Education and Anthropology

Even though I am not always back home, I try to at least keep pace with the big hustle and bustle of my hometown, Los Angeles.  One of the major issues that the city usually confronts with is the massive amount of immigrants that come across the border from Mexico and into the Los Angeles.  Much like my parents, many of these immigrants strive for their children to receive ever famed “American Education”.  However, what is the school system to do when so many of these children, brought up in a Spanish speaking household go into kindergarten and or higher level education without knowing much English?  Well in the article linked about, describes what L.A. Country is doing right now.  Currently, schools are being reorganized by the level of English proficiency a child has currently. 

Here is the link to the full story:

http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-adv-english-learners-20131020,0,1836196.story#tugs_story_display

Political beliefs aside, this and many other issues can be assessed by viewing them anthropologically.  I tried to view this article in the mindset of a structural functionalist.  To start, the first question that arose for me after reading this article was, what was the need for a segregation based on language proficiency? One of the functions of school as a crucial institution is to teach children the improper and proper usages of the English languages.  So just looking at this function alone, it does make sense to divide and organize the classes in this manner.  For the system as a whole, this would also help make the functioning of it easier as well.  This division based on language proficiency would allow investigators and supervisors to examine the progression of these children.  From a structural functionalist point of view, this seems to be a way to somewhat of a way to assess to what extent this new reorganization fulfill that function

The article also centers on the social function of schools as well.  In the article they mention a concern that students learn more efficiently due to the fact they’re around people whom they can learn more better and also native English.  This aspect of the article exemplifies one of Malinowski’s point of a cultural aspect meeting a need.  In this case, not only does school meet a need for growth for not only the children, but also their parents, assuring them (giving them some sort of security) that their children will grow into intellectual adults.  The reason why this policy is debated is because parents feel that it would hinder the fulfillment of their children’s needs. 

However, this issue also sparks up some Marxian points as well, especially for the readers.  Never once in this article is race ever mentioned in article aside from the example at the beginning. Yet somehow in the comments section of the article, the issue of race becomes the focal point in the comments section.  The reason for that is because although they may not be aware of this fact, but school also has another function that is not as overt as it seems.  The education system in Los Angeles (myself being a product of that system) also serves as an introduction to the world around them.  Children during these critical years in their life are shaped by the school environment as well the people around them.  This change would serve as prelude to how they imagine how the world is divided.  Not only by levels of English, but also by race as well.  Many of the immigrant children may begin to see their place not only in school, but also in general society at a young age.  Due to the fact that most of the children in the lower English proficiency class are immigrant or children of immigrants, they may learn that all of society functions like this as well.  Though possibly unaware of it, this is what the parents are fighting to change.  Karl Marx would see this as the bourgeois inhibiting future proletariats so that they’ll know their place and learn their function in the capitalist society (praxis).  The proletariat struggle to somehow make its way to the same level as the proletariat.