Social Environment and Its Effect On One’s LifeSocial environment is influenced by one’s power and wealth. This, inturn, determines success or failure in peoples’ lives. If one were born with asilver spoon in his mouth, he would easily be able to attend a fancy school nomatter how intelligent he is or have any luxury he wants just because of powerand wealth. On the flip side, if one were born to a poor family in a badneighborhood infested with violence and drugs, he would have a much smallerchance of succeeding in life, more especially, going to an upper-class school.
It is hard for many poor to go to college because of such high tuitioncosts. Scholarships are available; but, even though one shows financial need,one still has to have a high grade point average and test scores. Even if onehas a good mind, trying to study in a gang-ridden neighborhood with constantgunfire isn’t easy. With both parents working two jobs, there isn’t any parentalguidance.
Whereas, the affluent, even if busy or working, have the means toinsure that their children are supervised and well taken care of. The rich alsohave the luxury of affording special tutors to help their children while otherchildren are on their own. For example, there are three students, one from a clean, upper-classcommunity, another from a small, middle-class suburb and the other from agraffiti-ridden slum. All three of these students have exceptional GPA’s andscored very well on standardized testing. The student from the upper-classcommunity will have the best chance of succeeding.
Tuition will never be aproblem and chances are that those parents have some pull because of who theyare. The middle-class student won’t have a great problem but there is still thefact of paying tuition, which would limit the options quite a bit. One may besmart enough to get grants but the family makes too much money. Also, if hesought admission into a prestigious school and it came down to the student orsomeone richer, the middle-class student would probably lose out. Some of themany reasons for this are that the affluent family will most likely have been analumni to that particular school. If not, they will have better connections andwill have a more impressive letter of recommendation written for the student.
However, the lower-class student would have a much rougher time. Even with goodgrades, he might lack the opportunities that others may have. Tuition isdefinitely a problem and with an overworked guidance counselor, a problem of apoorer school system, scholarship information might be missing. Most importantly,there would be a decided lack of motivation on the part of the school, familyand maybe even the student. I am not saying that social environment is the definitive factor insomeone’s lifetime accomplishments. It is common knowledge that it is difficultto get out of a bad situation such as growing up without any of the advantagesothers have, but many have managed.
There is a way out, it just takes a strongmind and a strong will to do so. If someone is intelligent enough, they can tryto go out and grab the recognition they deserve. Social environment as a determining agent is definitely a human-madeforce. In society, the poor are regarded with contempt or completely ignoredwhile the rich are seen as having the authority over everything. The poor areseen as undeserving, therefore, not receiving much of an education, if any. Inany society, there are always the strong and the weak; and, in this case, theweak are portrayed as the poor by the rest of society.
Some feel that the weakin our society should be eliminated because they are no more than mere pests,irritating the rest of society. In my opinion, there isn’t much to be done to change the way societythinks. As long as the elite control businesses and schools, they will stillhave the authority over what the public thinks and does. The best thing to haveis a positive outlook on all situations and never stop trying. If one nevergives up, one can achieve his goal no matter how unreal it may seem at the time. The most important thing is never to let society get in the way.
One must notfall prey to society’s evils and give up. If there were to be a solution, it would have to be bringing more jobsback into this great country of ours. Too many people are out of work becausethe greedy owners of companies are taking jobs away from American workers andgiving them to foreigners who are paid next to nothing for intense labor. Thereis also a lack of good, well-educated teachers.
Many of the bad neighborhoods,where the above-mentioned lower class live, are uneducated because there is ashortage of teachers to give them guidance. If schools were cleaned up and ridof all the violence, then more teachers would be willing to teach there. All ofthese goals will be difficult to achieve and will take much time and patience tocomplete. In not too many years, the generation of tomorrow will be the generationof the present. If everyone is open minded, then perhaps the ideas of the pastwill change and the poor will be considered human beings.
But until then,society remains the same and will be very difficult to change. In conclusion, Ihave a very optimistic opinion of the future and the way the poor are treated. It will take concerted effort and cooperation on behalf of everyone but I thinkit can be done if everyone puts their minds to it. Sociology Essays
