You must post your 400-word or MORE response before you can respond to your classmates response. Remember: you must respond to at least three classmates, and you should try to respond to a classmate to whom you have not yet responded. Try to help your fellow students with their writing and interpretation skills.
This week’s reading are “Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon and an excerpt from Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, by Rob Henderson. Please consider both readings in relation to each other.
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Anyon’s article is longer and, in some ways, more complex than previous readings. It is a work of social science and not a literary essay. It is an academic study on pedagogy (the method and practice of teaching). The key argument (the thesis), as in most research papers, is found in first and last pages of the essay. Pay attention to the claims that the writer is making and don’t worry about all the details of support. You need to read the entire article to understand her claims but you don’t need to understand everything she writes in support of her claims. The key to this article is that students from different socioeconomic backgrounds are taught differently. Although published forty years ago, it’s interesting to consider how things have or have not changed. You should think about your own high school or elementary school education. How were you taught? But, as always, you must support your personal anecdotes with clear examples from the assigned essay.
To help with Anyon’s essay, THINK about the following questions. I am not asking you to answer the questions. Although you can choose one that you find helpful. The following questions are only here to help you think about the article. You should, however, write about which type of education you received and back it up with personal examples that connect to examples in the article
- Think about the ways any single subject is taught in the four types of schools Anyon describes. What differences in teaching methods and in student-teacher relationships do they reflect? What other differences do you see in the schools? What schools in your neighborhood or city would closely approximate the working-class, middle-class, affluent (wealthy) profession, and executive elite (1% super-rich) schools in her article?
- What attitudes toward knowledge and work are the four types of school teaching their students? What kinds of jobs are students being prepared to do? Do you see any evidence that schools in your community are producing particular types of “workers”?
- What is the “hidden curriculum” suggested by Anyon’s title? How is this curriculum taught, and what social, cultural, or political purposes does it serve?
- Finally, consider how Henderson’s critically and autobiographically grounded preface to his memoir might be in conversation with Anyon’s claims. How might you relate to either or both Henderson and Anyon discusses?