Reflection About Education

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

In “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, Anyon evaluates four elementary schools from contrasting backgrounds- The working-class, middle-class, affluent

The article “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon is about research conducted in five different schools of four different social classes; the Working Class, the Middle Class, the Professional Class, and the Executive Class. In the data collected, Anyon discovered the various ways that these five schools teach the children. First, the two Working Class Schools taught the children really poorly, often telling the children to follow steps to get the right answer, and always yelling at them when they’re out of line. The Middle Class School teaches the kids a little better, by making the children actually work to get the right answer. The Professional School sought to get the children to be more creative with their work. And finally, the Executive Class school will tell the children that they are fully responsible for their work, and they will not keep up with children if they miss assignments.

The purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence of the existence of what the author calls a “hidden curriculum” in schools by observing the types and differences in school work across a spectrum of social classes (Anyon, 1980, p. 67). The rationale for this study is lies in a body of research suggesting that the type of curriculum offered to students is dependent upon their social class (Anyon, 1980). The curriculum variants observed include: behavior expectations and types of knowledge and skills offered. Consequently, the curriculum differences work to prevent movement across social class and prepare students only for the types of employment typical of their social class (Anyon, 1980). Anyon attempts to draw attention to this topic in the United States, as it had been largely ignored at the time (1980).

Almost all the family incomes are over $100,000...The incomes in this school represent less than 1 percent of the families in the United States,” (256) compared to working-class families who earn incomes “at or below $12,000” (256). Anyon presents these examples to compare the backgrounds of each school and uses this as logos to persuasively reason her claim that quality of education is offered to people who can afford it. Public schools that working-class and middle-class families can afford do not offer the same education private schools that upper-class and capitalist families can afford. Wealthy children who are privileged get an advantage early on in their education career because they are able to afford better quality teachers and lessons. This varied quality of education found in curriculums is what creates the unequal divide between educated individuals in different social classes. An audience of scholars and teachers would be persuaded by this claim because Anyon’s data transparently shows the uneven distribution of resources and opportunity found in the social class schools.

Despite students possessing a variety of needs and learning styles, the education system was designed for a “one-size-fits-all” in an attempt to meet every child’s needs and abilities. However, this is not the common perception by those who investigate further into the diverse environments of numerous, differing schools. Jean Anyon, in “Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work,”argues that the style of education students receive is decided by the social class of their community and is not uniform when concerning students of all types. Instead, working class, middle class, affluent professionals, and executive elites experience significantly dissimilar school environments. Not only are they treated differently, and taught differently, but they’re prepared for a certain future that corresponds with their social class. Anyon’s synthesis is validated by my own experience at the Windham schools in Willimantic, where the demographics of the school corresponded with the confining, restrictive, and strict teaching style described by Anyon as ‘working class’. My account depicts the harsh reality of how my disadvantaged community suffers through a school system that does not prepare them for a future beyond a life of blue-collar jobs. However, my experience also disproves Anyon’s model through several details in the style of learning, such as going out of a textbook, or also being graded on a right answer.

Jean Anyon’s essay and study of “The Hidden Curriculum of Schools” argues that the quality of education you receive is solely based on your standing in the different levels of social classes in which you were born into. Mike Rose’s essay “I Just Wanna Be Average” confirms this hidden curriculum as he recalls his misplacement into vocational school in which the parents of the students that attended worked blue-collar jobs. Mike Rose’s essay confirms Jean Anyon’s study in showing that your education is heavily based upon the social class you are in. The lower you rank in social class the less of an education you receive whereas students that rank higher receive a more quality education. Both authors argue, correctly, that education should work

In “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Anyon compares low-class schools and high-class schools. She argues that poor schools are “usually mechanical” and involve “rote behavior and very little decision making or choice” (Anyon 140). In short, she feels teachers are educating younger students, especially in primary school, exactly the same and are given no freedom to make choices that affect their education. On the other hand, Anyon believes that wealthy schools are “developing [a student’s] analytical intellectual powers” and “produc[ing] intellectual products that are both logically sound and of top academic quality” (Anyon 148). In contrast to lower class schools, upper-class schools are effectively teaching students to become the “teachers” and leaders in

