The Importance Of Social Class And Education

James Loewen begins his argument by establishing that students are leaving high school without knowing the basic inner workings of the class structure. He goes on to attribute some of the ignorance concerning class structure to have stemmed from a lack of labor history and class system information in high school history books. Loewen continues to describe the shortcomings of history books on topics such as social stratification, the realities of social classes in colonial America, and social class inequalities. He then goes into great detail about the continuous inequalities between those in higher and lower social class. Overall, the author of this piece argues that a person's social class influences too many aspects of their life. He claims

What does social class mean? Social class means a division of a society based on social and economic status. Now, what does hidden curriculum mean? Hidden Curriculum means a side effect of education, such as norms, values and beliefs in the classroom. Accordingly, Jean Anyon’s, author of “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” claims that each and every social class has it’s own very different way of teaching in schools. Anyon states a plethora of strengths and weaknesses in this article. She believes that all children have been taught to learn, comprehend, and behavior in plenty of different ways due to the social class’s they have been thrown into. Anyon examined each social class which have been named The Working Class, The Middle Class, The Affluent Professional Class, and lastly The Executive Elite Class. An educational perspective came well from her work view point and based off it - I have thrown in my own opinion by agreeing with her during this essay.

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 education experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes. Jean Anyon performs a study on different elementary schools’ where the children come from different backgrounds, the parents had different incomes, occupations, and other relevant social characteristics. The method’s 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 and school. After careful analysis of Anyon’s model and my personal experiences in Windham High School I can confirm that I attend a school Anyon would identify as the working class. Anyon’s model about the working class is valid. For example on the demographics, Windham High School classifys’ as working class society and most families make less than $12,000 and face financial struggles. Anyon characterizes the working class as 85% white however the majority of the working class in my community are composed of Puerto Rican, Asian or African American groups.

Children who grow up in a poor area go to school where there are 50 kids in one class and individual attention is never given, and children of high class families will go to schools that have smaller class sizes and individual attention. Even when a poor child goes to a better schoolteachers will question if the work done is their own and also only expect hard work from the rich kids. “if you are a child of low income parents, the chances are good that you will receive limited and often careless attention from adults in your high school.” Theodore Sizer “Horace’s Compromise,” “If you are the child of upper-middle income parents, the chances are good that you will receive substantial and careful attention.” (203) These quotes from another author showcase that school in America is often times based on the social standing of the parents.

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.

Social Class and Education”. It opens by discussing research conducted in the 1960’s in an effort to identify factors contributing to differences in the academic achievement of Whites and Blacks (Banks & Banks, 2013). Researchers hypothesized that the achievement gaps were mainly the result of disparities in school resources and characteristics, but found that there is a high correlation between achievement and socioeconomic status (SES) (Banks & Banks, 2013). Furthermore, attention is drawn to the class stratification which exists in our educational system and works to maintain inequality through exclusion strategies such as ability grouping and tracking (Banks & Banks, 2013). Evidence of the correlation between social class and

Lubrano explains how middle-class children understand the importance of receiving higher education, while working-class children fail to see the purpose of preparing for a higher level in the short term. According to Lubrano, “Middle-class kids are groomed for another life” (534). Author Patrick Finn states, “Working-class kids see no such connection, understand no future life for which digesting Shakespeare might be of value” (534). In answering this question, Lubrano must look at the various circumstances that account for the poor performances among working-class individuals, the supportive relationships middle-class students have with their parents and teachers, and how children of working-class parents struggle when preparing for later life. In the address, Alfred Lubrano must address the difference in treatment between working-class and middle-class children attending

This country’s education system was built on the back of meritocracy and was created to function as an objective measure of a child’s performance and their intelligence. It was the gateway to the American Dream, and provided everyone with an equal chance of success in America. It was a place of not only intellectual, but also personal growth. In her essay “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Anyon argues that this is no longer the case. Anyon’s study concludes that from the fifth grade, students in poorer communities are groomed to succeed in low-class, blue collar jobs, while children in wealthy communities are prepared for more desirable careers. Anyon analyzes four different types of schools that all varied based on

Many issues in the 1900’s have been affecting jobs, social classes, and student’s education. In particular, fifth graders are being divided by their parents work level. Because this is happening, students will have unequal fairness on the outcome of the education they will receive. Jean Anyon, the author of “From Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work,” employs important concepts and powerful illustration to prove that the parents work level affects their children’s quality of education.

In the article “From Social Class to the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” written by Jean Anyon, he argues that the working-class and affluent communities both receive a learning-based education, the working-class lacks the fundamentals. Supporting this claim is Diane Ravitch in “The Essentials of a Good education” stating affluent communities provide classes beyond the essentials, including extra-curricular classes and activities with well-equipped material for their children to obtain. Contrastively, the working class community only receives the “basic” courses that consist of mathematics and English for their children. It has become evident that working-class communities in comparison to affluent communities cannot afford an open-handed and

In Jean Anyon’s essay, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”, she discusses how she observed various classrooms across New Jersey in an attempt to find proof that schools taught comprehension and provided altered education opportunities based on the level of social class.

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

One of the concerns regarding social justice in education is that there are marginalised groups within society do not having equal access to the learning and life opportunities that they deserve. The concept of social justice stresses that every individual within society is entitled to have equal rights and opportunities. This means that an individual from a lower class background deserves the same opportunities as a person from a wealthier background. It is about becoming aware and recognising that there are certain situations where the application of the same rules to unequal groups can sometimes lead to imbalanced results. It is therefore crucial that the government create a curriculum that can empower every student regardless of their

"We are shaped by society 's structures," is the primary concept of the idea developed by C. Wright Mills (Henslin). In this paper, I will demonstrate how my social class affected my family life and education.

50). According to other researchers, the challenges that working class students face may be the direct result of their social class and cultural backgrounds, which include weak academic preparation and personal values and behaviors that both positively and negatively affect their ability to navigate educational institutions, achieve as learners, and persist in their educational pursuits (Kohn, 1977; Lareau,