Jean Anyon Social Class

In this paper I will analyzes the various literary techniques used in the essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by author Jean Anyon as tools to persuade her audience of Professional Educators. In the 1980 article, Anyon examines, through imperial research, how elementary students of different socioeconomic status (SES) receive differing educations. Anyon affirms that access to an equal education is not easily accessible to those of the lower working class. Furthermore, Anyon attests that students from higher SES backgrounds have an advantage when it comes to receiving an adequate education. Her main argument is that that there is a "hidden curriculum" in schoolwork that shapes the future of students affected. Her essay provides thorough logos to support these beliefs provided by a study of “pupil evaluation” of five elementary schools located in New Jersey.

Within Anyon’s article her tone was very explicit and consistent. Her use of diction is a supplement to the ethos and pathos of the article. Her sentence structure consists of formal and concrete language that offers credibility to her, as the author, and text. (Add evidence such as sentence with formal words. See attachment for explanation of formal language)

Another persuasive tool used by Anyon is her use of statistics and illustrations. These tools add to the ethos of the article by providing goodwill to the reader and they also accentuate the logos by providing clear evidence to the author’s argument. Throughout the article Anyon provides illustrative examples to support and qualify her argument. She first explains the different types of schools that were apart of the study. Two of the schools were classified as working-class schools. In working-class schools the work was very systematic, “involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice”. Also, students rarely received an explanation on why certain work was given or its relevance to other material.
The third school was classified as a middle-class school. This school differed from the working-class schools in that it offered a more transparent curriculum and the flexibility to “some figuring, some choice, some decision making.” To put it frankly: getting the right answer got you a good grade. Most classes go by the book, which the teachers explain, but don’t really analyze the material. There is little creativity involved in the work, which is usually limited to written assignments, which makes school very dull for the students. (Highlighted portion needs to be paraphrases) Anyon identifies the fourth school as an affluent professional school.