Savage Inequalities and Their Impact on the Life Chances of Children Essay

Savage Inequalities and Their Impact on the Life Chances of Children - Essay Example It is generally considered that the process of tracking (education by separation) is a sort of discrimination and is likely to affect the performance and educational attainment of many students. While tracking is commonly done based on the abilities and performances of students, factors such as race, class, and language also act as determinants in tracking systems in many instances. Tracking based on color or race is quite dangerous as it harms the prospects of students of color to perform like their white counterparts. Many social scientists hold that â€Å"tracking is one of the most obvious mechanisms through which students of color and those from low-income families receive a diluted academic program, making it much more likely that they will fall even further behind they're white, middle-class counterparts† (Kendall, p. 356). Ultimately, tracking, in this sense, results either in dropping out of the school or ending up in â€Å"dead-end† situations where the studen ts become incompetent to pursue higher studies. The severity of the issue needs to be understood in the light that many of such school drop-outs later turn to be criminals or anti-socialists. Labeling and self-fulfilling prophesy are the other two forms of social inequality in education in the United States. The practice of labeling students as low achievers, gifted or talented based on standardized test scores or classroom performance has adverse effects on the educational attainment and subsequent career choices of many students who have been labeled as low achievers or slow learners. Such students are most likely to internalize the label attributed to them and this naturally prevents them from performing naturally.