Knowledge is freedom
Education is a pillar of democracy. public school represents a place of equality where the social inequalities and economic ones are suspended, offering everyone equal opportunities to train, learn and improve. It is therefore essential to respect the possibility of social mobility, training of aware citizens and preparazione of capable workers. Knowledge, in fact, is freedom: it frees us from the limitations of immediate perception, allows us to access higher positions, and allows us to learn better from our own experience. Unfortunately, the educational institution reflects the contradictions inherent in the society it is created by. Thus, the inequalities found in the social structure extend to the classroom. Unfortunately, our socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, both directly and indirectly, influence our educational attainment, our educational path, and consequently, our position in the world of work.
Multiple aspects
Numerous studies have addressed this topic. From a sociological perspective, several surveys have shown that it is easier for those from different backgrounds to enter university, graduate, and hold higher positions. higher layers. Unlike what happens to children of parents in more disadvantaged conditions, who often stop studying earlier and, for this reason, also reach lower positions. Obviously, the factors that play a decisive role economic possibilities. However, not only the economic conditions are relevant but also the family cultural resourcesIt seems that students whose parents have higher education qualifications are more likely to continue their studies and further their education, perhaps motivated by their studies or aware of the importance of a good education. As the French sociologist states: Pierre Bourdieu ne Reproduction. Elements for a Theory of the School System, "schools and universities are permeated by the culture of the upper classesThe language and communication styles adopted by teachers, the content of the teaching programs, and the attitudes encouraged in students would be those characteristic of higher classes.
A question of class
Students from high social backgrounds would therefore be favoured in the school competition, because they possess cultural resources recognized and valued by the school environment, also finding democratic and meritocratic legitimacy for their dominance. Conversely, their less well-off classmates are alienated from certain values and resources. Raymond Boudon Instead he stated that “an individual's survival in the school system depends on a rational decision-making process, the parameters of which are functions of social position or class position“. The actors implement an evaluation process taking into account the expected benefits from education, necessary costs to support its duration and possible risks for which "Social position gives a different meaning to the benefit, risk and cost corresponding to the acquisition of a given level of education“The most disadvantaged, therefore, do not see school as a social lift, or if it does, it is too great a risk to take with no guarantee of success.
The importance of human capital
Today, the transition from a mainly agricultural production system to a tertiary industrial economy involves more complex production and organisational processes, which require ever greater and new skills, specifications e relational. They can be acquired mainly through formalized education. The mass schooling represents the functional response to the needs of the economic sphere and of the society of the third millennium. Therefore, the collective interest requires that there be no waste of human capital and that individuals of lower social origin are guaranteed to reach high levels of the educational system and have equal opportunities to occupy the top of the professional ladder. If we have broken down in this sense the gender distinctions, with the demands of '68, (and women now even present themselves as more educated than men) and liberalized access to universities, we can and must also reduce these other economic inequalities.
New models
Because they are the symptom of an immobile society, no longer capable of offering or promising anything to its citizens. Evidence of this is the thousands of young people who go abroad in search of new opportunities, both in employment and education. But investment is needed if we want schools to function. As Franco Ferrarotti says , " without investment, education for all means having education for no one ." There are school systems, like the Scandinavian or Canadian ones, that represent a true model, in which efforts are being made to reduce social inequalities and increase equality of opportunity for all. These models can serve as guides for a society that aspires to be advanced and democratic.
Valerio Adolini
