1. Education, Health, and Medicine
Chapter 14
Education, Health, and Medicine

2. Education vs. Schooling
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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3. 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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4. 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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5. 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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6. Illiteracy in Global Perspective
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7. 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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8. 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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10. 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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11. 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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12. 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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13. 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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14. 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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15. 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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16. Teachers’ Salaries across the United States
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17. 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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18. Educational Achievement for Various Categories of People, Aged 25 Years and Over, 2010
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19. 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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22. Problems in Schools Discipline and violence Student passivity
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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23. 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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24. 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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25. Dropping Out Some reasons for dropping out:
Problems with the English language
Pregnancy
Must work to help support their family
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26. 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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27. 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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28. 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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29. 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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30. 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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31. 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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32. 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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33. 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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34. 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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35. 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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36. 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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37. 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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38. 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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40. Who Is Healthy? Social epidemiology Factors include:
Study of how health and disease are distributed throughout a society’s population
Factors include:
Age, gender, social class, race
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41. 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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42. Social Class and Race Higher income and wealth boosts health:
Better nutrition
Better health care
Safer and less stressful surroundings
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43. 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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44. 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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45. 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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46. 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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47. 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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48. Obesity across the United States, 1996 and 2010
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49. 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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50. HIV/AIDS Infection of Adults in Global Perspective
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51. Ethics & Death When does death occur? Do people have the right to die?
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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52. 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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53. 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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54. 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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55. 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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56. Holistic Medicine Three foundations of holistic health care:
Treat patients as people
Encourage responsibility, not dependency
Provide personal treatment
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57. Medicine in Socialist Nations
China
Government controls most health care operations
“Barefoot doctors” in rural areas practice traditional healing arts
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58. 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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59. 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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60. 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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61. 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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62. Extent of Socialized Medicine in Selected Countries
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63. 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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64. 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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65. 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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66. 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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67. 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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69. 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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