Summary

In this module, you learned about religions around the world and the role that religion plays in society. Religion is a way to organize our values and beliefs, forming our world view, often helping us to understand the difference between right and wrong, and sometimes becoming a vehicle of social change.

You also examined education around the world. Education is another institution that helps to socialize people to the cultural norms of their society. What we learn may be about content (history, or math) but also about the hidden curriculum (like how to be a good citizen). Education may be formal (in a school) or informal (like learning how to cook or how to fish, or even how to tie your shoes) and it may be mandated as it is in the United States where children must attend for at least ten years of their lives. The quality of education is varied within our own country as well as between countries.

In recent decades, there has been a large emphasis on the benefits of attending college in order to improve one’s opportunity in life, but studies show that those who come from poor families do not see the same level of financial gain from attending college as their wealthier peers. There are several interesting sources that question the traditional view of a college as the “great leveler”. Recent analysis of the Panel Study on Income Dynamics by The Brookings Institution shows that while students from both poor and not-poor families see an increase in their incomes, those from poor families see a smaller proportional increase. The report states, “college graduates from families with an income below 185 percent of the federal poverty level (the eligibility threshold for the federal assisted lunch program) earn 91 percent more over their careers than high school graduates from the same income group. By comparison, college graduates from families with incomes above 185 percent of the FPL earned 162 percent more over their careers (between the ages of 25 and 62) than those with just a high school diploma.” In the figure below, those from poor families that earn a BA, the green line, earn more over the life course than both those from poor and not poor families with just a high school diploma. However, looking at the navy blue line, those from non-poor families that earn a BA see a much larger proportional increase in their life course earnings compared to those from non-poor families that have just a high school diploma.

In the figure above, you can also see that at the peak of their career and income earning, around age 43, those with a BA from poor families, on average, earn only slightly more (around $53,000) than the average BA holder from non-poor families did at age 25! So, college pays off in regards to lifetime earnings, but it pays off even more for those who earn a degree and are from non-poor families. On average, they end up in a much better place socio-economically than those from poor families that earned the same level of credential. Use your understanding of sociology concepts to question and explain why this disparity might exist and why a college education doesn’t lead to the same results for all students (then Elizabeth Armstrong and Laura Hamilton‘s 2013 book, Paying for the Party, if you’re interested in learning more about the influence of social class and wealth on college and post-college success).

What you learned to do:

• Explain how major sociological perspectives view religion
• Explain the basic tenets of major world religions
• Describe religion in the United States
• Examine educational differences around the world
• Examine the major theoretical perspectives on education
• Identify and discuss historical and contemporary issues in education