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Abdulla Al Remeithi
Professor Koning
English 113B
May 8, 2014
Education: Crossing Class Boundaries
Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
Education plays a big role in ones life. Without education, most people would
not be where they are today. Although not many have the opportunity to be well-
educated, their families work hard and risk a lot to provide them with that chance. In the
text, Where We Stand: Class Matters by bell hooks, she talks about the risks her family
had taken so that she could be provided with the education she deserved. Although it is
not the deciding factor, education still helps people improve their economic and social
status.
Social movements occur frequently in our society. Any social movement takes
place by overcoming more or less substantial barriers (Wright 82). All social movements
of the individual or the social group are included in the process of mobility. Social
mobility or class mobility is defined in academic literature as any transition of the
individual from one social position to another (Iversen and Armstrong 16). Class mobility
is an integral part of culture in any modern democratic society. The mobile individuals
start their socialization in one class, and end it in another. Mobility is not without its
challenges, however, the sociologists admit that such individuals face many difficulties in
their movement because they struggle to cope with dissimilar cultures and lifestyles
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(Behrman 94). Within the course of life an average citizen is moving one step of a ladder
higher or lower. Not many manage to climb across several steps. The scholars admit that
the major factors of mobility such as the social status of the family, physical and mental
capabilities, place of residence, advantageous marriage etc. the level of education is one
of the most contributive (Wright 84).
Without a doubt, gifted persons have been, and continue to be, born in all social
classes. If the barriers for social achievements did not exist we could expect higher class
mobility when some individuals are rising fast to a higher status, while others are going
down the ladder. The history of humankind consists of movements of big social groups,
such as when the bourgeoisie comes up to take land aristocracy; semi-skilled labor is put
out from the modern industrial process by white collars (Wright 73). The wars and
revolutions reformed the social structure of the society raising some classes to the peak of
a pyramid and undermining the other ones. But the substantial barriers exist which end
free transitions of the individuals between the classes. The semi-autobiographic novel by
bell hooks presents a vivid illustration of how difficult it is for the lower classes
representatives to break the invisible frontiers and go upstairs to the top layers of the
society.
Children tend to pick up the habits of the family they are originating from. One of
the most significant barriers emerges because the social classes possess subcultures
preparing the children of each class representatives for participation in the class
subculture where they are socialized (Iversen and Armstrong 21). The normal child
originating from an intelligent family would unlikely get into the habits and norms
enabling him to work later as a laborer. Eventually he/she could become not only the
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writer or artist as his/her parents were, but also the worker, but for movement from one
class to another the starting opportunities matter. The author of the semi-autobiographic
novel under review demonstrated it by personal example. She argued that the United
States have transformed into the place where the social class of the person matters the
same or even more than the race (hooks 8), despite all kind of positive actions and other
policies undertaken by the government to fill the gap between the poor and the rich.
It is obvious that the children of higher class families are secured with an
opportunity to get the brilliant education allowing them to attain well-paid profession.
hooks described how her mother originating from the workers family insisted on
importance of gaining appropriate education by her daughters, because she saw that as
the only chance to escape poverty and misery of their low class social environment
(hooks 20). We witness that education becomes the necessary factor of social
stratification, as on the one hand the processes of globalization and transition of
competitive relations from the sphere of financial and industrial resources into the branch
of information technologies demands the certain level of education and culture. On the
other hand, education as the acculturation institution under the conditions of the society
transformation could ensure succession of positive experience and formation of new
corporate values essential for emerging social layers (Behrman 96).
In the industrial society development of advanced technologies gave motivation to
appearance of multitude of new professions requiring very high qualification and training
which at the same time is highly paid. It determines high importance of education as a
social mobility agent. Formal education embracing practical and theoretical training and
adoption of the appropriate conduct of life make the chances of overcoming the social
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class barriers much more feasible. The role of the school, which undertook the functions
and responsibilities having been accomplished by the church and family earlier, can
scarcely be overestimated (Iversen and Armstrong 178). Therefore, the attained
qualitative education as well as the manners and life style worked-out within its course
associated with the material payment and professional status provide the individual with
the grounds to put in a claim for the higher social position and prestige inherent in it.
