Middle-Class And Education

“In the United States, people like to believe everyone has an equal chance at success. This emphasis on self-effort perpetuates the belief that people control their own social standing. However, sociologists recognize that social stratification is a society-wide system that makes inequalities apparent” (Griffiths et al., 2016, p.188). There are many factors that drive social inequality; globalization and immigration, technology advances, the family you were born

Getting an education is an important part of every child and teenager’s life, but not all get the same type of education. In Jean Anyon’s essay “From Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work”, she explains and talks about the four levels of education. According to Jean Anyon, the four levels of education are the Working-Class School, Middle-Class School, Affluent Professional School, and Executive Elite School. From my experience, I attended a working-class school named Santa Ana High School located in a low income and high crime neighborhood of the city of Santa Ana, CA. In the author’s words, a working-class school is, “A school for students with parents with low income jobs, and with an income at or below $12,000”(Anyon 138). I believe got a working-class education because we rarely used the textbooks in class, learned through common core, and taught an education from average standard courses. Also, I believe I attended a working-class school because my high school education just taught me the basic skills of attaining a minimum wage job, whereas in professional school, or elite school students are taught knowledge and skills that lead to higher wage jobs. My experience relates to author Jean Anyon’s essay because I felt the working-class school category matched my high school education. For example, in the essay she states, “In working-class schools, work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice”(Anyon 140). Author Jean Anyon also states, “Available textbooks are not always used, and the teachers often prepare their own dittos or put work examples on the board”(Anyon 140). Both of these examples from the essay relate to my high school education because we would often do assignments created by the teacher rather than do assignments provided by the school textbooks. From my high school education, I received a working-class education because although we did have new buildings, new technology, and a clean school campus, the high school was located in a low income, and dangerous neighborhood, and students received an education from average standard courses. In my opinion, I received a working-class

Karl Marx witnessed first hand the rise of the industrial revolution and the beginning of capitalism. He also became one of capitalisms biggest critics. Marx believed that society needed a better way of distrusting wealth but also a better way a finding people’s full human potential or what he called “species-essence”. Marx believed that what we do connects to who we are, for example, work is what makes us human. It fulfills our species essence, as he puts it. Work allows us to be creative and flourish. However, in the 19th century Europe work did the quit opposite, it destroyed workers, particularly those who had nothing to sell but their labor. To the mill and factory owners a worker was simply an abstract idea with a stomach that needed to be filled. The workers had no choice but to work for long hours for a pathetic wage. Even worse, their labor alienated them. Alienation is a disorienting sense of exclusion and separation. Factory labor, under capitalism, alienated the workers from the product of their labor. They made stuff they couldn’t afford to buy themselves. The products they made were shipped out to other places far way to make money

“If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” Those words were the famous phrase spoke by Johnnie Cochran, one of the defense attorneys, in the case of “People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson.” This eminent motto marked a key turning point in what is known as the most publicized criminal trial in American history. This case brought about many social issues in the country and the American Criminal Justice system. Of the many social topics raised by the case, a few that are most imperative are social class, education, and race.

The American middle class is disappearing. This is what everyone says, all the time. Although the notion propels many political debates, it’s simply not true. At the very least, it’s a debatable proposition. Yet I can’t remember a single journalist, debate moderator, or editorial board pushing back when a politician drops the usual trope about the middle class “shrinking” or “being squeezed” or “stagnating” or being “murdered?” It’s simply a given that the middle class is under duress.

As the middle class in American is shrunken yet United States is giving up a new range number 1 to China which once again put the focus on economy. I am a firm believer that economy is vague and convoluted subject but nonetheless middle class has proven to be the binding force for an emerging economy for two reasons, one is their ambitious goal to get reacher and two is their concerned of being poorer. If you look at the numbers of the components (rich, poor, and middle class) you find a preponderance numbers that indicate middle class is more educated than the other components for the reasons discuss above!!. China, Japan, and India have established a great program to shrunken the gap between the richest people and poor while subsidizing the

In “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work “ Jean Ayon states after supervising and monitoring personally 5 elementary schools. She comes to a conclusion that there are 4 kinds of schools in America and those are 1. Working class schools, 2. Middle-class schools, 3. Affluent professional schools, and 4. Executive elite schools. Anyon states that all classifications of schools are determined by your family’s social economic standpoint. Anyon claiming education pretty much stretches as far as the community will let it, and that most of the time children turn out to be in the same boat as their parents, or sometimes there are different circumstances and outliers. Like in any theory, prediction, or judgment there is always that chance or

