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Monday, June 11, 2012
The American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood
I read the chapter on equality. I guess I find this so interesting because even today we fight with this issue. In a country that is suppose to be open to every one's dreams and goals then why do we have so many levels in society? It is no surprise that coming from an affluent family is an enormous help in reaching your goals. Many have to work much harder than any one else to achieve the same goal. I guess today as well as colonial times, equality is not fair. Even in colnial times when we were in the birth of a new nation, there were exceptions made to equality. I believe this is still an area where our will always have to work on.
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5 comments:
Was there something in Hakim's book on this, too? I wasn't sure. I'd be interested in seeing what she had to say. It's a shame that this far 'in the future' we are still working on the same issues.
It was pointed out in one of the readings for my grad classes (in adult education) that "equality" and "equity" are not the same thing. "Equality" is everyone gets the same thing; "equity" is everyone gets what they need. To apply it to a school setting, "equality" would be all students getting the same teaching while "equity" would be differentiation.
You can find "equality" in Hakim's index to see where she talks about it. She goes more into depth into vol. 5 in the series which is on 1800-1860, leading up to the Civil War.
Rhonda,
I was responding to Wood. The section was on equality not equity. And the difference is probably the biggest issue considering this country is and has been labeled to cater to equality not equity.
Kathy, I too chose "equality". I agree with you that this is an area that we will always have to work on. I think this term "equality" wears many hats. You are so very right that many have to work so much harder. A perfect example I have of this is my son-in-law. My daughter served in the Peace Corps. Her husband is from a family of poverty from the country in which she served. Recently my son-in-law earned his associates degree and is pursuing his bachelors. To him "equality" certainly means "equality of opportunity". Being poor, he was still able to attend college here in the US,eventhough he had to work full time and take night and Saturday classes. He had and has the opportunity to dream of a better life - the "equality of dreams". I guess in many ways our definition of "equality" is all realtive.
I think equality means no laws are to be made to keep anyone from doing what others are allowed to do. Equality does not or should not mean that the government gets involved in people's lives to the point of making sure everyone has the exact same footing from day 1. It's very obvious from the early documents of our country that the founding fathers wanted the people to run the government and not the other way around.
It's an interesting dilemma, for sure.
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