Juliana Ruperto
English 1100
Prof. Young
“Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”
September 24, 2015
Jean Anyon’s: The Hidden Curriculum of Work
Growing up in a suburban area, the people around me are either middle class people, like my family, or upper middle class. My father's a policeman and my mothers a lunch lady. According to Jean Anyon in “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” the school I attended would categorize as middle class school because a majority of my peers parents worked blue-collar “rich” jobs such as such as carpenters, plumbers, firemen, policemen, etc. In Anyon’s research she stated that teaching methods and philosophies differ in schools based off of social class. According to Anyon, middle class schools focus on getting the right answer and following instructions to get a good grade. However, unlike working class schools, middle class schools allow students to think more critically about how to solve problems and allows them to come up with their own methods. I believe that Anyon’s studies is still relevant today, not as drastically but the different types of teaching methods are still there.
Students that attended executive elite schools are provided with a more hands on and creative learning style. After doing a simple google search I could see why. 
This is a picture of what a middle class elementary classroom would look like. While the second picture is what an executive elite elementary school would look like. In the first picture you see the students working individually, which according to Anyons study is the best way to follow the teachers instructions thoroughly. While in the second picture the students are sitting in groups of four, this allows students to interact and think creatively.
It would be illogical to say that all schools provide the same education. A student that attends a school in Compton, isn’t going to get the same education as a student who goes to school in Malibu, no matter how studious he or she may be. Lower class schools focus more on shaping behavior rather than creativity. However, the standards change depending on where you live; there’s always that middle ground. Anyon quotes one of the teachers saying “It tells them exactly what to do, or they couldn’t do it.” This shocked me because I believe that all students should be given the opportunity to succeed on their own, and if they don’t it’s still a lesson learned. My teachers always gave us chances to express ourselves, whether it was through lab experiments or writing essay,the opportunity was always there. They encouraged us to try our best but yet we were still graded on “correctness.” Who’s to say what’s really right or wrong when it comes to creativity.
Junior year of high school my Child Growth and Development class took a trip to a preschool facility called Kids Kottage. Our assignment was to observe the teachers and the students. We were to observe how the children acted in the classroom. What stood out to me was a little curly haired boy named Anthony. When the teacher what going through the days of the week, Anthony could not sit still, you could tell he wanted to run around and play. His hyperactivity was starting to annoying the teacher. She yelled him “Sit down Anthony, you’re getting a bad apple because you can’t follow directions.” I was shocked to hear how she talked to him, he was just a little boy that didn’t know any better. Maybe if the teacher came up with a way to get the children active and involved rather than sitting on the floor and listening to her talk, the children would be more inclined to learn.
