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Chapter 14
Education, Health, and Medicine
Education vs. Schooling
• Education– The social institution through which society
provides its members important knowledge• Including basic facts, job skills, and cultural norms
and values
• Schooling–Formal instruction under the direction of specially trained teachers
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Schooling and Economic Development
• India– Most poor families depend on children’s
earnings– Many Indians see less reason to educate girls
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Schooling and Economic Development
• Japan– Produces high achievers, and students take
difficult exams– Only half of high school graduates enter
college
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Schooling and Economic Development
• The United States– Equal opportunity and practical learning– The United States was among the first
countries to set a goal of mass education
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Illiteracy in Global Perspective
Functions of Schooling
• Socialization– Primary schooling: Basic language and
mathematical skills– Secondary schooling: Expansion of basic
skills to include cultural values and norms
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Functions of Schooling
• Cultural innovation– Educational systems create as well as
transmit culture
• Social integration– Brings a diverse nation together
• Social placement– The enhancement of meritocracy
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Latent Functions of Schooling
• Schools as child-care providers
• Engages young people at a time in their lives when jobs are not plentiful
• Sets the stage for establishing relationships & networks
• Link between particular schools and career opportunities
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Critical Analysis
• Functionalist approach overlooks that the – School quality is greater for some than others
• US educational system reproduces the class structure in each generation
• System transforms privilege into personal worthiness and social disadvantage – Into personal deficiency
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Schooling and Social Interaction
• Self-fulfilling prophecy
• Blue-eye/Brown-eye experiment with 4th grade students in 1968– Harmful effects of stereotypes
• Critical Analysis
• Beliefs about inferiority and superiority are built into existing systems of inequality.
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Schooling and Social Inequality
• Social control– Schooling reinforces the status quo.– Bowles & Gintis: The 19th-century rise of
public education came when factory owners • Needed obedient, disciplined workers
• Standardized testing– Biased based on race, ethnicity, or class?
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Schooling and Social Inequality
• School tracking– Tracking–Assigning students to different types
of educational programs– Disadvantaged students typically end up in
lower tracks
• School inequality– Public vs. private schools; not all the same
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Critical Analysis
• Social-conflict approach minimizes extent schooling enhances upward social mobility – For talented men & women from all
backgrounds
• Today’s college curricula (including sociology courses) – Challenges social inequity on many fronts
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Teachers’ Salaries across the United States
Access to Higher Education
• Money is largest stumbling block to higher education
• Family income is still best predictor for college attendance
• Those with the most schooling are likely to – Come from relatively well-off families to begin
with
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Educational Achievement for Various Categories of People, Aged 25 Years and Over, 2010
Expanding Higher Education
• Government makes money available to help certain people pay for college
• Community colleges– Low tuition– Special importance for minorities– Attract students from abroad– Faculty focuses on teaching
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Problems in Schools
• Discipline and violence– Many believe schools need to teach discipline
because it isn’t addressed within home setting– Students and teachers are assaulted– Weapons; society’s problems spill to schools
• Student passivity– Many students are bored
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College: The Silent Classroom
• Passivity is also common among college and university students
• Karp and Yoels: Most students think classroom passivity is their fault
• Students find little value in classroom discussion
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Dropping Out
• The dropout rate has declined slightly in recent decades
• Dropping out is least pronounced among non-Hispanic whites
• Researchers: Actual dropout rates are probably 2x government's numbers
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Dropping Out
• Some reasons for dropping out:– Problems with the English language – Pregnancy– Must work to help support their family
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Academic Standards
• Functional illiteracy–A lack of reading and writing skills needed for everyday living
• The US spends more on schooling than almost any other country– Teens still show low science and math skills
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Academic Standards
• US students generally are less motivated & do less homework than Japanese
• Japanese students spend 60 more days in school each year than US students
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School Choice
• Pro: School choice creates a market for schooling so parents and students can – Shop for the best value
• Con: Such programs erode national commitment to public education, – Especially in urban schools
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School Choice
• Magnet schools– Special facilities & programs to promote
educational excellence in a particular area
• Charter schools–Public schools with more freedom to try new policies and programs
• Schooling for profit–School systems operated by private, for-profit companies
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Home Schooling
• Gaining popularity • Involves more school-age children than
– Magnet schools, charter schools, and for-profit schools combined
• Pro: Better results• Con: “Takes some of the most affluent
and articulate parents out of the system”
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Schooling People with Disabilities
• Half of children with disabilities are in special facilities; rest attend public schools
• Mainstreaming– Integrating students with disabilities or special
needs into the overall educational program– Works best for physically impaired students
who can keep up academically
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Adult Education
• Adults return to the classroom to advance a career or train for a new job– But many also point to the simple goal of
personal enrichment
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The Teacher Shortage
• School adopted new recruitment strategies
• Incentives: Higher salaries and signing bonuses
• States could make certification easier
• School districts are actively recruiting in such countries as:– Spain, India, and the Philippines
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Schooling: Looking Ahead
• The last decade has seen many new ideas about schooling
• Significant changes in mass education
• New information technology will reshape schools– Won’t solve all the problems, including
violence and rigid bureaucracy
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Health
• Health is as much a social as a biological issue
• Patterns of well-being and illness are rooted in social organization
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Health and Society
• Cultural patterns define health
• Cultural standards of health change over time
• A society’s technology affects people’s health
• Social inequality affects people’s health
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Health: A Global Survey
• Health in low-income countries– Relatively short life expectancy – Most die before reaching their teens– Poor sanitation is a killer
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Health: A Global Survey
• Health in high-income countries– By the early 20th century, death rates from
infectious diseases had fallen sharply– Now chronic illnesses cause most deaths,
usually in old age
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Who Is Healthy?