During her study in Stanford University, hooks learned that people from higher
classes feared her and expressed contempt to her as a representative of the working class
(35), but she managed to go through their aggression and achieved the respected social
status. On her way to success, hooks made all possible and impossible efforts to survive.
She worked at a bookstore, as a cook at a club, in the telephone company etc. (hooks 36).
Her life serves as a good illustration of the notion that starting position matters much, but
eventually persistence, aspiration and determination yield the appropriate results.
The sociological analysis of the educational issues involving class mobility
confirms its acting as an essential generalized value of spiritual culture. Together with
political and juridical culture it forms artistic and moral features of the personality tightly
connected with the life of society (Wright 93). Education is linked to all spheres of social
life which is being realized directly through the individual included in economic,
political, spiritual and other social connections. It is a kind of specialized subsystem of
the society whose target function overlaps with the society objective. While the different
spheres of economy produce material and cultural output, education system produces the
person himself exerting influence upon his/her intellectual, moral, artistic and physical
development. These factors determine that the leading social function of education is
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humanistic. As growing number of the attainable statuses in the society is required by
education its role in inspiring up class mobility becomes more visible (Chetty et al. 8).
All around the world education logically gains a power to be the main channel of social
movements, which are in most cases ascending and leading the individuals to the more
complicated kinds of labor, larger incomes and prestige. Owing to such movements the
class structure acquires higher openness and social life becomes more equal, at the same
time unfavorable differences in development of various social groups alleviate (Behrman
97).
Reproduction of the social classes, groups and layers also exerts an impact upon
heterogeneity and mobility of the society. Hooks emphasized that the only way for the
nation to ensure declared equal opportunities for every citizen is to eliminate stratification
of the society and look back to the vision of community (49). Unfortunately the current
state of affairs in educational sphere leaves much to be desired. The different schools
provide the individuals with unequal education, unequal development of knowledge and
skills which is confirmed by the certificates of graduation and is one of the conditions for
occupying the relevant places in the systems of division of labor. Such state of affairs
leads to increase of disintegrative processes, polarization and social inequality, which
limits the ascending class mobility and eventually results in social closure of the upper
classes (Iversen and Armstrong 185). This process is accompanied with banishment of
the substantial part of population. Under the circumstances of the global financial crisis
and recent unsuccessful reforms in social sphere in the United States, the massive
descending class mobility has been reported by the empirical studies (Chetty et al. 10).
This process resulted in a negative trend where the social groups having earlier the higher
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status changed or lost it as well as their social environment, social ties and value system
associated with it. In its turn this tendency can lead to decreasing prestige of education
itself. So, the efforts are needed to be taken by the state authorities to ease the negative
aftermath of financial crisis and raise the chances of the young generation originating
from various social classes for getting appropriate education and finding the adequate
place in the society.
As it was discussed above, the influence of education upon class mobility is
immense. The social classes are always in movement like the society is constantly in the
course of development. Notwithstanding the fact that movements between the classes do
not happen without difficulties accessibility of the paths for social mobility to the large
extent depends on education. It allows advancement of the individual along the steps of
the social ladder and ensures his/her further success in attaining life goals. Moreover,
homogenization of society through the well-organized socializing of the individuals most
likely brings positive results for everyone and for the whole society.









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Works Cited
Behrman, Jere R. Social Mobility. New Markets, New Opportunities? Economic and
Social Mobility in a Changing World. Eds. Nancy Birdsall, and Carol Graham.
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2000. 93-100.
Chetty, Raj, Nathaniel Hendren, Patrick Kline, Emmanuel Saez, and Nicholas Turner. Is
the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational
Mobility. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 19844,
January 2014. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nber.org/papers/w19844>.
hooks, Bell. Where We Stand: Class Matters. New York: Routledge, 2000.
Iversen, Roberta Rehner, and Annie Laurie Armstrong. Jobs Aren't Enough: Toward a
New Economic Mobility for Low-Income Families. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 2006.
Wright, Erik Olin. Class Counts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.