Inequality Class Activity Response 2015.10.1

Olivia Canavan

September, 2015

Class Activity Response

Mrs. DeSimony, SUPA

During the class activity, I experienced the “working class school.” Our individuality was suppressed and there was minimal instruction from the teacher. Perhaps the most apparent part of the activity was the lack of choice that we had as students. Our teacher expected us to look at vocabulary words, read them, and have them memorized for a quiz, without implementing our own processes of learning words. Not only were we expected to be silent, but our desks also had to be straight, our bags under them. It seemed like everything, regardless of the magnitude was a disruption and being unique was frowned upon. Throughout the duration of the activity I felt as if the teacher had no right to micromanage my every move. I eventually had my name written on the board because I turned around in my seat one too many times. If I were forced to attend school in an environment that restrained my personality I would eventually start to believe that being an individual is wrong. Educational philosopher Jean Anyon believes that the rote learning methods found in working class schools are meant to prepare students for a working class lifestyle. In her book, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, Anyon observed elementary language arts classes, where a teacher said “It tells them exactly what to do, or they couldn’t do it.” The lack of expectations feeds the “working class” cycle and creates more people who are brainwashed into learning without feeling. It could be argued that the economy needs the working class, otherwise there would not be unskilled or semiskilled laborers, however having these workers as an economic base should not be at the expense of child creativity and imagination.  Anyon also discusses the grading procedures for the working class school, “Work is often evaluated not according to whether it is right or wrong but according to whether the children followed the right steps.” The long term effects of being forced to learn only one way go beyond the classroom, and into the daily lives of individuals. If someone has never been taught to “think outside of the box,” they will struggle to find a way out of the working class, since high paying jobs often require a more creative side.