Social Class and Education

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Mike Zambrzuski Prof. Steele Comp 1113 Sep 25, 2008 Social Class and Education Scholarly Discourse Essay “...the resources made available to those of the middle and upper classes as well as the influence of more educated parents give children of the middle and upper classes a decided advantage when choosing an educational path.” -Amanda Farah Jean Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Jonathan Kozol’s “Still Separate, Still Unequal,” and Gregory Mantsios’s “Class in America--2003” discuss the effect of a student’s social class on their education. Each essay contributed equally to obtaining a complete understanding of the relationship between social class and education Anyon’s “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” deals primarily with the differences of teaching styles and education at different schools depending on which social and economic classes were most prevalent. She categorized schools into four main groups: The working-class school, the middle-class school, the affluent professional school, and the executive elite school. Anyon discusses the differences in curriculum in each group of schools and the type of teaching style used. For instance, in working-class schools, work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making (Anyon 42). The teachers don’t tell the students why they’re doing the work or how it connects to any vocational skills. Most of the time the students have certain steps to follow and the coursework does not facilitate a creative atmosphere. Their work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps (Anyon 43). In middle-class schools, correct answers correlate to a good grade. Students still have to follow a lot of directions, but
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