1. Do you think the government should take steps to try and reduce racial and ethnic differences in education, or doyou think it should take a hands-off approach? Explain your answer.
2. Should the government require that children receive a formal education, as it now does, or should it be up to
parents to decide whether their children should receive a formal education? Explain your answer.
3. How does symbolic interactionism understand education? Explain your answer.
4. Review how the functionalist, conflict, and symbolic interactionist perspectives understand and explain
education. Which of these three approaches do you most prefer? Explain your answer. Why, why not?
BACKGROUND. Schools in America are unequal: They differ greatly in the extent of their funding, in the quality of
their physical facilities, and in other respects. Jonathan Kozol calls these differences “savage inequalities.” Single-sex
education at the secondary level has become more popular. Preliminary evidence indicates that this form of
education may be beneficial for several reasons, but more evidence on this issue is needed. Although school violence
has declined since the 1990s, it continues to concern many Americans. Bullying at school is a common problem and
can lead to more serious violence by the children who are bullied. School choice programs are popular but also
controversial. Charter schools on the average do no better than public schools, and sometimes worse.
5. If you were the principal of a school that had numerous incidences of bullying, what action would you take to
decrease and/or eliminate bullying? Explain your answer.
6. If you were the principal of a middle school, would you favor or oppose single-sex classes? Explain your answer.
7. What are some of the major functions of education? Explain your answer.8. What are some of the problems that conflict theory sees in education? Explain your answer.
9. How does symbolic interactionism understand education? Explain your answer.
10. Do you favor or oppose school vouchers? Explain your answer. Why, why, not?
11. Do you believe charter schools are better than public schools? Explain your answer. Why, why not?
12. Do you believe home schooled children are less sociable than public school children? Explain your answer. Why,
why, not?
13. If you were the director of admissions at a university, what steps would you take to increase the number of
applications from low-income students? Explain your answer.
14. Do you think alcohol use is to blame for most campus violence, or are there other important factors at
work? Explain your answer.
15. What is the importance of having good teachers? Explain your answer.
16. List any three strategies that will improve the education of low-income students. Explain your answer.
17. As the superintendent of a school what might you do to improve the learning of the school district’s elementary
school students? Explain your answer.BACKGROUND. Functionalism emphasizes the importance of the economy for any society, and the income and self-
fulfillment that work often provides. Conflict theory highlights the control of the economy by the economic elite, the
alienation of work and various problems in the workplace. Symbolic interactionism focuses on interaction in the
workplace and how workers perceive many aspects of their work and workplace interaction.
2. What are the effects of unemployment? Explain your answer.
BACKGROUND. The move to a postindustrial economy has resulted in a loss of jobs and wages in the United States,
thanks in part to capital flight and outsourcing. Unemployment soared after the Great Recession that began in late
2007. Joblessness has significant consequences for the financial and psychological well-being of the millions of
people who are unemployed. Economic inequality has greatly increased since the 1970s, thanks in large part to
changes in the tax code that favored the wealthy. Corporations often engage in white-collar crime that costs
hundreds of billions of dollars annually and results in tens of thousands of deaths.
3. Fewer workers belong to labor unions now than just a few decades ago. Do you think this is a good development or
a bad development? Explain your answer.
4. Think of a job you now have or your most recent job if you are currently not employed. On a scale of 1 (very
dissatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied), how satisfied are you (were you) with your job? Explain why you have (had) this level
of satisfaction.
5. What three strategies do you think can improve work and the economy? Explain your answer.6. To what extent, if any, do you think capitalism is to blame for the problems in work and the economy? Explain your
answer.
BACKGROUND. Capitalism and socialism are the two primary types of economic systems in the world today.
Capitalism involves private ownership, the pursuit of profit, and competition for profit, while socialism involves the
collective ownership of goods and resources and efforts for the common good. Several nations practice democratic
socialism, which is meant to combine the best of capitalism and socialism. According to functionalism, the economy
makes society possible by providing essential goods and services, while work gives people income and self-
fulfillment. According to conflict theory, work is alienating, and the economic elite uses its control of the economy to
maintain their elite position. Symbolic interactionism focuses on social interaction in the workplace and on how they
perceive the work they do. Problems in work and the economy include the following: (a) the loss of jobs and wages;
(b) the decline of labor unions; (c) unemployment; (d) corporate misbehavior; (e) rising economic inequality; (f) tax
evasion; and (g) workplace crime. Social reforms based on sound social science research are needed to improve work
and the economy. Two important reforms would involve stricter enforcement of laws against racial discrimination in
hiring and employment and of penalties for corporate crime.
7. You graduated from college a year ago and have begun working in sales for an electronics company. You’ve become
good friends with a coworker, with whom you often “hang out” at bars and the occasional party. However, one day
you notice this coworker pocketing a smartphone, and you realize that a theft is occurring. What, if anything, do you
do? Explain your answer.
To help deal with the work and economy problems, you may wish to do any of these (they are only suggestions). Start
or join a group that tries to educate the public about economic inequality. Assist a local labor union in its efforts to
have safer workplaces.
BACKGROUND. A sociological understanding emphasizes the influence of people’s social backgrounds on the
quality of their health and health care. A society’s culture and social structure also affect health and health care. The
functionalist approach emphasizes that good health and effective health care are essential for a society’s ability to
function, and it views the physician-patient relationship as hierarchical. The conflict approach emphasizes inequality
in the quality of health and in the quality of health care. The interactionist approach emphasizes that health and
illness are social constructions; physical and mental conditions have little or no objective reality but instead are
considered healthy or ill conditions only if they are defined as such by a society and its members.