Talking Point #8 (Anyon)

In this article by Jean Anyon, he argues that schools prepare students based on their social class. Through a study see did of fifth grade classes of different economic background or social class, Anyon concluded that these schools were preparing their students for a certain step on the social ladder. The working class students were being prepared to grow up to also have blue collar jobs and the executive elite school students were being prepared to have white collar jobs like lawyers and doctors.

1. "knowledge and skills leading to social power and regard are made available to the advantaged social groups but are withheld from the working classes to whom a more "practical" curriculum is offered."

This quote is pretty much stating what Jean Anyon is argueing in this article. Their is a hidden curriculum in schools which teaches lower class student to have lower expectations and only preparing them to have blue collar jobs by focusing on mainly following directions. While the higher class schools are teaching the kids to have more critical thinking to solve problems and this will help them to get a better education and a white collar job.

2. "One teacher explained to me, "Simple punctuation is all they'll ever use.""

This short quote from the text points out that the teachers at the lower or working class schools do not expect that their student will be anything special or get a good paying job, so she is only going to teach them the basics of language arts, while higher class schools are emphasizing the importance of know the complex language of English.

3. Talking about the teacher in the Affluent Professional School "She does not give direct orders unless she is angry because the children have been too noisy."

This quote reminds me of another article we read early this year by Delpit going over the "rules and codes of power". Delpit says that student that are black and lower class need to be taught using direct orders because they do not know the codes of power. This teacher does not teach using direct orders because she teaches in a upper class school where probably all the students already know the codes of power, but this teaching style would at the lower or working class school because the students would not understand.