Talking Points #8

Jean Anyon: Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

1.) "At this point a girl said that she had a faster way to do it and the teacher said, 'No, you don't; you don't even know what I'm making yet. Do it this way or it's wrong.'"

- This is an example from the working class school and how everything they do is clear cut with no individual thought or analyzation accepted from the students. Their creativity is halted by the "do it this way or it's wrong" method.

2.) "While the teachers spend a lot of time explaining and expanding on what the textbooks say, there is little attempt to analyze how or why things happen, or to give thought to how pieces of a culture, or, say, a system of numbers or elements of a language fit together or can be analyzed"

- This one talks about the middle class schools and is something I can really relate to. Kids are being taught how to do different types of problems, write different types of sentences, ect, but they aren't taught to analyze how or why things are happening. They aren't taught to think outside what they are expected to answer.

3.) "In the affluent professional school, work is creative activity carried out independently. The students are continually asked to express and apply ideas and concepts. Work involves individual thought and expressiveness, expansion and illustration of ideas, and choice of appropriate method and material. "

- This is where Anyon is talking about the rich schools and how they have a different style of teaching method. They allow the kids to think for themselves and develop their creative ideas and thoughts. This is one thing that I think really good teachers do.

Thoughts:

I enjoyed reading this article and thought it was one of the readings that I really could relate to. The points that Anyon made were very interesting and she used great examples in the different schools to explain her points. What she was talking about really hit home with me. I've always felt the teachers that have been the best teachers for me are the ones that let me think for myself creatively and independently the most. Like the schools of the lower and middle classes, Anyon says that there is a lack of independence and creativity in the kids where the teaching is so straightforward and clear cut. I think that in middle and high school my teachers were very clear cut and didn't encourage me to think outside the box and question why and how. I still don't think many of my teachers here at RIC get me to do that, to go beyond the individual problems.