Social Class Patterns

Andrew Simmons published his article for The Atlantic, “The Danger of Telling Poor Kids that College is the Key to Social Mobility” on January 16, 2014, which raises his concerns that higher education is only being promoted as an opportunity to increase their economic status, when it should be an opportunity to experience an education (Simmons). Through the use of students such as Isabella, Simmons disagrees with the way students now look at higher education and blames the educators through the students’ lives for this view. Instead, Simmons views education as an intellectual opportunity rather than a way to elevate ones economic class which is all people see when they see “higher education.” He believes that education, ambition and work ethic is how you have a satisfying life, not with how much you make. He makes the point that when economics becomes the main goal of education it’s all children begin to think about and they might not pursue something that they are truly passionate about or what they want to learn about, which then does not create an intellectually awakening experience (Simmons).

College is the next stepping stone to better or advance ones social standing in life, whether it is moving from a blue collar lifestyle to white collar, or to continue to further their career path. However, it comes with an “unavoidable result.” Alfred Lubrano discusses this “unavoidable result” in his text “The Shock of Education: How College Corrupts.” Lubrano discusses the topic of how furthering ones education opens more possibilities but at the same time distances those held most dearly. He explains that the more knowledge gained, the bigger the gap caused between friends and family due to differences in levels of knowledge. That distance is greatly increase if one comes from a poorer region where blue collar workers are the social

Reading this book shows how social class status of a child’s parents matters. One of the big issues was how it matter in school success. Chapter 1 talks about the difference between Concerted Cultivation and the Accomplishment of Natural Growth. Concerted Cultivation is a middle class child rearing technique they use on a child to improve their child talents. The middle class parents use this technique to schedule activities for their child. Parents also practice language with their child. Middle class parents let their child find agreement with them. Lareau states that middle class parents also takes more consideration with authorities that are associated with their children. For example, when a parent is not comfortable with the teacher’s way of teaching, middle class parents would directly speak with that

In the article “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by JEAN ANYON, the author discusses that the lower class students will not taught as higher class students. The article illustrates that there are three different social class, the social class always been a problem in the schools.

From twentieth century to today, should our society enforce high school graduates to go to college have been a controversial problem. In the essay “College in America”, Caroline Bird argues that going to college is not the best and the only way for high school students to success and to become higher class people. According to Bird, the pressure in going to college causes our society to disrespect people with lower education levels or identities. In fact, the huge costs, such as tuition expenses and time spending on college, cannot equalize rich people and poor people. These costs and interests also bring many families huge debts; it stresses their livings and causes financial crisis to families. Furthermore, although people believe that college can bring them higher identities and lead them jobs that they are interested in, the realistic is that there are not enough available job positions for a large amount graduates. College does not take the responsibility for graduates’ career, so only small minorities can satisfy with their jobs after graduating from college. For example, a large number of psychology graduates looks for jobs, but only 7% of them can be hired. More importantly, from research, Bird claims that college studies are not helpful in the real world experience. A third of working people say that there is a little relationship between their fields and college studies. Overall, Bird believes that college is not a premise to become “a noble American ideal”;

The social class structure in America is generally divided into mainly three strata: The rich constituting the upper class, the moderately affluent category comprising the middle class, and financially and socially backward people who form the lower class. There are also superimposing areas like the upper-middle class and the lower-upper class. The stratification is based on the social as well as economic environments. Although these classifications and entry to these statuses are not fixed, these three classifications give an overall perceptive of the social classification in the United States of America. (study.com)

Studies have also shown those working class children’s parents attitudes tend to encourage immediate gratification. This suggests they encourage their children to enter the workplace sooner rather than later. To start earning over, staying in education. Generally this tends to mean that the working class individuals remain as such due to being unqualified for the higher status, higher salaried jobs. On the reverse, middle class parents encourage deferred gratification. They encourage hard work at school and reap the rewards in later life, with a high level of qualification, a higher status career and in turn a higher salary and thus the class divide remains.

