Simone Southerland
English 1101-022
February 1, 2010
Thank God For The Opportunity To Learn How To Read And Write
I wonder how many kids would go to school if they didn’t have to. Not all
children have the desire to learn. Not all children want to sit in a classroom all day. Not
all children like interacting with so many different people on a day-to-day basis.
Sometimes it takes a collective effort from a child’s parents, family, and friends to create
a deeper desire to further their education. Luckily here in the United States, all children
Jean Anyon, a professor at City University in New York, performed a study in the
late 70’s on a group of schools in Northern New Jersey to test the argument “that public
schools in complex industrial societies like our own make available different types of
(Page 225) She published the results of her study the Journal of Education in an article
entitled Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. In this article, she breaks dow
the different social classes to give the reader her method of classifying the schools in her
study. She then “offers the investigator’s interpretation of what school work is for
children in each setting, and then presents events and interactions that illustrate that
assessment.” (Page 232) She concludes her article saying that although “the investigator
could introduce evidence to show that the following increased as the social class of the
regarding teaching methods…” (Page 246), this is not the primary concern. She says “the
primary concern is to reflect on the deeper social meaning, the wider theoretical
Anyon’s article deals strictly with public schools. A good portion of a public
school’s budget is funded with local property taxes. If the property taxes for a certain
area are used to fund only the schools in that area, you would end up having schools that
are unequally funded. That would greatly explain Anyon’s findings in here research.
Schools that have more money can afford to hire better teachers and purchase more
learning materials. The parents of the children in those schools tend to be more involved
because so much of their money is funding those schools. The children tend to be more
environment at home.
If schools were funded equally across the U.S. on a per-student basis, would that
change the attitudes of the teachers and students found in all of Anyon’s classifications of
schools? Would that change the “expectations and demands regarding student
achievement on the part of the teachers, parents, and administrators.”? (Page 246) I think
it would. Most people tend to do a better job when there’s more money involved and
they have the proper tools to do their job well. I think teachers would have more patience
with the students. More funding to some of the poverty stricken schools may help
purchase more educational equipment to make learning more exciting to the students.
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Parents have a major role to play when it come to the education of their child. We
have so many amenities that are free to the public here in the U.S. that no one can truly
complain of not having a fair chance to move up in society because of their given
education through the school system. There are libraries that offer many programs
geared towards education that are available to children and parents. Most of the public
schools and local community centers have after school programs that have tutoring
services and other educational activities as well. Parents have to step up to the plate and
take charge of their child’s education. Those that have the money can pay someone else
to do it, but the parents that are of lesser means have to use their own time, time they may
not have.
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Works Cited
Anyon, Jean. “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work.” Writing Conventions.
Reflection
paragraphs one from another. I would like to learn to use ellipsis properly.