Promoting Equity
I do not believe in the importance of socio-economic equality. Economic equality would harm the incredible ingenuity that drives innovation and thereby hurt everybody. I fully believe in the fundamental importance of socio-economic equity. Everybody deserves an equal opportunity to attain financial success in their lives. Politically and civically, nothing is more important to me. An equitable society would ensure that the best visions from the brightest, most capable people, become reality. One great way to promote equity is to make sure that all students have access to the highest quality teachers from as young of an age as possible. Short of that, the best learning resources must be available to all.
Economic equality would…hurt everybody
In an economically equal society, all people would have equal wealth. Some people would raise this idea as an ideal, but I believe this would be harmful to society. Those who work harder or have better ideas to improve society, improving the lives of countless people, are entitled to greater economic wealth. Jeff Bezos, for example, deserves to have great wealth. He deserves his yacht and mansions. Just look on the highways and streets. How often do you see Amazon trucks? How many people do you know who order from Amazon on a weekly or even daily basis? People order from Amazon because they find benefits in it. Bezos took great risks for himself and his family to start a new business. He then worked very hard, far more than forty hours a week, to grow the business. Jeff Bezos deserves to reap the rewards of his efforts. Of course, this holds true for everybody else who uses their resources, works hard, and succeeds.
People born into poverty should have the same opportunities
While I do not believe in economic equality. I am a strong supporter of economic equity. Though some would call this idealistic, people born into poverty should have the same opportunities to attain financial success as others. Unfortunately, however, not everybody has the same resources to succeed. All people do not start with the same level of resources including connections, knowledge, and skills in order to succeed. The greatest impediment to equity is the inequality of parent’s socio-economic status.. As a society, we must do our very best to eliminate this impediment. People born into poverty should have equitable
A high-quality education certainly has the potential to promote equity, giving learners opportunities to succeed.
Certainly, teachers make an incredible difference in the quality of education that a child receives. According to Rand Corporation research, teachers have two to three times the impact as any other input on the quality of a child's education. There is simply no way to emphasize enough the importance of a high-quality teacher for every student. Sadly, a teacher shortage exists in our country. Of the teachers who work in classrooms, not all of them are great at their craft. Despite the benefits it would entail, there are not enough great teachers to ensure that every child has one in every grade. Society cannot rely on great teachers alone to promote equity.
In addition to great teachers, numerous social programs and policies could support the effort to promote equity. I would like to discuss just one - the importance of the highest quality educational resources, resources that support teaching and learning.
High quality educational resources, resources that support teaching and learning
One analogy to help us consider the importance of high-quality educational resources is the operating room. Would you want your child to have surgery in an operating room that did not have the best machinery? Of course not. The machinery in an operating room supports the surgeon's work, maximizing the likelihood of the best possible outcome. The educational resources in a classroom support the work of both the teacher and the student, maximizing the likelihood of success.
The best learning resources are creatively engaging, enabling students to imagine themselves in a different place and time.
Just as different medical devices in an operating room have different levels of quality, different educational resources do as well. The best learning resources are creatively engaging, enabling students to imagine themselves in a different place and time. For example, history course content should enable students to imagine they were at a historical event, in much the same way that a great novel or movie does. However, unlike with the movie or novel, with educational content students should have the opportunity to produce their own ideas and interpretations.
To promote the learning process, engaging content should move all students to imagine themselves in different environments. This becomes all the more important when students begin life with a deficit in socio-economic capita, or a lack of equity. Not only can students imagine themselves using information for meaningful purposes, they can have the opportunity to imagine themselves making important decisions and influencing their surroundings in the ways that successful people can do. This image of themselves can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Through the creative imagination of themselves in other places students can come to see themselves in other places. Educational resources that challenge students to see themselves in this way promote equity.