Lexi Vogel
Professor Young
ENGW 1100
20 March 2016
Curriculum
based on Social Class
Social class can affect many
different aspects of someone’s life other than their income. Social class
affects occupation, life style, language, the way people are taught, and many
other things. Jean Anyon, who wrote “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of
Work”, discusses the different methods of teaching that public schools make
available in the educational curriculum to students in various social classes.
She uses claims to support her ideas by mentioning different levels of
schooling. In relation to Anyon’s article, today public schools do have
different teaching methods but because of the stereotypical groups of people
such as, gender, race, and religion in each school instead of social class.
Stereotypically everyone learns in a
different way. For example, a female may learn differently than a male would
learn because of how our minds work. Someone who goes to a primarily female
gender school might like to learn through creativity, reasoning, and
understanding how each answer is founded. As for males, the way they learn and
process information could be completely different.
To continue, religion is a big
aspect of how the curriculum is made. Whether it is considering the audience of
who is being taught or if the subject matter is actually about religion, this
can have an impact on different schools’ and their methods of teaching. A
perfect scenario would be a religious school such as CCD or Hebrew school
because each curriculum is established based on the religion of the school.
Furthermore, the same thing goes for someone’s race
when it comes to learning. Although this topics can be very controversial, they
are some reasons that curriculum can be affected. When racial topics about
African Americans’ are taught in a school predominantly of African Americans’,
the curriculum is most likely adjusted in order to teach in a way that is fair.
When topics are discussed about white people in a school mainly made up of
white students, it most likely changes up the way things are taught as well.
This can go for any race because the discussion of any racism is a sensitive
topic for anyone.
In Anyon’s
article “Social Class and Hidden Curriculum of Work”, she suggests that income is
the main factor to how teachers instruct their students. Anyon states, “the social
class designation of each of the five schools will be identified, and the income,
occupation, and other relevant available social characteristics of the students
and their parents will be described,” (Anyon, 2). Her article talks about five different
schools and how social class relates to each particular school. Then, she continues
to mention how the social class of each school impacts the teaching methods. For
example, working class schools are the lowest level in social class and their curriculum
is based on following steps of a procedure (Anyon, 3). Anyon’s point in her article
is that income highly impacts the way the curriculum is made.
However, Anyon’s claims on income being the main factor
of teaching methods is highly opinionated and she doesn’t use statistics to back
up her thoughts.
(Dear Professor Young,
I am struggling
a lot with this draft. I know this isn’t a great draft and I didn’t reach the full
word requirement, but I am hoping I can meet with you to work on this as soon as
possible. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Lexi Vogel)
