Talking Points #8

Anyon "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work"


1. "Basil Bernstein, Pierre Bourdieu, and Michael W. Apple focusing on school knowledge, have argued that knowledge and skills leading to social power and regard (medical, legal, managerial) are made available to the advantaged social groups but are withheld from the working classes to whom a more "practical" curriculum is offered (manual skills, clerical knowledge)."

- By participating in these practices, educators are creating "self-fulfilling prophecies" and thereby determining what a student will ultimately become based upon their given situation (i,e, terms of privilege). This action perpetuates an ongoing cycle of ignorance and stereotypes by placing students into categories and limited the opportunities available to them. Limiting such resources causes them to become "stuck" and will negatively impact their self-confidence as well as their outlook on the classroom and their instructor. This is primarily because it is alluded to that they are less intelligent and their teachers have lower expectations of them, these pre-determined factors will eventually make the child internalize this opinion and they will act out in such a way that is consistent with what they believe to be true about themselve and their abilities.


2. There were several writing assignments throughout the year but in each instance the children were given a ditto, and they wrote answers to questions on the sheet. For example, they wrote their "autobiography" by answering such questions as "Where were you born?" "What is your favorite animal?" on a sheet entitled "All About Me."

- This passage made me angry. I was angry because the questions that were specifically asked of the student to answer were supposed to represent some form of a "biography" and suggested that the information the student was providing was all of the characteristics and facts the student had to offer abotu themselves, hence the tite "All About Me." I cannot write "all about me" in one paper and certainly not with several fill-in-the-blank questions. Aside from the fact that the proposed questions that the students were asked were narrow and provided no mental stimulation or act of thinking, they also limited the student's creativity in selecting their answers. There is little to be said about where you are born or what your favorite animal is. Also, this doesn't give the student the opportunity to offer any information about themselves that they feel is invigorating and important, any information that they may want you to know as you build on your relationship with them. For example, my love of dance is important to me. I like the new people in my life to eventually understand this about me as it may explain some of my fidgety behavior. Allowing students the opportunity to share information with you will cause you to have a deeper relationship with them.


3. She discusses two-digit division with the children as a decision-making process. Presenting a new type of problem to them, she asks, "What's the first decision you'd make if presented with this kind of example? What is the first thing you'd think? Craig?" Craig says, "To find my first partial quotient." She responds, "Yes, that would be your first decision. How would you do that?" Craig explains, and then the teacher says, "OK, we'll see how that works for you." The class tries his way. Subsequently, she comments on the merits and shortcomings of several other children's decisions.

- This just blew my mind. I'm not confident in my ability to answer that question myself, let alone posing it to elementary level students. Ultimately, I like how the teacher approaches the math problem as a decision-making process. This enables the students to help teach each other the steps necessary when solving these types of problems, as they are all providing a piece of the equation in their discussion. Another strategy mentioned later in the article that I thought was both interesting and effective was the method in which the elitist teachers discussed correct vs. incorrect answers. They posed this concept as a discussion where students chose to "agree" or "dsiagree" with their peers answer in which case they would have to explain why they made their choice. I like the termonology used as it stimulates critical discussions and places the students all on the same level whereas using words such as "wrong" or "incorrect" have less positive implications.