activity in years”. For Gloucester Massachusets this deal is the making of a new home for young talent to be discovered. This can also flourish a new confidence in students who once thought they were not good enough for a brand new gymnasium. 

Along with funding the extra curricular activities, corporate partnership can also help schools afford equipment that will help students learning ability.  High school students in poor schools lack funding to have science labs.  In 1992 Leon county schools partnered up with Ajax Building Corporation and received a new science lab complete with equipment. This partnership was essential to help the students of Leon county learn science efficiently. The corporate partnership of schools can help increase the ability for students to learn by providing them with funds that wouldn’t otherwise be provide for them with only government taxes.

If a public education system’s pedagogy is heavily influenced by big business, what types of citizens are produced?

Students looking for a good quality education are paying the price of their greedy or poor public school districts. As public school funding are becoming scarcer, more and more schools are getting partnerships with corporations.  Our classrooms, which used to be a safe haven, are now polluted with advertisements, clouding the minds of innocent naïve students with consumerist’s thoughts. Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor’s article Brainwashing Consumers and Children: The Dangerous Spread of Commercialized Culture,“ By 2000, 94 percent of high schools allowed the sale of soda, and 72 percent allowed sale of chocolate candy. Energy, candy, personal care products, even automobile manufacturers have entered the classroom with "sponsored educational materials" that is, ads in the guise of free "curricula"”. Fast food corporations infected public schools and the rise of child obesity infected society. Corporate America is already guiding our judgments outside of schools; we should not have it distracting our students with its negative consumerist ideologies. Corporations and the education should not be partners because they have contradictory ideals. The education system is used to eliminate ignorance where as corporations are fed by ignorance.

Corporations are taking advantage of the current economic problems facing our public school system to gain more consumers and our greedy government is to blame. As our fiscal crisis worsens our government is brainwashing children to fix the recession. America has earned a title for being home of the biggest corporations worldwide. This may be beneficial for our economy, but it is creating a new generation of materialists, consumers, diabetics, and obese people. “Children are inundated with advertising for high calorie junk food and fast food, and, predictably, 15 percent of U.S. children aged 6 to 19 are now overweight” (Ruskin and Schor). The mental and physical health of our students is at risk. our education system really needs to start making reforms to their partnerships or they have to cancel their partnerships completely.

Corporate sponsorships can ultimately undermine critical thinking skills. When students in Arroyo High School see Burger King, Subway, and Snapple on their campus they do not think of the damage it can do to their mental and physical state. Their only thought is “that burger and cookie that Samantha is eating looks really good. I’ll go buy one too”. Alex Molnar, lead author of the report and a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder states, "The goal of it is to become more integrated into the pattern of everyday school life, so it's hard to tell where the advertising begins and ends. … These businesses are there for the kids? No, they're not. They're there for themselves; they're there to make money”. It is evident that their main goal is to provide society with naïve consumerists. Corporations entering school can care less about what damaging advertisements they put up on campuses. They simply want to make money and create a new generation with this same ideology.

Protecting the wealthy by providing a lesser education to the poor. Do you believe this is a problem or a necessity? We need people to fill entry-level jobs. What’s wrong with making sure a certain demographic fills them?

          President Obama stated in his State of the Union speech that a “world-class education” is the best anti-poverty programs. The deprivation of equal education given to children of the lower class is an abuse of power. Minorities are victims of a selfish government and they are being stripped away of their basic right to an education. Katerina Tomasevski, former United Nations Special Reporter on the right to education, points out: "There is a large number of human rights problems, which cannot be solved unless the right to education is addressed as the key to unlock other human rights. Education operates as multiplier, enhancing the enjoyment of all individual rights, freedoms where the right to education is effectively guaranteed, while depriving people of the enjoyment of many rights and freedoms where the right to education is denied or violated." It was considered unconstitutional when our government denied equal education to African Americans (Brown vs. The Board of Education 1954), so what makes the unequal education of minorities any different? We may need entry-level workers in our society but forcing that future upon a certain group of people is discrimination and against our basic right to an equal education.