After the Financial Crisis of 2008 the economic status of the country began taking a toll on the middle class. As the years have progressed, the increase in inequality without any aid to these hard working middle class families has grown to be a problem for Americans. Currently, the attitude of the American middle class is that they are being ignored by the United States government. This comes from many factors that have diminished the value and definition of a middle class American, in addition to forcing these Americans to struggle to make ends meet. The sense of pride of being a working middle class American has lost its appeal and has changed the predisposition of what it means to live above the means. Middle class families are struggling to provide necessities for their children. They are constantly worrying about how they will stretch their incomes and provide a comfortable lifestyle for their families. In order to provide immediate relief to the middle class action must be taken directly by the United States government. This concern for direct impact is shown with the initiatives by Democratic party leaders to aid the middle class. The Democrats have been strong proponents of pushing the middle class back up to its previous standard. They have actively defended the middle class, showing their support for immediate reform that would benefit specifically middle class workers. The middle class has continued to shrink and without action taken immediately this problem

Social class is defined as a system of stratification based on access to such resources as wealth, property, power and prestige (186). The social class system is typically passed down from the parent to the child. Our textbook quotes, “Although children tend to “inherit” the social class of their parents, during the course of a lifetime they can move up or down levels in the strata” (186). Therefore, this system is not affected by race, ethnicity, gender or age. However, social class may overlap depending on specific variables. Personally, my family’s social class status would be classified as the middle class. The middle class is composed of primarily “white collar” workers with a broad range of education and income; and make up about 30 percent of the U.S. population (188). Throughout this essay, I will distinguish how my social class has impacted my childhood, deviance and education.

Growing up, I resided in an upper middle-class neighborhood. My family and I were comfortable and did not have many financial and economic hardships. Unlike my students, I had the freedom to play outside my home, indulge in many gifts, at birthday and Christmas, take family vacations, and most of all, have two parents in my household. Both of my parents are college educated, my grandparents as well. My parental grandmother retired as an elementary school teacher in Glen Burnie, Maryland. When I started grade school, specifically late middle and high school, I found myself trying hard to “fit in.” I began talking like, dressing like, and acting like a child who wasn’t taught proper etiquette. I used slang in conversations with students I admired and _______. [finish thoughts]

A prominent show of this difference is that the students at the middle class school Beverly Hills High School, technical electives are allowed to be filled by useful subjects which could be used to further one’s academic ability while at Fremont only courses like sewing and hair-dressing are available (Kozol 644). The evidence becomes even more visible with the direct correlation between SAT scores and family income where those who make more have children who do better (Mantsios 710). Although there are sure to be naysayers who would argue that those who do not make as much are not as motivated enough to make more or push their children in the right direction academically. This point is invalid as when money becomes an issue it becomes hard to provide children with the best possible education and even worse when already put in the situation where money was an issue when those parents themselves were in school.

A blue collar worker that makes 25 thousand dollars a year is put in the same socioeconomic class as an engineer making 200 thousand dollars based on the Pew Research Center's Calculation of middle class. The definition of middle class lumps those making four times the median United States income with those living paycheck to paycheck and feeling like they live more impoverished than anything leading to a confusion in identity. Is the lower middle supposed to feel proud and content with their situation considering they are categorized with engineers, doctors, and lawyers, or are they to feel impoverished because if they took a 5 thousand dollar pay cut, they would be below the poverty line? The gap between the lower middle and the upper middle

life chance that affected my parents’ parenting style was the local need for manual laborers. Both of my parents work hourly jobs. My mother has never been to school and my father went to technical school, became a mechanic, but later decided he didn’t like the profession and settled for a job at a local paper mill. In the town that I’m from people are praised for their work ethic and not their level of education. Individuals may go to college, but end up working jobs that have little to do with their education. This is mostly due to the limited amount of jobs that allow college grads to exercise their education. Since there is a greater need for laborers many families end up falling into the “working-class.” The citizen in my hometown view people especially men, who work in laboring fields as hard-workers, manly, and upstanding citizens.

It was the year 2015, eighteen years ago I began to ask questions about various events while wondering why are the people in society the way they are. I wanted to know why do the people living in ghettos behave the completely opposite of the people living in rural areas.

The philosophy of Karl Marx begins with the belief that humans are inherently cooperative with common characteristics and shared ends. To human beings, life is considered an object and therefore, humans make their “life-activity itself the object of his will and of his consciousness” (Tucker 76). In other words, humans are able to think, imagine, and “produce even when he is free from physical need and only truly produces in freedom therefrom” (p. 76). It exemplifies that idea that humans not only have the capability to create things for survival but express themselves in what they produce, within the standards of the human race or universally. When capitalist wage-labor enters the picture, it forces these shared ends and the freedom of expression in human production to cease, causing a rise of competitiveness among