A few days ago, I had a small talk with my cousin of the Beipiao family. Talking about the rise, my cousin suddenly sighed and asked me a question that touched my soul:How to choose in order to live up to the educational support of parents?His implication is very straightforward: how to get ahead through education and live up to the expectations of his parents.
My cousin said that now he feels very lost, and he has no idea where to go. When making decisions about major life events such as employment, partners, and interpersonal interactions, he can only rely on his own cognition and Internet retrieval, and his family can no longer provide him with more resources, connections, and information. This feeling of being powerless to control his fate frustrated him.
My cousin was born in the countryside like me, his parents did not grasp the dividends of the times at all, failed to keep up with the tide of the times, suffered all the hardships that should have been suffered, and suffered the tiredness that should have been suffered.
Whenever my uncle and aunt talk about their cousin who works in Beijing, they are proud and gratified. In fact, North Drift is very hard, and there are very few people who can stay in the end. From his cousin's words, it is not difficult to see that it is difficult for him to become a new Beijing citizen, and there is a high probability that he will return to his hometown to work and live. At that time, my cousin, uncle and aunt will surely receive a lot of rumors.
Education has indeed changed the fate of my cousin and the author, allowing us to escape the intergenerational cycle of "facing the loess with our backs to the sky". But higher education only gives us more options, and it is far from the point where we can move up the ladder.
Throughout China's thousands of years of history, education has been given the mission of promoting class mobility since the imperial examination system was introduced. What a beautiful and simple wish to learn and excel!However, history inexorably tells us that not only are the vast majority of people unable to become officials, but it is also a luxury to receive a decent education, and it is even more impossible to change their fate.
In today's society, although education is highly popularized and education plays an important role in the development of individuals and societies, education has obvious limitations on individuals to achieve social class promotion, not to mention the use of education to break the rigidity of social class.
First of all, through education, people can improve their competitiveness, which makes it possible to achieve breakthroughs in their careers and social status. However, such breakthroughs are often limited by a variety of factors, including political and economic systems, social resources, family backgrounds, personal opportunities, etc.
Second, education has a complex impact on the social stratification. On the one hand, education can promote social mobility and give more people the opportunity to enter higher social classes. On the other hand, education can also exacerbate social inequalities, as quality educational resources are often concentrated in the hands of a few, while disadvantaged groups may be trapped in poverty and hardship due to lack of educational opportunities.
In addition, the social structure is one of the important reasons for the solidification of class. As a part of the social structure, the purpose, content and method of education are all constrained by the social structure. Therefore, it is unrealistic to rely solely on education to break the class stereotype.
Therefore, in this era of rapid depreciation of academic qualifications and the deep penetration of capital in all walks of life, thousands of college graduates are destined to fall victim to the development of the times. Relying on education to change one's life, the door to the elite is slowly closing.
But for ordinary people, if they want to get ahead, education is almost the only reliable reliance. The cousin's emotion not only expressed his bitterness, but also conveyed the helplessness of countless young people.