Today many scholars, educators, and politicians discuss the challenges which the educational system of the United States can experience while developing according to the principles of our modern society. The most controversial questions are associated with the problems of financing, educational equity, governing, and determining the strategies for the further development of education as one of the social fundaments in the country.
Thus, the proper examination of this issue requires paying much attention to such aspects as the difference between equity and adequacy in financing schools, the value of a liberal arts education, and the peculiarities of the multicultural approach from the point of the effectiveness for an educator and a learner.
Who should be responsible for financing schools? It is one of the most problematic questions which are connected with the educational system of the United States. The Tenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution declares that states are responsible for governing and financing their schools.
Nevertheless, the standards and principles are equal for all the educational establishments in the country. The funds of education are based on the taxes provided by the population of the state. However, the economic situation is different in all the states, and it is impossible to guarantee the equal educational performance for well-funded and less-funded schools.
That is why the principles of equity were developed as the method to increase the effectiveness of education. Nevertheless, they depend on “a redistribution of resources from high-wealth to low-wealth districts” which cannot be considered as a successful approach to realize the principles of the equality in education in the country (Lefkowits, 2004, p. 3).
Equity should be changed for adequacy as the best way to determine necessary financing for the educational sector in each state. Thus, “adequacy lawsuits focus on how much money is needed to provide all students in a state with a constitutionally guaranteed education” and moreover, “adequacy suits seek a higher level of funding for all students and thus avoid pitting districts against one another” (Lefkowits, 2004, p. 3). That is why adequacy focuses on those aspects that are significant for solving the problem of financing effectively.
Those people who discuss the problems of financing schools and their governing, determine the principles of education, and regulate the norms of our social life today have received the liberal arts education. That is why it is necessary to concentrate on its significance, value, and the role in the society.
The liberal arts education includes the knowledge on such important fields of our life as culture, society, economics, philosophy, ethics and many others which involve the questions of our everyday life (Apple, 2001). This knowledge helps to consider oneself as the part of the global population community and act according to the norms and rules of this community.
The liberal arts education is necessary for students to be aware of the changes of the world and understand their causes and effects. That is why it is important to focus on the liberal arts in secondary and post-secondary education. It should be the major part of the curriculum which is dedicated to studying the liberal arts because to develop our society, it is necessary to pay much attention to educating people in it in relation to the perspectives of the social progress.
When an educator teaches the liberal arts and develops the principles provided as the base for social studies it is necessary to concentrate on such modern approaches to learning as the multicultural approach which depends on the necessity to work with a diverse group of students in the American schools.
Multicultural education is developed according to several purposes. The main one of them is to promote the effective education for all the groups of students with paying attention to their ethnic identity. Thus, the major task of a good educator is to find the balance between implementing the principles of multicultural approach and individual approach without much focusing on the ethnic or national peculiarities of students and without ignoring the fact of the students’ diversity.
There are several forms of the multicultural approach which differ in the level of their implementing in the studying process. To follow the principles of multicultural approach and not make considerable changes in the curriculum, it is possible to use the additive form of integration of the approach in the studying process.
However, according to the peculiarities of the topic discussed, it is also possible to combine it with the elements of the social action form when it is connected with the discussion of the controversial issues and decision-making processes (Cumming-McCann, 2003).
The most typical challenges which an educator can experience while providing the multicultural approach are associated with social and national stereotypes and prejudices, and the level of the academic performance of students. To overcome these problems, it is necessary to provide the principles of multicultural approach as the part of the teaching strategy, but not a chain of single actions.
Moreover, an educator will be successful in implementing all these principles when he accentuates the advantages of the learner-centered education which can help students to develop their abilities according to the reality of our modern life and the peculiarities of the social progress.
It is important to focus on such issues as equity and adequacy as the approaches to financing schools, the peculiarities of governing, and the significance of the liberal arts education in secondary and post-secondary schools because all these aspects involve the figures of teachers and learners in the studying process, and the solution of these issues can contribute to the increase of the effectiveness of the educational system in the United States.
References
Apple, M. (2001). Markets, standards, teaching, and teacher education. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(3), 182-195.
Cumming-McCann, A. (2003). Multicultural education connecting theory and practice. Focus on Basics 6(B), 9-12. Web.
Lefkowits, L. (2004). School finance: From equity to adequacy. Web.