Jacob Gallagher
Prof. Young
Eng 1100
September 25, 2015

Is there a hidden curriculum?

      Jean Anyon did a great job of describing the different educational experiences of the various social classes.  However, I feel that her research is no longer valid. Coming from my experience I have never seen teachers teaching kids differently because of their social class. I feel that the information Anyon researched is no longer valid because people of many different social classes are now being integrated into the same education system. Take this for example, a kid from a poor social class is amazing at a sport and that kid gets recruited to an Executive Elite School. That athlete, who came from a poor background, will now be learning the same way all the rich kids at the school are learning. In today's society this type of situation happens a lot. 

      I also do not believe that Anyon's research is no longer valid because during high school I went to a Middle class public school and a private elite school. At the private elite school the teachers all had different teaching methods, some let the students ask questions and helped every student understand the lesson,  and others just expected us to understand the directions and not ask questions. While in the middle class public school most of the teachers allowed for the students to ask questions but others still didn't. Every teacher has a different style of teaching. I think it depends more on how much the teacher is getting paid. If a teacher is not getting paid well they probably won't teach to the best of their ability. Also it depends on the teachers personality, some teachers just aren't good at teaching. 

So back to if I think teachers treat kids of different social classes differently, I don't think so. At the middle class public school I went to there were kids from many different social classes there. This is because my school had sending districts. We had kids from working class that lived in the city, middle class kids from a nearby town, and rich upperclass kids from rural areas. While in the class room I had kids from all different types of social class backgrounds. How does the teacher know what social classes the students are if were all mixed together? Can you tell what social class these kids from from my school are from? Exactly, you can't.

Every student should be treated and taught the same way. If teachers are truly still treating kids of different social classes different then our education system is corrupt. Social class does not define how smart a student will be. Every student excels at different subjects and has their own learning speed.