Social class affects society in many ways. Throughout research I found that social class mostly affects health, life and education. The rich has more advantage than the middle class and the middle class has more advantage than the lower class all due to money. Health is one of the most important factor in one’s life. The poor are more prone to diseases and are the ones who are disadvantaged in the healthcare system. The lower and working class have low access to fresh produce and exercise facilities. The rich get one of the best education while the poor end up dropping out of school due to financial reasons. Education is also very important for preventing diseases, having a healthy diet and properly exercising. The poverty in the lower class

　　　Authors Michelle Tokarczyk, Peter Sacks, Robert Haverman and Timothy Smeeding all write about certain problems that working class students are facing in education in the U.S. , especially in college education which is usually defined as higher education. Although they focus on different aspects of the problem, they still have some ideas in common. In their articles, all of them discuss how economic and social class occupies a very significant role in the quality of education an American student receives. In order to support their claims, all of them employ studies as their strong evidence. They also imply that college education fails to consider the special issues and conditions that

From previous research I have come to the understanding that a class system is a economic hierarchy in which citizens of a society are separated, but what exactly determines where someone will be placed in a class system? According to philosopher Karl Marx, 'class is determined entirely by one's relationship to the means of production.' The means of production can be catergorised to include all of the physical elements, aside from human-beings that help with the production of goods, for example; machines, computers, and tools. Those who own a mean of production, such as a company, are a member of the wealthy/upper class. Those who sell their labour to operate means of production are members of the working/lower class. People are positioned

Primarily, the social class structures in the United States attaches descriptions of and distinctions between individuals based on the roles and status people hold at any given moment and subsequently judge accordingly. However, descriptions of statuses and roles in society are relatively provisional since the structure of any society is to adapt and evolve continuously. A profession (achieved status) that was once highly respected can now be regarded with contempt; an individual’s gender (ascribed status) once dictated how one should behave by societal standards (prescribed role), now is disregarded and reformed. Therefore, even though in America, there are no formal, enforced social class structures in place, social stratification,

Social class system has survived in the UK due to its flexibility, it has never been swept away (James, 2009). The most common classification of the social hierarchy is the division between upper, middle, and lower classes. In the UK, there are some different social grade classifications. The National Readership Survey (NRS) and the National Statistics Socio-economic classification (NS-SEC) provided two similar classifications based on occupation. In 2013, a survey of social class in UK was published, results of which showed seven new classes: Elite, Established middle class, Technical middle class, New affluent workers, Traditional working class, Emergent service sector, Precariat (Savage et al., 2013). There are many determiners which can be used to judge which class people belong to. In this essay, wealth and education are discussed.

The aim of the whole paper was to find out if students from a working class background felt as if they were “fitting in” or if they felt as if they were “standing out” when it came to attending higher education studies (Reay, D., Crozier, G. and Clayton, J. (2010). They study was carried across four institutions of higher learning comprising of Southern elite university, Civic in the Midlands, s post-1922 in the North and a college of further education in the East of England. The selection for these universities was to get a cross –section of experiences by working class students (Reay, D., Crozier, G. and Clayton, J. (2010),

Our role in society plays a big part of who we are. More importantly how generous we are toward others in need. People of lower class have a tendency to be more dependent on other whereas people of upper class are more independent. Lower class people act more prosocial fashion due to an increased orientation of others needs. Some say that lower class people help others as a way of adapting to their hostile environments by being greater at prosocial behavior than upper class people. This research study aims to find out if lower class people act

In an idealistic world, one’s education would not be determined by their social class or living environment. Instead, those who live in the low class outskirts of an urban industrial population to those who live in ritzy suburban homes and are part of the private school system would be learning the same values and have similar if not equal curricula. However, we as a society have not managed to make this ideal applicable. Instead we find ourselves with an education system that seems to benefit those with favourable living conditions. As discussed in Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, depending on your economic status, you may be taught to just “Follow the steps in a procedure” as per the working class schools or how to independently carry out your creative activities as found in the affluent professional school. These very different extremes have an effect on one’s future by setting you up for a life as a factory worker or as a lawyer. It is this economical and social structure that I had to overcome to get to where I am today.