American Dream

The American Dream refers to a prevailing mindset in the United States of America. According to this idea, everyone can achieve a higher standard of living in the future through hard work and regardless of their current wealth. The proverbial expression "from rags to riches" illustrates this idea.

The basic idea of the American Dream can already be found in the Declaration of Independence. This states that the people may depose unjust rulers and give themselves their own political order. While the European monarchs of the 18th century ruled the people partly in an absolutist manner, the American Constitution secured inalienable fundamental rights for the citizens of the United States.

The American dream is based on the idea that the USA is a meritocracy and meritocracy. Current studies on social mobility, on the other hand, show that a person's attainable social status in the USA is much more dependent on his or her family of origin and its class affiliation than is the case, for example, in today's Western Europe. The cause of this lack of equality of opportunity is said to be the sharp rise in economic inequality.

Definition and history of terms

The term "American Dream" goes back to the American writer and historian James Truslow Adams. He was the first to use it in his book The Epic of America in 1931. "American Dream" very quickly became a fixed formula because the idea had long been widespread. Already Ernest Hemingway formed the antithesis of the "American Nightmare" in his novel To Have and Have Not (1937): "... Colt or Smith and Wesson; those well-constructed implements that end insomnia, terminate remorse, cure cancer, avoid bankruptcy and blast an exit from intolerable positions by the pressure of a finger; those admirable American instruments so easily carried, so sure of effect, so well designed to end the American dream when it becomes a nightmare ..."

The values of individual freedom, personal responsibility, competition, equal opportunity, hard work and success can be described as the main elements of the "American Dream".

Education and the American Dream

Since the founding of the United States, education has been a prerequisite of success. Jennifer Hochschild writes, "[...] the American dream promises that all who live in the United States have the chance to succeed through their own efforts and self-perceived opportunities." Many people believe that education is an important way to achieve the American dream. Education largely determines a person's career opportunities as well as their income level. It is now common belief that it is impossible to achieve the goals of the "American Dream" without education. Education has become the foundation for achieving the American Dream. In this regard, Hochschild writes, "Schools are a valued way to teach children enough to determine their own goals and gives them the opportunity to achieve them." Here, one must keep in mind that not all public schools in the United States are equal. This leads to unequal opportunities and income levels.

Examples include Jennifer Hochschild's article Public Schools and the American Dream (2001) and Heather Johnson's book The American Dream and the Power of Wealth: Choosing Schools and Inheriting Inequality in the Land of Opportunity (2006). Both Hochschild and Johnson ascribe to public education the role of equalizing differences. Both authors claim that through segregation in public schools, economic inequality, racial segregation, and inequalities of inherited wealth exist, which is in direct opposition to the American ideology of meritocracy. Therefore, Hochschild argues, it is in such public schools that working class and ethnic minority children often encounter obstacles to achieving their dreams for the first time. Accordingly, rather than equalizing opportunity, these schools are where Americans of the affected classes experience their first failures.

Hochschild believes that special education strategies can help children with unequal educational opportunities achieve their American Dream goals, specifically desegregation, school choice, school finance reform, and requirements-based changes. The benefits of these changes are great, he said, but the power over them lies in the hands of the wealthy American people, who do not see these changes as necessary.