Thursday, April 9, 2009

Talking Point #8

Jean Anyon "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work"


"There has been little or no attempt to investigate these ideas empirically in elementary schools or secondary schools and classrooms in this country" I believe that this was true in 1980 when this article first appeared in Journal of Education. Today i can guess that this has been studied a lot especially after Anyon published her findings. Creating requirement for schools is all about where the school is and the population of students that attend that school. Stereotypes are also place on school in certain areas.

"The teacher told them the steps to follow to do the problems" I think Anyon has a negative view on step following but i think in certain subjects they are necessary. What bothers me more is her example about the teacher using steps was in math. Steps are nessasary in math no matter how high or low the level is. yes, later in math you learn more concepts and how to think about problem and connect every concept but learning two digit division is all about the step you take to get the division correct. With out teaching the step of adding fraction the 4th graders in my service learning class would have had a much harder time leaning it, more then they already did.

While reading Anyon's article i really notice myself thinking of the class i am doing my service learning in and also my own experiences in school. while she talked about the working class schools i really saw what she was describers in the learning methods. the 4th grade class i am in is taught exatcly like the one she observed under her working class category. The next category about the middle-class school was most like what i experience but not completely on point. unlike what she observed i was also told to use my creativity in school and i experienced some of what she observed in the last two categories.

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