English 101

Education. Why is it such an easy word to understand but such a tedious task to accomplish? We come from a society that hands out education easily, however that education comes with a price. Jean Anyon explains this process through her research in From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Anyon dissects the socio-economic class that determines the types of instruction students receive. Through her research one can compare her findings to Mike Rose’s narrative, I Just Wanna Be Average, to be true and insightful. Rose speaks of his high school life as an underachiever as well as his ability to break free from the mold that he was once placed in. Comprehending both Anyon and Rose, I, myself, have come face to face with the challenges of teachers and the education system. By analyzing Anyon’s findings to Rose and my own personal experience can one consider the socio-economic class true and is it possible for one to break free from their educational binding? From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, a study by Jean Anyon is the socio-economic breakdown of classes in our school system. The working class schools teach on the principles that students will be average adults with mediocre jobs. Their teaching process is robotic lacking any imagination or growth. Teachers believe in straightforward instructions for their students. This is implied when a teacher comments about her language art class, “Simple punctuation is all they’ll ever use” (174). As the socio-economic class moves up, students can find themselves in the middle class schools. Simplicity is still a common procedure for the student’s education. The class is taught to read and follow instructions. If the proper series of steps are completed the child will have the correct answer, which is an extremely important factor for this socio-economic class. However, these students are programmed to not think outside the box and to follow routines without any questions. As the