We could see some of the different types of teachers described in Anyon’s work could also be seen in an essay” I Just Wanna Be Average” written by Mike Rose. Rose experienced in his high school different teachers, who came from different socio-economic background is different in the way they teach and treat their students. To an extent, it is true that the socioeconomic background of a student could determine the quality or type of instruction a student will receive. It seems that Mike Rose’s essay tends to complicate Anyon’s claim that the socio-economic location the school is at is the reason on what kind of educational instruction a student can get. Indeed Rose’s experiences in high school receiving instruction from teachers that has the teaching styles classified in Anyon’s essay as working class, middle class and affluent professional, but it complicates the claim because all this method of teaching can be found in one school. Rose tells us the location of his school is at South Los Angeles, he describes that Our Lady of Mercy “relied on a series of test, mostly the Standford-Binet, for placement” (152). The score you receive here will determine what program you will be placed on either in College

In “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Jean Anyon theorizes about the role education plays in society. Anyon’s central thesis is that public schools in complex societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes. Jean Anyon performs a study on different elementary schools where the children came from different backgrounds, the parents had different incomes, occupations, and other relevant social characteristics. The methods Anyon used to prove her point was gathering data in classroom observations, interviewing students, teachers, principals, and district administrative staff; and assessment of curriculum and other materials in each classroom

As Jean Anyon states in “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, cause the different educate level of the family, the difference between the community as well the different teachers all are the biggest influence to make vast differences between each of the same subjects within each school, as well as the relationship between the students and the teachers. Anyon points out that lower income families working with a less skilled job, so their children are taught to get a simple class and go to work as soon as they can. As a teacher who give lesson to those students, they don't really make an effort to make sure that the students understood completely what they were learning and getting the right answer at the time. (167) The middle-class schools consisted of parents with skilled jobs, the students were taught to follow directions with the goal of getting the right answers, and teachers will make sure that the students understood what they were learning, and students were encouraged to speak their minds.

Anyon wholeheartedly agrees with scholars, who argue that schools provide students with separate learning experiences, in differing social-classes. From 1978-79, she studies fifth-grade classrooms at five New Jersey schools (p. 165). Anyon closely reviews socioeconomic characteristics of the students families, such as, income, occupation, gender and race. Anyon collects the evidence by, examining the students, teachers, curriculums and the materials provided in each classroom. The author investigates four schools which are the working-class, middle-class, affluent professional and the executive elite schools. She finds that working-class schools consists of parents who have blue-collar jobs, as skilled and unskilled laborers. The author also believes these families meet or fall below poverty-level conditions. Anyon labels the third school as

In another word, whoever pays more will get the best education. Students in Upper Socio-economic class are motivated to be creative and they are encouraged to learn not to copy whatever the teacher has to teach. But, those students who go to working class schools are treated different: they go to school to follow instruction and copy what’s on the board. They don’t even know the reason why they go to school and learn that specific subject. They simply go to school because every young person should go to school, and the only reason for this treatment is their parent’s socio-economic class.

America is often enamored of itself as the champion of equality in every aspect of its society; however, this is often not the case. This is true in every aspect of life, but is very evident specifically in the American education system. Although America claims to give an equal education to all, regardless of any external factors, economic class often plays a role in what type and how good of an education a student may receive. Since education is the basis for future success, this inequity resulting from socioeconomic status implies that this is where inequality in everyday life starts, and that the system generates this inequality. If this is true, then one might ask, what then is the purpose of education? If economic class predetermines

I believe that education extends far beyond the classroom walls, and involves many more people than students and teachers. People should be learning wherever they go, and should continue learning long after they’ve graduated from high school or college. Education isn’t something that can be quantified with tests or report cards, but is instead something that people carry with them. It’s a survival pack for life, and some people are better equipped in certain areas than in others. People with a solid education are prepared for nearly anything, as they will be able to provide for their own physical, emotional, and aesthetic needs.