• Social epidemiology– Study of how health and disease are
distributed throughout a society’s population
• Factors include:– Age, gender, social class, race
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Age & Gender
• Death is now rare among young people
• Across the life course, women fare better than men
• Males are socialized to be more aggressive and individualistic– Which contributes to their higher rates of
accidents, violence, and suicide
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• Higher income and wealth boosts health:– Better nutrition– Better health care– Safer and less stressful surroundings
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Social Class and Race
• Infant mortality– Twice as high for disadvantaged children as
for children born into privileged families.– Poorest US children are as vulnerable to
disease as those in low-income nations
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Social Class and Race
Cigarette Smoking
• Most preventable health hazard
• By 2007, only 20% of Americans smoke– Smokers: Divorced, separated, unemployed,
in the military, and less schooling
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Cigarette Smoking
• 440,000 people die prematurely each year as a direct result of smoking– Exceeding the combined deaths from
• Alcohol, cocaine, heroin, homicide, suicide, auto accidents, and AIDS
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Eating Disorders
• Most of those suffering from anorexia and bulimia are white, affluent women
• Research: Most college-age women believe that “guys like thin girls”
• Men typically express more satisfaction with their body shape
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Obesity
• Many adults are overweight
• Obesity can limit physical activity and raises the risk of serious diseases
• Odds of being overweight go up among people with lower incomes
• Social causes of obesity– Lack of physical activity; poor diet
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Obesity across the United States, 1996 and 2010
Sexually Transmitted Diseases
• 1960s sexual revolution saw a rise in STD rates, generated sexual counter-revolution
• Because our culture associates sex with sin, some people regard STDs as immoral
• Gonorrhea & syphilis
• Genital herpes
• AIDS
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
HIV/AIDS Infection of Adults in Global Perspective
Ethics & Death
• When does death occur?– An irreversible state involving no response to
stimulation, no movement or breathing, – No reflexes, and no indication of brain activity
• Do people have the right to die?– About 10,000 Americans are in a permanent
“vegetative state”
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Ethics & Death
• What about mercy killing?– Euthanasia–Assisting in the death of a person
suffering from an incurable disease– Active euthanasia–Allowing a physician to
help a sick person die
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The Medical Establishment
• Medicine–Social institution that focuses on fighting disease and improving health
• The rise of scientific medicine– American Medical Association founded in
1847
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The Medical Establishment
– Healers kept tradition but occupy lesser role• Chiropractors, herbalists, midwives
– Conflict between scientific medicine and traditional healing continues today
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Holistic Medicine
• Holistic medicine–An approach to health care that emphasizes prevention of illness – And takes into account a person’s entire
physical and social environment
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Holistic Medicine
• Three foundations of holistic health care:– Treat patients as people– Encourage responsibility, not dependency– Provide personal treatment
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Medicine in Socialist Nations
• China– Government controls most health care
operations– “Barefoot doctors” in rural areas practice
traditional healing arts
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Medicine in Socialist Nations
• Russian Federation– Medical care is in transition, but all citizens
have a right to basic medical care– Setbacks in health care, partly because of a
falling standard of living
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Medicine in Capitalist Societies
• Sweden– Socialized medicine–A medical care system in
which the government owns & operates most • Medical facilities and employs most physicians
• Great Britain– Also has socialized medicine, but citizens
may choose public or private health care.
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Medicine in Capitalist Societies
• Canada– Single-payer model; government is like an
insurance company
• Japan– Doctors operate privately, but government
pays most expenses
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Paying for Care in the US
• Direct fee system–Medical care system; patients pay directly for medical services
• Private insurance: Few programs pay all costs
• Public insurance programs– Medicare for those over 65– Medicaid for impoverished and veterans
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Extent of Socialized Medicine in Selected Countries
Paying for Care in the US
• Health maintenance organizations– An organization that provides comprehensive
medical care to subscribers for a fixed fee
• The 2010 Health Care law– Made significant changes to the way this
country pays for health care
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Nursing Shortage
• Shortage of nurses as fewer people enter the profession
• Heavy patient loads, too much overtime, stressful work environment, lack of respect
• Working nurses say they wouldn’t recommend the field to others
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Theoretical Analysis
• Structural-functional analysis: Parsons’ role theory– Sick role–Patterns of behavior defined as
appropriate for people who are ill– Doctors expect patients to cooperate
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Theoretical Analysis
• Symbolic-interaction analysis: Meaning of health– Ideas of health and stress are socially
constructed– How people define a condition might actually
affect how they feel– Surgery can affect social identity
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Theoretical Analysis
• Social-conflict analysis: Health and inequality– Access to medical care, the effects of the
profit motive, and the politics of medicine
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© 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Future of Health and Medicine
• Today, Americans take good health and long life for granted
• Individuals taking responsibility for their own health
• Double standard of health between rich and poor people
• Problems greater in low-income countries
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