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Tracey Brown

Sept. 24, 2009

Rieman

Eng. 1101X

The Low-est Class: How Our School System Could

Make or Break America

Through the years social class has been depicted as playing a large role in ones success

academically. Jean Anyon wrote an essay, "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work", in

which she studied fifth grades at five anonymous elementary schools. They're four social classes

in which Anyon classifies the schools: Working-class, Middle class, Affluent Professional, and

Executive Elite. The average income of these four classes are from $12,000-100,000 and beyond,

respectively. As I read Anyon's article, I mostly agree with this article because, in all reality, it's

true. However, some questions did arise throughout my reading.

One of the questions that arose when I read her essay was about the expectations of the

school. When I was in fifth grade I lived in a town of about 2,000 people and the average income

was about $25,000. Through my experiences of being a fifth grader at Clyde Elementary, a

"Working-class school" as Anyon would call it, we strived to be better than the stereotype.

Clyde Elementary was distinguished as a school of excellence for my last three years at the

school, which makes it hard for me to believe what Anyon provided in her essay. Anyon

proclaims "The work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical,

involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice." (232) Maybe it's just me, but

I believe when a child is given the opportunity to succeed, they WILL. The school system cannot
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be allowed to stand if this is the outcome. If the opportunity is not presented to them, then what

do you expect? It really chaps me that the expectations of the lower class schools are so low

because I came from a "Working-class school". In my opinion, I think that the lower class should

be pushed the most because the upper class is already up above them. Why not push the lower

class? It makes no sense to punish a group of kids for being in the situation that they are in, it's

not their fault. The way that we are doing things in the school system now isn't filtering anything

from the lower class pool of society, all it's doing is just reusing stagnant water.

On another note, I have knowledge of the government and our economic system. I

understand that it has to be this way until it is able to reformed. I agree with the research in

which, the upper classes can perform at higher levels than the lower classes, but it still doesn't

change the fact that we need to push the lower class to bolster our educational system. By doing

so we the people, in general, will bring ourselves to and exceed far beyond standard that the

other world powers have established. I know that we have a system that has been successful for a

long period of time and it has been good through my experiences.

In conclusion, I can't disagree with our current system because I do not have the solution

to the problem but I do have issues with what we are expecting from kids in lower social classes.

There is a solution to this problem, but finding it is a whole new ballgame.