The Myth Of Education And Empowerment Analysis

1972 Words8 Pages
The Myth of Education and Empowerment Although, Americans view education as a gateway to success and a key to ascend the tread of the socio-economic ladder, education is not meant to be taught equally to students across the socio-economic classes. It is aimed to be a fraudulent mirage that is use to keep as many possible working class and middle class students in the lower-mid levels of the socio-economic ladder, and as many affluent professionals and elite students at the upper middle-top to maintain the socio-economic ladder in balance as much as possible in this country. In Jean Anyon’s article, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” she depicts the different teaching methods as well as illustrates the different philosophies…show more content…
During my high school years I passed my classes with A’s, B’s, C’s, some D’s with half the effort. I detested going to school for the reason that everything was a routine and nothing seem to challenge me. I ended up adapting a “whatever attitude” towards school. Every class was copy, learn it, apply it using the proper steps, and study to past the test. My freshman year, I took geometry as my math elective and I often corrected the teacher and got sarcastic remarks in return. I never did my homework because test in the class summed up to 70% of the grade, so I decided to get A’s on the test and pass, and I did. Science and English were the worst. All the experiments we did were strictly control; we would proceed with a step until the teacher allowed us to do so. And English has become a subject of intimidation, the reason being that in my four years of high school English; we watch so many movies that I did not learn proper writing skills and proper communication skills. To this day I cannot identify verbs, nouns, adjectives properly and since I can recall, it still takes me days to compose an introduction. Reflecting on my high school years I can clearly find the parallelism of Anyon’s analysis and my…show more content…
That equal opportunity is given to everyone and that no matter where you originate from or your economic status is, by the means of education one can climb the socio-economic ladder. Anyon’s study helps us understand that the education system is purposely design to affect the possibility of success in life among the different socio-economic classes. While cases exist of individuals overcoming academic adversities (Mike Rose); these individual realized that for them to triumph, they needed to learn the skills that were deprive from them since the beginning of their education. Skills the education system focuses on teaching the affluent professionals and the executive elite, but does not apply to the working-class schools and the middle-class schools. Skills like “develop hypothesis and troubleshoot, reason through a problem, and communicate effectively – the true job skills” (164). Therefore education is an illusion that preaches equal possible achievement to every individual in America, but truly is a strategic method to keep our working ladder balance with individuals occupying unskilled, semiskilled, and skilled
Open Document