Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work by Jean Anyon

Sometimes you wonder why the different classes seem to get ahead in life while others struggle to keep afloat. However as you read this article it is clear that the class system is set up to favor one class and to depress another. In American society it is so evident that children are not equally educated.  This article shows that lower social class are not being taught the same as the higher class students.  Jean Anyon the author discussed the five elementary schools in contrasting social class communities. The paper illustrates differences in classroom experience and curriculum knowledge among the schools and it also assesses student work in each social setting in the light of a theoretical approach to social class analysis.  In the book Social class is broken down into three different classes, the first on being capitalist class. In capitalist class ownership is conclusive for social class based on one’s wealth.  Another Social class is the middle class/upper class this class of people are the professionals who may own stocks but have no social control of the capital. And the last social class is the working class, who are the persons that work for wages or a salary.

The author further discusses that the children of the working class are developing a potential conflict, relationship with capital. Their present school work is appropriate for future employment that is mechanical and routine, who also learning to be resistant. The middle class children are being taught how to find and know the right answer, which means that their future relationship to capital is in administration. The affluent professional children will have good relationship to capital because they are learning to be intellectuals.

The road to education in America is never an easy one since social classes is always an issue but I believe that we all can succeed if we keep fighting and never give up.