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Taylor Glazebrook

Dr. Rieman

English 1101x

2/9/2010

“The Things They Don’t Tell You”

While reading “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, I

learned a lot and also questioned some things. I never knew that social class played such a

big role in the education system. In this article it talks about how there are different levels

of education that young 5th graders can go through. The first two schools were called the

“working class” schools. This school is for mainly children who have parents that work

blue-collar jobs. “Approximately fifteen percent of the families in each school are at or

below the federal “poverty” level, most of the rest of the family incomes are at or below

$12,000, except some of the skilled workers incomes are higher” (Anyon, 230). I found this

statistic shocking. I would not have expected the numbers would have been that high for

each and individual schools. “The third school is called the Middle Class Schools; these are

children with parents that have incomes between $13,000 and $25,000 with a few higher”

(Anyon 230). The fourth school is called “affluent professional school”. This school is with

families with incomes between $40,000 and $50,000. This income span represents

approximately seven percent of families in the United States. The fifth school is called the

“Executive Elite Schools”. “Most fathers are top executives in major U.S.-based

multinational corporations. Almost all family incomes are over $100,000 with some in the

$500,000 range” (Anyon 231).


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Putting schools into these categories is just a tad overdone. To me children should

be able to receive the best education there is, no matter what there social class is. I feel that

this is just a bit stereotypical, because it is taking the families and putting them into

different categories due to the money that they make. In the working class and middle class

schools the teachers aren’t the best out there because the school can’t afford any better.

These teachers aren’t making it any easier on the students to get the best education

possible. There are not always textbooks available and they don’t have all the necessary

tools that they need to learn because of the struggles of money in the community. The

students would ask questions and try to learn but the teacher would just ignore the child’s

request. They feel that as long as they get their job done they don’t really care how it gets

done just as long as it does. In the affluent professional and executive elite schools they

have a little bit better teaching staff because they can afford it. With the quote that you are

about to read you will already see that this school has better teachers because they get

their students to do some out-of-the-box thinking. According to Anyon,”The teacher’s

questions ask the children to expand what they say, to give more detail, and, to be more

specific” (240). This quote is a way for children to be more elaborate on their thinking. It

also helps students be more detailed in their writing and any other assignments that they

do. Another quote that you could compare to the one before would be the complete

opposite, “While teachers spend a lot of time explaining and expanding on what the

textbooks say, there is little attempt to analyze how or why things happen, or give thought

to how pieces of a culture, or, say, a system of numbers or elements of a language fit

together or an be analyzed” (237). This quote contradicts every thing that was said in the

previous quote. This one shows that the teachers just go by what the textbook says and
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they aren’t putting any opinion into it. They aren’t letting the students put their own “spin”

on things. The Affluent Professional classrooms are more structured and have a fun

learning environment. For me, I think that the affluent professional schools would be the

best because the individuals can express themselves and learning can be fun. Children

should want to go to school everyday and be excited to learn something new, and the

executive elite schools to me seems way to over the top for an elementary school. I was

asked if the students were being asked things that were unrealistic, and I honestly thing

yes. These children are in the beginning stages of learning and if things are too tough or not

interesting to the child then they wont have any fun in school. When I think of an elite

school I think more of a college or maybe a private high school, definitely not an

elementary school.

Overall all children should be offered the same education and should not be

penalized for what their family income is based on. The students should want to go to

school and be excited, especially at the young age they are. I also think that research

should have went further and talked to maybe some of the parents of the students to see

what they feel about where there child is going to school. I would have liked to see more of

what the students had to say just to see if they were happy being put into those schools,

and if they had a choice which school they would choose.


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Work Cited

Lu, Min-Zhan and Horner, Bruce. Writing Conventions. New York: Pearson Education, 2008

Print.

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