            In our society it is essential to have both white collared workers and entry-level workers, but forcing a certain demographic towards a specific work field is not needed nor is it just. Our generation today is more concerned with getting a job they love rather than a job that pays well. Societies expectations to prepare students for well-paid jobs and to maintain the social norm (whether that be social inequalities, ideologies, or customs) is causing our education system to force our students to loose sight of their passion. The Narrator of The Passion Project states, “And how gladly we succumb to the hatchet of conformity splitting passion from heart “(Ontiverous, 4). This push in society is not only negatively affecting minorities it is also affecting those who are wealthy. “Tempe, Ariz, based “purpose” firm Ignite reports that more than 95% of workers in the U.S. are in the wrong roles. In another study by the company, 1,916 randomly selected employees between the ages of 23 and 28 were asked if they were interested in changing jobs, and 1,571 said yes. A recent Gallup study concluded that 71% of American workers are not engaged at their jobs. And Deloitte’s Shift Index survey indicates that 80% of workers don’t like their jobs.” These numbers are including the doctors and lawyers of society who are forced by their parents to continue on their legacy and high status in society. Society shouldn’t be forcing the entry-level jobs to the minorities by depriving them of an equal education because everyone should have an equal opportunity to find their true passion. Perhaps someone working for corporate America will realize that his or her passion is photography and they will leave their high paycheck for a guaranteed happiness of doing what they love.

            As our population increases so do the unemployment rates and the necessity of a high level of education. With the current high levels of unemployment those with college degrees are taking the entry-level jobs. The fact is that most white collared jobs are already taken and college graduates need an income to pay for their day-to-day expenses. If you have a high level of education you are ultimately reserving your spot for an entry-level. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, “Earning and unemployment rates by education attainment”, in 2012 12.4 percent of people with less than a high school diploma are unemployed where as 2.1 percent of people with a professional degree where unemployed”. With these statistics it is apparent that minorities are being stripped away from the job market because of their lack of education.

Protecting the wealthy by providing a lesser education to the poor. What makes this observation true?

In order for one to answer why the wealthy are providing the poor with a lesser education to preserve their status, they must first understand the have and the have-nots theory. Famous sociologist and philosopher Karl Marx states that there are two groups in a capitalistic society, the haves (bourgeoisie) and the have-nots the (proletariat). Marx may be a controversial philosopher in the eyes of the Americans because of his pro communist views, but there is truth in his views on capitalism.  Marx saw capitalism as a government system that defies the nature of society. Capitalists have the intentions of creating a government that preserves individual rights, but with this preservation of individual rights comes the true selfish nature of those already in power. “The more capitalism creates wealth, the more it sows the seeds of its own destruction (creating monopolies and high rates of unemployment). Ultimately, the proletariat will realize that it has the collective power to overthrow the few remaining capitalists and, with them, the whole system.” The capitalistic government is not the problem; in fact a true capitalistic government can be the salvation of our society and its education. The selfish nature of the bourgeoisie is the problem. These radical views are being implemented in our education system, worsening the quality of the education given to the proletariats in order to maintain their high status. Our society is blinded by several things that our government does not fail to make known, like the low prices of our free market and rights given to us by the amendments, but we hardly ever question the extent of our freedom to be equally educated. The moment we grasp on to reality and fight for change is the moment when the American Dream will become a reality, the gap in social classes will close, and our education system will achieve its goal to  prepare students to become part of civilization, teach critical thinking, and create innovators who will advance society.

