Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

Jean Anyon QUOTES:

1. " . . . schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of educational experience and curriculum knowledge to students in different social classes. . . . classroom behaviors that correspond to personality traits allegedly rewarded in the different occupational strata." This is what Anyon is trying to prove. She did a study of five schools with differing income levels of the students families. She made correlations to the class and the type of education students get. This was a very inserting article. While reading it it makes you wonder if this is still how things are playing out in education. Then thinking back on most of our readings, it becomes clear that education is still somewhat stratified; the rich get the "better" schools and the poor are left with underachieving schools.


2. "In the middle class school, work is getting the right answer. one must follow the directions in order to get the right answers, but the directions often call for some figuring, some choice, some decision making." Anyon goes on to explain that in middle class schools they do not analyze the material its is just presented and regurgitated. There is no connection making. its on the how or why, its the is. Is this not how "urban" of the schools are run now? We have read so many things telling us that the students need to become more engaged; the material needs to speak to them more. With this type of education system that will never happen.


3. " The "hidden curriculum" of school work is tacit preparation for relating to the process of production . . . emphasize different cognitive and behavioral skills in each social setting and thus contribute to the development in the children of certain potential relationships to physical and symbolic capital, to authority, and to the process of work." What she is saying is that the schools are working against meritocracy and keeping the children in their class by only teaching them to think in ways that are required for the types of jobs held by that class. This is how the "hidden curriculum" works. The hidden curriculum then is how they are teaching the students and how this develops their thinking skills.

COMMENTS:

While this article was very interesting I think it may be slightly out dated. I am not an expert but I think education has come far since 1979. I believe the working class schools have been done away with. BUT there is still defiantly a divide among our schools according to class. We have been learning about this all semester. Every reading further solidifies this; our personal experience tells us this is true. We can physically see the divide among the lower and the upper and middle classes.

The way Anyon described the middle class schools is how out lower class schools run. Information is given and right answers are what is wanted. I believe our schools now do emphasize a little more reasoning and creativity but no where near that of schools for the upper class. There is also, now, a big divide in the quality of the education given to students, in the quality of teacher, in the quality of schools.

Also while reading this I noticed that in the "work" upper two categories were much like the "work" in college. It was interesting. Those students were and are being groomed to go to college and are MUCH MUCH better prepared to go to college.

I would be very interesting to see a study like this done today. I wonder if the teachers would be as a mater of fact as they are in this study. I wonder what other kinds of difference we would find. What would be the ramifications?