Jean Anyon – Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

1.“In the working class schools…The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice. The teachers rarely explain why the work is being assigned, how it might connect to other assignments, or what the idea is that lies behind the procedure or gives it coherence and perhaps meaning or significance.” (p. 3)

These are the beginning sentences of the working class schools results of their study and the whole section really disappointed, no really sickened me. I read this one section and said…these are bad teachers. Then you read on and start to think…is it bad teachers?, bad attitudes?, low expectations?….I don’t know. I witness this at my service learning every week. I have a new author for my service learning project!

2. “In the middle class schools…If one accumulates enough right answers, one gets a good grade. 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. (p. 5)

This seems like the average American school or maybe it seems that way to me because it seems like my school experience and I should say this seems like my average American school experience. I went to school, studied what I was taught to pass the test. Wasn’t really sure at this time how it all applied to my life, didn’t care was too busy having fun with my friends and caring about my social life and my parents were fine with my grades and didn’t seem to concerned about making more of a connection for me.

3. “ Differing curricular, pedagogical, and pupil evaluation practices 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.” (p. 11)

The information gathered during this study certainly supports this statement. If most of the learning in one school is by direct instruction only and the children are continually given orders and behavior is enforced through punishment compared to another school where learning is handled through a combination of cooperative, integrative, inquiry and concept based child directed approaches, and behavior is controlled through reminders of consequences of your own actions….sign my child up for school number 2. Who wouldn’t want that?

She doesn’t share if these schools are public or private. My guess is the first three are public and the other two are private. No one should be experiencing the first example described in the working class schools. The low expectations expressed in the comments from teachers are appalling. Direct Instruction is one way to talk to a student but rude is another and the quotes they include are rude talking, not teaching. The middle class school I think is a typical representation of a public school today. If the others are private as I’m assuming…you certainly can get what you pay for at times.

This is a video I found that applies and I thought made a good point for this reading.