It is heard over and over again that a child’s success is determined by the success of their parents. This is caused by our failing public education system nation wide. Through out the United States, rural and urban areas struggle to obtain a thriving education system that is equal to the education given in the suburban areas. It is evident that in this past presidential election the American people had concerns for this major gap in social classes and they are questioning to have the rich pay more taxes to help equalize this major gap, but the state and national education system is making it impossible for change to occur. The fact of the matter is that social class determines the rate of achievement. A study conducted by professor Reardon from Stanford University shows that “the gap in test scores between the higher income and low-income children has grown by about 40 percent and is now nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap”. The low-class school districts are lacking money to help their students academically because they only obtain money through government taxes, while the high-class school districts are drowning in money (through donations of parents, fundraisers, and government taxes). The education system is no longer an equalizer of social classes, it is now being used by the wealthy people to maintain the current economic status. The wealthy people, who have their children in private schools or public schools in a rich district, are the lawmakers in our education system. They know that in order to have equal academic opportunities between social classes that money distribution should be equal in all areas. They can care less about mending our education system in the United States, because they have the upper hand in society.  Our education system is the key to stabilizing the current gap between rich and poor

The United States, home of the American dream, where people of all ethnicities can find hope and success, but is this really true when immigrants are forced into a bad education system that is feeding the economic wealth of the rich and the economic downfall of the poor? When immigrants first come into America they are victims of poverty. They obtain entry-level jobs in urban and rural areas because they need money to provide for their family and they can’t afford to live in the suburbs. They enroll their children into the public school system and hope that their children will get an education that will help them achieve a profession that gains a paycheck that will afford the cost of living and luxuries. The American Dream is supposed to be obtained through our free public school education, but the achievement gap between rich and poor is increasing leaving minorities in a never-ending cycle of dropouts who will only obtain entry-level jobs. The Population Reference Bureau analysis of the March 1998 Current Population survey shows that 97,162 whites have a white collar (managerial and professional job), where as 14,028 African Americans, 4,942 Asians, 892 American Indians, and 12,983 Hispanics have white collar jobs. Although the numbers of minorities obtaining these high-end jobs are slim, they do excel at obtaining hard labor and blue collared jobs, which do not require a college degree. Since 1998 the economic gap between rich and poor has increased and these demographics have also continued to validate these demographics. These demographics are proof of the rich maintaining their wealthy status and making the American Dream a fallacy.

People of color, minority, and corporate America directly effected by the inadequate education in urban areas

             Society often blames the gap of achievement on the capabilities of a certain race. In the 1950s and 1960s the education system had a major concern on the achievement gap between whites and people of color, but In 1954 the supreme court declared that the racial segregation was unconstitutional and demanded the integration of schools (Brown vs. Board of Education). Studies done in 2008 and 2009 show that “the gap between affluent and low-income students has grown by forty percent since the 1960s and is now double the testing gap between black and whites” (Tavernise), so the problem is no longer an inequality of race but it is a problem of economical status or residence. This has caused society to make an unreasonable and unjust expectation that colored students will not succeed academically. This social expectation diminishes the hope and efforts of these colored people who in fact have the same intellectual capabilities as the white students living in the suburbs. They do not lack intelligence they lack resources and funding.

 Society has neglected to see this truth and placed the blame exclusively on the traditional ideology of the incapacity of people of color. This has caused a major effect in the improvement of schools in rural and urban areas where the majority of the population consist of colored people. So why is it that the San Ramon Valley district can afford to by ipad for their classrooms where as Oakland High struggles purchasing enough textbooks for their classes? According to Whitney Write’s essay The Disparities between Urban and Suburban American Education Systems: A Comparative Analysis Using Social Closure Theory, “Under-funding of urban schools is affected by funding formula including low weights for compensatory education, bilingual or English as a second language programs, and attendance-based foundation programs.” In order to get an equal education in America the funding for urban districts need to be raised to meet equal materials, resources, adequate teachers, and the improvement and building of educational facilities.

This increasing achievement gap between the poor and rich is maintaining the economic wellness of the dominant class. After the Supreme Court ruled to integrate schools in 1954, school districts began to notice the massive migration of white families in the suburbs, leaving the minorities in the urban areas. Although minorities reside in these urban areas the lack of prior education, the remaining discrimination, and the lack of well paid jobs left the minorities with low-income jobs with little to no benefits, while the people now residing in the suburbs maintained all the corporate, professional, well-paid, and insured jobs. Urban areas are home of corporate America and often symbolizes wealth and success, but for minorities these corporation symbolize a dead end, loss of hope, the struggle to survive under their economic status, and the myth of the American Dream.