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Alvin Khambay

Professor Rieman

English 1101

12 February 2010

Critical Inquiry: Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work

As I was reading the essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean

Anyon, I noticed a difference in how children in different schools were not being taught equally.

The professional and executive elite schools had children who learned how to critically think for

themselves. On the opposite side of the spectrum the working class schools had children

learning to obey because of their social class standing. Anyon says in her essay that there is a

“hidden curriculum” which I believe exists in every school.

I have analyzed Anyon’s essay several times to find out answers for my questions on the

theory of the “hidden curriculum”. After several times of analyzing the essay, I started to notice

pieces to my puzzle of questions beginning to fit together. Through logical interpretation I

concluded that the professional and executive elite schools are taught differently from the rest of

the population. They have their own style they are taught. To truly understand this “hidden

curriculum” in schools one must piece together the messages in the research of Jean Anyon’s

essay, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work”. When Anyon talks about the

professional and elite schools in her essay, she emphasizes that the children of those schools will

be able to think for themselves. “In the executive elite school, work is developing one’s

analytical intellectual powers”, (242). The children in the executive elite schools are taught how
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to become leaders. These children learn how to critically think and work independently, while at

the same time, being questioned to solve problems that require reason and logical deduction. As

seen in Anyon’s essay, the theory that professional and elite schools learn at a faster pace and

higher level of learning is, in general, true. Although each school studies the same material, the

professional and elite schools are advancing on another level. Instead of getting the right answer

the children are challenged to figure out an answer by themselves. Their working pace is also

faster than most schools. Instead of slowly covering a topic, like other schools, they cover

multiple topics daily. Each student completes each task at their own pace, but the pace is still

faster than other school children in the lower social standings. These children are taught how to

lead and not obey. So why do the working class school children taught to obey, instead learning

how to lead?

Reading Anyon’s essay has taught me something valuable, all those years of schooling

from kindergarten to my senior year in high school, I have never felt challenged. Always when I

got to class it was take notes, do this, don’t do that. Anyon even states in her research, “The

procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or

choice”, (232). What I have inferred from Anyon is that working class schools are conducted

mechanically. She points out that the working class schools are taught instinctively to obey and

there is not a lot of chances of success. I realize now that although the teachers said they wanted

me to succeed, most were teaching me how to obey. Amazingly enough I could never figure that

out until now. Sadly, when I look back I also see that schools had these “systems” set up to

discipline students for behaving inappropriately. So, why is it that these schools must be taught

to obey because of they are at the bottom of the social structure? Why exactly? It is because the

professional and elite schools compared to working class schools do not learn equally. Working
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class schools are made to teach children how to become workers. The students from professional

schools are made to govern the workers. Students from the professional and elite schools are

more likely to gain a higher position in a business. A business needs workers to function and

they also need bosses, or a.k.a. the “higher-ups”, to control resources of a business. The bosses

also need to control how profits are spent in a business. The workers are taught how to obey and

most cannot escape the reality of becoming workers. That is how each business, globally, is run:

the social standing of a person in the working class will be restricted to the worker and the

person has a slim to zero chance of breaking that cycle.

Anyon’s essay has really opened my eyes to the “hidden curriculum” that schools have

been using to teach children. I feel that there shouldn’t be a boundary between what we can or

cannot learn. The pace and level of learning from school to school should be maintained at a

respectable level of academic procedure and not set to a constant repeat. That type of system in

place may produce smarter workers and therefore more profits. The workers shouldn’t have to

go through the process of being trained subconsciously at an early age to obey. The idea works,

but it separates children into social classes before they even know how to do anything. I feel that

Anyon’s work is a marvelous piece of research and hopes that one day the equality of social

classes learning can be settled.

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Works Cited

Anyon, Jean. Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work. Journal of Education vol. 162,

no. 1. 1980.

Self Assessment

Since my first paper I have basically stripped my paper down and rebuilt it. I put

different ideas into it, the main idea is clear, and the ideas do not wander away from the point I

try to get across. I have reduced my sentence structure so it would not stretch on forever. I have

read and reread my essay several times to check grammatical errors.

I still have many things to do to make this paper as good as possible. I still believe that

my sentence structuring does not sound right. Although I have checked to make sure I do not

wander in my paper, I feel that I have. I believe that I need to work on MLA format. Also I

believe I did not put enough quotes to truly get my point across.

As for paying for special attention to parts in my essay, there are a couple spots, here and

there. I would like to know if I had any run-on sentences. Did I get my main idea across?

Finally, did I wander off into a topic?

Alvin,
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Thanks for the thoughtful self-assessment here. It’s clear that you have put a great deal of

thought into this paper, which is exactly what I’d hoped for. I did not identify any run-on

sentences. I’ll address your main idea and staying on topic in the next paragraph.

What I like very much about your essay is that I can see you thinking in it—I can actually

hear little “ah he” moments manifesting themselves. That’s good stuff. Here’s what I see as your

main point: you believe that this “hidden curriculum” exists, you feel you have experiences it for

yourself, and you think there should be a way to even out the social class playing field. Now that

you’ve gotten a grasp of what you think about Anyon’s claims, I’d encourage you to think about

how best to present your point. You do stay on topic, but as a reader I’d like have a more explicit

understanding of where I’ll be taken in the essay from the beginning and then be lead through

those your analysis step by step. So as you think about development of your idea and creating a

more cohesive paper, think about how you can state up front these questions that were raised by

Anyon and then move your reader through your answers to all of them.
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